Gene Feist

Gene Feist (1923–2014) was an American playwright, theater director, and co-founder of the Roundabout Theater Company. Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Hattie Fishbein and Henry Feist, he grew up in Coney Island with his identical twin brother Harold. Their father owned a bar named "The Bucket of Blood." Feist, an avid reader, attended a vocational high school before joining the U.S. Army Air Forces during WWII, where he worked as a newspaper editor and was stationed in the Philippines and Japan.

After the war, Feist studied at Carnegie Mellon University, where he befriended Andy Warhol. He married Irma "Kathe" Schneider in 1957; they had two daughters. In 1965, Feist and Kathe founded Roundabout Theatre Company in Manhattan. Kathe acted under the name Elizabeth Owens and appeared in over 30 plays, while Gene served as the company's founding director.

Feist also taught drama at Albert Leonard Junior High School in New Rochelle during the 1960s. He authored 15 plays or adaptations, with two published by Samuel French Inc. His wife Kathe died from breast cancer in 2005, predeceasing him by several weeks. Feist passed away on March 17, 2014, at age 91, survived by his daughters, grandson, and granddaughter.