William Sharp; prepared generation of students for stage

He was 84.

Dr. Sharp earned critical praise as a professional actor with companies such as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Stanford Repertory Theatre, the Repertory Theatre in Madison, Wis., Princeton University, and the Gloucester Stage Company.

“I can’t watch slippery acting because of Sharp,’’ said Tom Bloom of New York City, one of Dr. Sharp’s former graduate students at Emerson. “ ‘Truth on stage is truth in life’ is what he would say.’’

At Stanford University, the University of California at Riverside, Emerson, and the Bread Loaf School of English in Vermont, Dr. Sharp directed more than 50 productions, including “All’s Well that Ends Well,’’ “The Beggar’s Opera,’’ “Hamlet,’’ “The Merchant of Venice,’’ “Twelfth Night,’’ and “The Misanthrope.’’

“Sharp was a total egalitarian,’’ Bloom said. “He just believed in actors on stage being totally truthful in the moment.’’

A native of Chicago, William Sharp attended Phillips Academy in Andover in an accelerated program and graduated from the University of Chicago before he enlisted in the US Army in the early 1940s. He served with the 381st Engineer Combat Battalion in France and Germany during World War II.

After the war, he received a bachelor of arts degree in English in 1946 and a master of arts degree in English in 1949 from the University of Chicago. In 1954, he received his doctorate in theater and drama from Stanford University.

Dr. Sharp taught English and drama at US Riverside from 1954 until 1964. He was the chairman of the drama program toward the end of his time at the university.

He then worked as an associate professor of drama at Stanford. He cofounded the Stanford Repertory Theater in 1964 and was an actor and director there until 1969.

“He was the epitome of the new artist in theater in the ’60s,’’ Bloom said. “He was brutally honest. He was a pure artist, without any pretensions . . . besides being a gifted teacher.’’

After leaving Stanford, Dr. Sharp spent a year as a visiting professor of drama at Middlebury College in Vermont. From 1966 until 1976, Dr. Sharp directed a summer theater program at the Bread Loaf School of English, part of Middlebury.

“He was one of those guys who made you see things in a new way,’’ said Joe Cacaci of New York City, who knew Dr. Sharp for 35 years after he took one of his classes at Emerson. “I went in as an actor and came out as a director. And that had as much to do with him as anybody.’’

Dr. Sharp taught in Emerson’s theater program as a professor of drama from 1970 until his retirement in 1994. He was named professor emeritus of performing arts in 1996. He was the chairman of the dramatic arts department, later known as the theater arts department, at the college from 1970 until 1981.

Some of Dr. Sharp’s students remembered how he worked to get his students to physically embody the characters they portrayed.

“There he would be in a gallery of the MFA [the Museum of Fine Arts], this short, bearded Irish guy with sparkling eyes and a Sean Connery swagger, shaping his arms, legs, neck, and torso into any number of dramatic postures in full view of anyone who passed by,’’ said the Rev. Tim Kutzmark of Wilmington, who took several of Dr. Sharp’s advanced acting classes at Emerson. “It reflected his unique and unquenchable desire to understand the creative process and bring it to life.’’

Relatives said that Dr. Sharp loved teaching and that he inspired many students who are now successful writers, directors, actors, educators, and performing arts professionals.

“He was one of those born-to-teach type of people,’’ said one of his daughters, Kate of New York City. “That was the main thing in his life.’’

Dr. Sharp wrote articles for various academic publications, such as the Educational Theater Journal and the Tulane Drama Review. He also wrote a book, “Language as Drama’’ (1970).

He was an enthusiastic Scrabble player and enjoyed such card games as Pit and Slap. He had a passion for playing Murder in the Dark, a game similar to the reverse hide-and-seek game Sardines.

“This was a big part of his personality,’’ said his other daughter, Liz of New York City. “He loved theater games.’’

Dr. Sharp had lived in downtown Boston and was a longtime summer resident of Essex, N.Y.

“A lot of his students became friends of his,’’ Cacaci said. “He was a guy who brought people together without even trying.’’

Dr. Sharp’s wife of 27 years, Shirley [Vanderwalker], died in 1993.

In addition to his two daughters, Kate and Liz, Dr. Sharp leaves a son, Arthur, of Salem; a brother, Don, of Bronxville, N.Y.; a sister, Darlene Fiske of Woodstock, Ill.; and three grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. July 25 at Emerson’s Semel Theater in Boston.