In 1931, Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, and Strasberg founded the Group Theatre in New York, beginning a watershed period in American Theater.
The Group Theatre brought together Elia Kazan, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, Frances Farmer, Clifford Odets, Irwin Shaw, and John Garfield (among many others).
Their creative commune introduced America to the revolutionary teachings of Stanislavski, and it set in motion new schools of thought that would dominate acting for the rest of the century.
Howard began a long career of hundreds of roles on stage and screen, including Odets' The Country Girl on Broadway and the film The Men with Marlon Brando.
Acting led to directing and, in 1952, to teaching, when Sidney Lumet asked Howard to replace him at the High School of Performing Arts.