QUINTERO, JOS

born Oct. 15, 1924, Panama City, Panama died Feb. 26, 1999, New York, N.Y., U.S. in full Jos Benjamin Quintero Panamanian-born U.S. theatrical director who was a founder of New York City's Circle in the Square Theatre and who was noted for his productions of Eugene O'Neill's plays. Quintero spent his youth in Panama but went to the United States to attend college in Los Angeles, after which he trained at the Goodman Theatre School in Chicago between 1948 and 1949. He received his B.A. from the University of Southern California in 1948. In 1949 he directed his first play, Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, at the Woodstock Summer Theatre in Woodstock, New York. In 1950 he began to direct regularly at Circle in the Square. His 1952 production of Williams' Summer and Smoke made a star of actress Geraldine Page and established Quintero's reputation. Quintero was best known for his revivals of important 20th-century plays, particularly those of Eugene O'Neill. His 1956 production of The Iceman Cometh was considered by some critics to be superior to the original Theatre Guild version of 1946 and helped renew interest in the playwright. Later in 1956, Quintero was entrusted with the direction of the first American production of O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, a notable success that became a landmark in the history of the American theatre and earned the director his first Tony Award; he also received the honour in 1973 for A Moon for the Misbegotten. Between 1956 and 1996, he staged 19 plays by O'Neill, as well as Thorton Wilder's Our Town and Truman Capote's Glass Harp. In addition to directing for the stage, Quintero directed a motion picture, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961); television specials; and several operas. His autobiography, If You Don't Dance They Beat You, appeared in 1974.