Byrne Piven

Byrne Piven (September 24, 1929 – February 18, 2002) was an influential American stage actor, director, and co-founder of the Playwrights Theatre Club, a forerunner of The Second City. Piven was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He came to Chicago in 1954 and met Joyce Hiller at the University of Chicago. They were married a short time later. In the 1950s, the Pivens were two of the founding members of the Playwrights Theatre Club, along with Paul Sills and David Shepard. Playwrights featured such budding stars as Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Ed Asner and Barbara Harris. In the mid-1950s, the Pivens moved to New York, where they studied with Uta Hagen. Piven played the leads in several New York Shakespeare Festival productions. He was also...