He knew actors because he was practically born one. Lumet started at four in his father Baruch's Yiddish

theater troupe on the Lower East Side and appeared in the original stage production of Sidney Kingsley's

Dead End when he was 11. After World War II service in India and Burma he joined the fledgling Actors

Studio, only to be tossed out. So he started his own company, and at 22 was a director on Broadway. Yul

Brynner, then a director, got him into live TV drama; in a 2005 Turner Classic Movies interview with

Robert Osborne, Lumet recalled the blessing of being in an infant medium — "Nobody knew what they

were doing, so there was nobody to say No." Building a renown for goading actors toward self-revelation,

he caught the attention of Fonda, who was producing a movie version of Rose's jury-room TV play 12

Angry Men. For the nameless jurors Lumet rounded up Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Warden, Jack

Klugman, Ed Begley and brought sizzle to the confrontation of principal and prejudice.