John Willis

Mr. Willis was originally from Morristown, Tennessee. He earned an undergraduate degree in English from Milligan College, and did graduate work at Harvard University, Indiana University, and the University of Tennessee. During World War II, he served in the United States Naval Reserve where he was stationed in Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands, in the South Pacific. he rose to the rank of lieutenant junior grade. Mr. Willis was an English teacher with New York Public School System for over twenty years and retired in 1976. He was a member of Actors' Equity Association for over fifty years.

Willis was widely regarded as one of the most important theatre and film historians of the twentieth century.

Willis died at age 93 on June 25, 2010, in his Manhattan home, of complications from lung cancer.[