Joan Cullman

Born Joan Paley to a Jewish family in 1932 in Far Rockaway, Queens, she is a graduate of Brooklyn College.^[1][2][3] She has one brother, Leon Paley.^[1] After school, she worked for Stan Lee of comic book fame.^[1][2] She went on to produce nine Broadway shows including Yasmina Reza's Art, (1998) which won the Tony and New York Drama Critics Circle awards for best play; David Hare's Tony Award-nominated Skylight (1996); Tony-nominated Sweet Smell of Success (2002); Tony-nominated The Play What I Wrote (2004); The Rink, a musical written by Terrence McNally with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb; David Hare's The Judas Kiss; Carmelina;^[1] Amy's View; Oh, Brother!; Mademoiselle Colombe; and Caroline, or Change.^[2]

Since 1985, Cullman served on the board of the Lincoln Center Theater and most recently as vice chairman; she founded the Joan Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity, which has been presented to the likes of Tom Stoppard, Stockard Channing, Julie Taymor, and Spalding Gray.^[1][2]

Paley was married twice. Her first marriage to Barnard Sachs Straus (son of Nathan Straus Jr. and grandson of Bernard Sachs) ended in divorce; they had two children, Tracy Straus Postel and Barnard S. Straus Jr.^[4][5] Her second marriage was to Joseph F. Cullman III.^[4][6] They divorced soon after marrying but moved back in together after several years and remarried in 1988.^[7] On March 18, 2004, she died of a heart attack at her vacation home in Tryall, Jamaica.^[1]