Born in Melrose Park, Illinois, Lamos studied violin and ballet at an early age, and participated in high school theater productions at Proviso East High School, Maywood, IL, from which he graduated in 1964. He attended Northwestern University on a music scholarship. He began his theatrical career as an actor at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. His early Broadway appearances all were in short-lived productions: The Love Suicide at Schofield Barracks and The Creation of the World and Other Business in 1972, Cyrano in 1973, and a revival of Man and Superman in 1978. He also appeared in the 1990 film Longtime Companion. He was appointed the artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse, effective in February 2009. Directing credits: Westport Country Playhouse: Harbor; Into the Woods; Twelfth Night; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; Happy Days; She Loves Me; The Breath of Life; That Championship Season; Of Mice and Men. New York credits: The Rivals, Big Bill, Seascape, Cymbeline, Measure for Measure, all for Lincoln Center Theater; The Gershwins’ Fascinating Rhythm; The Deep Blue Sea; Our Country's Good. Off-Broadway: The End of the Day ;Thief River ; Love's Fire ; As You Like It ; Indian Blood, Buffalo Gal, Black Tie and Harbor. Artistic Director, Hartford Stage. Other theater: The Kennedy Center; Washington's Ford's Theatre; Canada's Stratford Festival; Guthrie Theater; A.C.T.; Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Yale Repertory Theatre; D.C.'s Shakespeare Theatre; Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; San Diego's Old Globe; Moscow's Pushkin Theatre. Opera: I Lombardi, Wozzeck, ; The Great Gatsby and Adriana Lecouvreur at the Metropolitan Opera; many productions for New York City Opera, including televised productions of Paul Bunyan, Tosca, Central Park and Madama Butterfly. Glimmerglass Opera; Gothenburg's Stora Teatern; L'Opéra de Montréal; Chicago Lyric; San Francisco Opera; Norway's Bergen National Opera; and opera companies of Santa Fe, St. Louis, Washington, Dallas, Seattle. Lamos began his career in the theater as an actor on and off-Broadway and in regional theater. He made his film debut in Longtime Companion. He was awarded the Connecticut Medal for the Arts as well as honorary doctorates from Connecticut College, University of Hartford, and Trinity College. Lamos was awarded the 2007 Beinecke Fellow, Yale University, the Stanford Chair at University of Miami in Coral Cables, has lectured at Yale and was a visiting adjunct professor in the Department of Theater at the University of Michigan. Lamos is openlygay. His partner since 1979 is Jerry Jones.
