Marlin-Jones, UNLV prof, playwright, dies

Friday, March 5, 2004 | 9:21 a.m.

Davey Marlin-Jones, a longtime UNLV theater professor and director who advanced the careers of young playwrights nationwide, died Tuesday at his Las Vegas home of cancer. He was 71.

There will be no services. A gathering to celebrate his life and work will be at 2 p.m. March 20 at the Judy Bailey Theatre on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus.

Marlin-Jones directed numerous plays at UNLV in the 1990s and in recent years.

Marlin-Jones is a recipient of the Margo Jones Award for advancing the American playwright and the UNLV School of Fine and Performing Arts Outstanding Teacher Award.

Prior to coming to UNLV as a professor of theater and playwriting in 1989, Marlin-Jones worked as artistic director for the Washington Theatre Club in Washington, D.C., where he introduced the professional premieres of 137 new writers, including Lanford Wilson, Stephen F. Schwartz, George Haimsohn and others. At the Kennedy Center, he presided over the new playwrights program.

Marlin-Jones directed the film version of Wilson's "In the Well of the House" and the 1972 made-for-television version of Wilson's small-town drama "The Rimers of Eldritch," starring Rue McClanahan and Susan Sarandon.

Marlin-Jones also directed the Emmy Award-winning series "The Greatest Earth on Show."

He was a film and play reviewer for WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C., in the 1970s and '80s and a film and theater critic for Post-Newsweek Television.

Marlin-Jones' other theater credits include serving as the first artistic director for the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, managing director for the Equity Library Theatre in New York and consulting director for the Repertory Company of St. Louis.

As a playwright, he wrote "Brandy Station" and "Lies in the Looking Glass."

Marlin-Jones started his show business career at age 13 as a professional magician. He toured extensively in that field and published a book on magic. He also has served as the keynote speaker at the World of Magic Summit in Washington, D.C.

Marlin-Jones is survived by his wife, actress Maggie Winn-Jones, sons Andrew and Oliver, a sister and two grandchildren.