Planning to becoming an actor, Windust cofounded (with Charles Leatherbee) the
University Players in 1928 on
Cape Cod in
Falmouth, Massachusetts. The company lasted five years and included later luminaries
Joshua Logan,
Henry Fonda,
James Stewart,
Margaret Sullavan,
Mildred Natwick,
Eleanor Phelps,
Barbara O'Neil,
Myron McCormick,
Kent Smith and
Aleta Freel. Windust directed more often than he acted. Although he began his association with the
Theatre Guild in Manhattan as an assistant stage manager in 1929, he maintained his position as a director of the University Players in the offseason when they performed on Cape Cod through mid-1932. He quit the Theatre Guild briefly during the winter season of 1931-32 to direct the University Players through its 18-week winter season in Baltimore. Windust's first major credit as a professional theater director was the 1932
West End production of
Eugene O'Neill's
Strange Interlude. He directed
Alfred Lunt and
Lynn Fontanne in
The Taming of the Shrew and
Amphitryon 38 (which he translated from the original French) and appeared with them in ''
Idiot's Delight'', his last work as an actor. Windust's first major
Broadway hit was
Life with Father, the
Russel Crouse/
Howard Lindsay play based on the memoirs of
Clarence Day, Jr., a distant relative on Windust's mother's side. At 3,224 performances, it held the record for the longest-running Broadway production for many years. It remains the longest running non-musical show in Broadway history. In quick succession, he followed with
Arsenic and Old Lace and
Strip for Action, giving him three hits running simultaneously on Broadway. Windust cemented his Broadway career by directing the musical hit ''Finian's Rainbow'' (1947). In 1947, Windust relocated to Hollywood, where he worked as the dialogue director for
Stallion Road, starring
Ronald Reagan. His film directing career included two 1948
Bette Davis vehicles, the melodramatic
Winter Meeting and the screwball comedy
June Bride. The latter part of his career was spent in the television division of
Universal, directing episodes of
Alfred Hitchcock Presents,
Wagon Train,
Leave It to Beaver and
Bachelor Father, in addition to the
Thanksgiving 1957
special The Pied Piper of Hamelin, later released as a feature film. Windust's final work was the direction of an episode of the
Startime television anthology series titled "Dear Arthur" that was taped several days before his death. == Personal life ==