Charles Conrad, a distinguished acting coach who has trained some of theater and film's most celebrated performers including Susan Sarandon, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Dennis Quaid, Michelle Pfiedder, Diana Ross and Robert Duvall, died from kidney failure on October 29 in Port Townsend, Washington. He was 84.
After serving in the Navy during WWII, Conrad studied theater Directing at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, graduating with a Master's Degree. It was his directorial thesis of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya that earned him a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. As he once relayed to a good friend, "I didn't have the money to get to London so I just turned it down. It was a decision I came to regret many times over."
In 1952, he began studying the craft of acting with Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse. After directing a series of several short stories, Meisner recognized his talent and prospects as a future acting teacher and promptly made him his senior assistant. It was during this time that Charles Conrad would be given the opportunity to instructed such future acting greats like: Robert Duvall, Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon and JoAnne Woodward, Ali McGraw, Keith Carradine, Carl Weathers, Joanna Cassidy, Teri Garr, Linda Gray, Valerie Perrine, Victoria Principal, Penny Marshall, Chuck Norris, Suzanne Somers, Karen Valentine, Ed Begley Jr., and Lindsay Wagner, and more.
In the early 1960s, Conrad opened his own studio where he would define and redefine the Meisner Technique. It was at the CEC Studio in Burbank that Charles Conrad would emerge as one of the film industry's most distinguished acting teachers and developed the Conrad Technique.
Like Meisner, Conrad relied on the Repetition Exercise of learning scripts (fast repetition of the words until they are memorized). Without memorizing any actions or feelings. So that when it became time to perform an actual scene or exercise, each actor would depend on the other for his or her source of acting.
But the most noticeable difference between the two men, was that Charles implemented the text into the exercise of actual scripts, stripped of any direction or pre-disposed feelings. That unlike most exercises or performances, the words were simply memorized and were not meant to come to life, until your attention was on the other actor in the exercise. This rather than relying strictly on improvisation in order to bring in "Here and Now" moments was the difference. This brought his exercises to life, just as in real life moments in time. The exercise was always carried out w/ two cameras (one focused on each actor) with a table and 2 chairs the only props and without the 2 actors doing any kind of rehearsal together, whatsoever. Magical moments were thus captured on camera for that actor to use as an audition tape.
Acting coaches everywhere continue to employ his technique.
Conrad is survived by his wife, Pamela Mansfield-Conrad, and two sons.
