Elaine May Movies and Career Information

Elaine May (born April 21, 1932) is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She achieved her greatest fame in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines in partnership with Mike Nichols. Elaine Berlin was born in Philadelphia, the daughter of the theatre director and actor Jack Berlin and actress Ida Berlin. Ida Berlin would have a small role in her daughter's film, A New Leaf. As a child, Elaine occasionally performed with her father in the Yiddish theater he ran. In 1942, the family moved to Los Angeles, California. She married Marvin May in the late 1940s as a teenager and gave birth to a daughter, actress-director-screenwriter Jeannie Berlin (who is known by her mother's maiden name) in 1949; the couple later divorced. In 1962, she married lyricist Sheldon Harnick, best known for his work in Fiddler On The Roof. However, they divorced a year later when May became romantically involved with her psychoanalyst, Dr. David L. Rubinfine, who was also married. Their divorces and subsequent marriage (in 1964) led to Rubinfine being ostracized by the New York psychoanalytic establishment, particularly after his ex-wife's suicide. May and Rubinfine remained married