Sanford Meisner was born and bred in New York City, the child of a Hungarian Jewish couple who made their money from selling furs. The young Meisner's decision to become an actor was greeted with bewilderment by his family, who did not regard acting as a suitable profession, and had expected him to work in the clothing industry. Meisner's first engagement was at the Theatre Guild in New York, where he subsequently won a scholarship to study acting.

It was at the Guild that Meisner encountered Lee Strasberg, one of the young theatre workers with whom he was to form the Group Theatre in 1931, an experimental company dedicated to exploring “truthful” acting and ways to achieve it. Many of the founder members of the Group Theatre,

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First published 08 November 2002

Citation: Moseley, Nick. "Sanford Meisner". The Literary Encyclopedia. 8 November 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3073, accessed 9 February 2010.]