Spoiler : Born in Stettin, Germany 3/5/1900; died 1/25/2002 of cancer at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. Magner began his career at age eighteen in the Hamburg Chamber Theater. Fleeing Nazism, he moved to Vienna, Austria in 1933, and for the next three years he worked there, in Breslau, Poland, and Prague, Czechoslovakia. With further threats of Nazism, he moved to America in 1936. He settled in Chicago where he taught at the Northwestern University, directed opera, soon settling into a quarter-century of working as a producer, director and writer for radio and television. He worked for NBC during the 1940s, then CBS in New York from 1950 until in 1965 when mandatory retirement forced him from the network. He moved to Los Angeles, working as the artistic director for the Inglewood Playhouse, later his own New Theater, Inc., which worked closely with the Goethe Institute of Los Angeles.

Spoiler : Director for radio programs including the NBC soap, Lone Journey (1940-1946). Director for television programs including Robert Montgomery Presents on NBC (1950); Studio One on CBS (1950-1958).

Spoiler : Awarded a Lifetime achievement award in 1989 by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle. For his 99th birthday in 1999, Magner did what he liked to do every birthday. He directed and produced a challenging play. That year, it was "The Envoy," tackling the prickly subject of just how neutral Switzerland was during WWII.

Spoiler : I’m a genealogist working on Director Martin Magner’s genealogy. The reason I’m doing this is I knew Martin and performed in a few of his plays and grew to admire his work and life. This is my way of showing my gratitude for the fond memories and fun experiences he gave me. I’m at a dead end without his parents information. I am looking for any information in your archives about his parents names and birthdates. When Martin passed away I was told that all Martin’s documents were given to your organization. If this is true, could you please share what you do have for me to continue with Martin’s family tree. Name: Martin Magner Date of birth: 5 March 1900 Place of birth: Stettin Germany Date of Death: 30 Jan 2002 Place of Death: Los Angeles, California Martin married Marion Palfi in 1954, Manhattan, New York. Marion Palfi was a renowned social-documentary photographer I’m looking for documents like a birth and death certificate, marriage certificate, US citizenship record, SS application, etc., that would possibly reveal his parents names.