Gene Persson - Producer

Producer

Persson married actress Shirley Knight in 1959. He soon began switching his career focus from acting to producing around the time of his marriage.,in 1964 their daughter Kaitlin was born, He began producing plays in New York City and Los Angeles in which Knight held a starring position. Their joint productions included early plays by LeRoi Jones, who is also known as Amiri Baraka, such as The Slave, The Toilet and Dutchman. Their Broadway plays later included Stanley Mann's Room. He also produced a controversial play entitled The Trail of Lee Harvey Oswald on Broadway in 1967.

On screen, Persson produced Dutchman with Anthony Harvey, who was a first time director at the time of production. The film, which starred Shirley Knight and Al Freeman Jr., is still screened at film festivals and museums today, according to Variety Magazine.

Knight and Persson later divorced in 1969, but remained lifelong personal and professional friends. and his daughter was raised by Knight's second husband, the English writer John Hopkins.

Persson moved to London in 1969. There he produced a total of five plays for British playwright, Peter Barnes, including The Ruling Class. He later collaborated with Tennessee Williams during the 1970s to produce the British revival of The Glass Menagerie as well as The Red Devil Battery Sign, both of which were produced in the United Kingdom. Persson and Williams also teamed up to bring An Evening with Tennessee Williams and This Is (An Entertainment) to San Francisco, California. in 1972 he married Ruby Persson and they had two sons:Lukas and Markus.