American Masters is a PBS television show which produces biographies on what it considers are the best artists, actors and writers of the United States. It is produced by WNET in New York City. The show debuted on PBS in 1983.

Groups or organizations featured include: Actor's Studio, Algonquin Round Table, Group Theatre, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Women of Tin Pan Alley, Negro Ensemble Company, Juilliard School, the Beat Generation, Sun Records, and Vaudeville.

Contents 1 Personalities Profiled (In Alphabetical Order) 1.1 A 1.2 B 1.3 C 1.4 D 1.5 E 1.6 F 1.7 G 1.8 H 1.9 I 1.10 J 1.11 K 1.12 L 1.13 M 1.14 N 1.15 O 1.16 P 1.17 Q 1.18 R 1.19 S 1.20 T 1.21 U 1.22 V 1.23 W 1.24 X 1.25 Y 1.26 Z 2 Funding 3 Cultural references 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Personalities Profiled (In Alphabetical Order)

[edit] A

• Stella Adler
• Louis Armstrong
• John James Audubon
• Richard Avedon

[edit] B

• Joan Baez
• George Balanchine
• James Baldwin
• Lucille Ball
• Leonard Bernstein
• James Brown
• Carol Burnett

[edit] C

• John Cage
• Alexander Calder
• Robert Capa
• Truman Capote
• John Cassavetes
• Willa Cather
• Lon Chaney
• Charlie Chaplin
• Ray Charles
• Julia Child
• Harold Clurman
• Nat King Cole
• Aaron Copland
• Walter Cronkite
• George Cukor
• Merce Cunningham
• Edward S. Curtis

[edit] D

• James Dean
• Placido Domingo
• Bob Dylan

[edit] E

• Thomas Eakins
• Clint Eastwood
• Albert Einstein
• Duke Ellington
• Ralph Ellison
• Ahmet Ertegün

[edit] F

• Ella Fitzgerald
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• John Ford
• Miloš Forman
• Aretha Franklin
• Buckminster Fuller

[edit] G

• Judy Garland
• Marvin Gaye
• Frank Gehry
• George Gershwin
• Allen Ginsberg
• Lillian Gish
• Samuel Goldwyn
• Benny Goodman
• Martha Graham
• Cary Grant
• D.W. Griffith
• Woody Guthrie

[edit] H

• Dashiell Hammett
• John H. Hammond
• Helen Hayes
• Lillian Hellman
• Ernest Hemingway
• Don Hewitt
• Al Hirschfeld
• Alfred Hitchcock
• David Hockney
• Billie Holiday
• Lena Horne
• Zora Neale Hurston

[edit] I

[edit] J

• Jasper Johns
• Philip Johnson
• Quincy Jones

[edit] K

• Danny Kaye
• Elia Kazan
• Buster Keaton
• Garrison Keillor
• Gene Kelly
• André Kertész

[edit] L

• Annie Leibovitz
• James Levine
• Harold Lloyd
• Murray Louis
• George Lucas
• Henry Luce

[edit] M

• Norman Mailer
• Bob Marley
• Elaine May
• Sanford Meisner
• Yehudi Menuhin
• Arthur Miller
• Joni Mitchell
• Marilyn Monroe
• Robert Motherwell
• Edward R. Murrow

[edit] N

• Willie Nelson
• Bob Newhart
• Mike Nichols
• Alwin Nikolais
• Isamu Noguchi

[edit] O

• Georgia O'Keeffe
• Eugene O'Neill

[edit] P

• Jack Paar
• Charlie Parker
• Les Paul
• Gregory Peck
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Sidney Poitier
• Cole Porter
• Katherine Anne Porter

[edit] Q

[edit] R

• Robert Rauschenberg
• Man Ray
• Lou Reed
• Frederic Remington
• Diego Rivera
• Paul Robeson
• Norman Rockwell
• Richard Rodgers
• Will Rogers
• Arthur Rubinstein

[edit] S

• Mort Sahl
• Augustus Saint-Gaudens
• Waldo Pressman Salt
• Charles M. Schulz
• Martin Scorsese
• Pete Seeger
• David O. Selznick
• Maurice Sendak
• Rod Serling
• Neil Simon
• Paul Simon
• Isaac Bashevis Singer
• Alfred Stieglitz
• George Stevens
• Preston Sturges
• William Styron

[edit] T

• Paul Taylor
• Dalton Trumbo

[edit] U

[edit] V

• Sarah Vaughan
• Gore Vidal

[edit] W

• Andy Warhol
• Alice Waters
• Muddy Waters
• John Wayne
• Billy Wilder
• Hank Williams
• Tennessee Williams
• William Wyler

[edit] X

[edit] Y

Neil Young

[edit] Z

[edit] Funding

• National Endowment for the Humanities (2000-2005)
• National Endowment for the Arts (1983-present)
• Rosland P. Walter (1992-present)
• The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations (2009-present)
• American Playhouse (2001-present)
• Corporation for Public Broadcasting (1983-present)
• Viewers Like You (1983-present)
• MasterCard (2000-2007)
• Apple Inc. (2000-2008)
• American Express (1995)

[edit] Cultural references

• In season 18 of The Simpsons, in the episode Marge Gamer, Homer laments, "Aww, but to get that DVD, I had to become a PBS subscriber. Now I'm paying for crap like American Masters!"^[1]

[edit] External links

• PBS: American Masters

[edit] References

1. ^ http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Simpsons/Season_18