Writer, director and producer Matt Cimber was born as Matteo Ottaviano in 1936 and began his career in the early 60s directing off-Broadway plays including works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tennessee Williams and the US premieres of the Jean Cocteau trilogy. During his theater years, Cimber rewrote Burning Bright with John Steinbeck which introduced Sandy Dennis who went on to win an Academy Award for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?