ROSENBERG, Marvin 1912-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born November 6, 1912, in Fresno, CA; died of complications from a stroke February 4, 2003, in El Cerrito, CA. Educator and author. Rosenberg was a Shakespeare scholar who wrote influential histories on stage productions of the bard's plays. He earned his Ph.D. in English from the University of California at Berkeley after teaching high school for a time, and during World War II worked in the Office of War Information. After the war he was chief of the Siamese (Thai) Section of the U.S. Department of State for two years before beginning his academic career at his alma mater in 1948. He remained at the University of California—Berkeley throughout the rest of his career. Initially teaching journalism, he switched disciplines to theater arts, becoming a full professor in 1961 and professor emeritus in 1983. Rosenberg's area of particular expertise was the study of the history of Shakespearean stage performances and actors. He is most recognized for his series of books analyzing the history of acting in individual plays, including The Masks of Othello (1961), The Masks of King Lear (1972), The Masks of Macbeth (1978), The Masks of Hamlet (1992), and The Masks of Antony and Cleopatra (2003). In these works, he discussed how various actors, going back some four centuries, interpreted and performed their parts. In addition to his scholarly work, Rosenberg wrote several stage plays, as well as the book The Adventures of a Shakespeare Scholar (1997).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

books

Writers Directory, 17th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2002.

periodicals

Los Angeles Times, February 21, 2003, p. B13.

San Francisco Chronicle, February 21, 2003, p. A22.

Times (London, England), February 25, 2003, p. 30.

online

UC Berkeley News Center Web site,http://www.berkeley.edu/news/ (February 19, 2003).