In 1951, he appeared in the Broadway play "The Autumn Garden" by Lillian Hellman. He portrayed a shipping clerk turned gang member in Joseph Strick's 1953 film, "The Big Break", a crime drama. He was the librettist and lyricist for the short-lived 1967 Broadway musical "Sherry!", based on the Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman play "The Man Who Came to Dinner", with music by his childhood friend Laurence Rosenthal. The score and orchestrations were lost for over 30 years, and the original cast was never recorded. In 2003, a studio cast recording (with Nathan Lane, Bernadette Peters, Carol Burnett, Tommy Tune, Mike Myers and others) renewed interest in the show.