Joan Paley Straus Cullman (1932–2004) was an American philanthropist and Tony award Broadway producer.
Born Joan Paley to a Jewish family in 1932 in Far Rockaway, Queens, she is a graduate of Brooklyn College.
[1][2] She went on to produce nine Broadway shows including Yasmina Reza's Art, (1998) which won the Tony and New York Drama Critics Circle awards for best play; David Hare's Tony-nominated Skylight (1996); Tony-nominated Sweet Smell of Success (2002); Tony-nominated The Play What I Wrote (2004); The Rink, a musical written by Terrence McNally with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb; David Hare's The Judas Kiss; Carmelina;[1] Amy's View; Oh, Brother!
[2] Since 1985, Cullman served on the board of the Lincoln Center Theater and most recently as vice chairman; she founded the Joan Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity, which has been presented to the likes of Tom Stoppard, Stockard Channing, Julie Taymor, and Spalding Gray.
[7] On March 18, 2004, she died of a heart attack at her vacation home in Tryall, Jamaica.