Jeff Corey was an American actor and director, who became a well-respected acting teacher after being blacklisted in the 1950s. He is best known for the films Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, True Grit, Conan the Destroyer, and Little Big Man. Other film credits include In Cold Blood, Spartacus, Miracle on 34th Street, The Killers, The Devil and Daniel Webster, Seconds, Brute Force, The Cincinnati Kid, Home of the Brave, and The Boston Strangler.

He helped establish the Actors Lab, performing in Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Declaration, Miss Julie, To The Living, Prometheus, and producing Juno and the Paycock. Other theatre credits include The Life and Death of an American (Maxine Elliott's Theatre); Alfieri in A View From the Bridge (La Jolla Playhouse); In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Mark Taper Forum); Rosencrantz in Hamlet (Imperial Theatre); and King Lear in King Lear (Theatre Venture).