He became interested in Shakespeare at age 9, during a class outing to see Sir Laurence Olivier's film version of Henry V (1944).
He graduated from the Yale School of Drama. He was a co-founder of Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut.
He was on the theater faculty at UC Irvine for over 20 years. He created innovative ways of teaching acting students to speak clearly while lending their characters authentic accents and dialects.