Editing Roddy McDowall (section)

===1950s: Television and theatre===
McDowall left Hollywood to move to New York City. He began appearing on television, notably shows such as ''[[Celanese Theatre]]'', ''[[Broadway Television Theatre]]'', ''[[Medallion Theatre]]'', ''[[Campbell Summer Soundstage]]'', ''[[Armstrong Circle Theatre]]'', ''[[Encounter (1958 TV series)|Encounter]]'', ''[[Robert Montgomery Presents]]'' (including an adaptation of ''[[Great Expectations]]'', in which he played Pip), ''[[The Elgin Hour]]'', ''[[Ponds Theater]]'', ''[[General Electric Theater]]'', ''[[The Kaiser Aluminum Hour]]'', ''[[Lux Video Theatre]]'', ''[[Goodyear Playhouse]]'', ''[[The Alcoa Hour]]'', ''[[Kraft Theatre]]'', ''[[Matinee Theatre]]'', ''[[Suspicion (American TV series)|Suspicion]]'', ''[[Playhouse 90]]'' (in an adaptation of ''[[Heart of Darkness]]''), ''[[The United States Steel Hour]]'', ''[[The DuPont Show of the Month]]'' (an adaptation of ''[[Billy Budd]]''), and ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' (the episode "[[People Are Alike All Over]]").

McDowall also had significant success on the Broadway stage. He was in a production of ''[[Misalliance (play)|Misalliance]]'' (1953) that ran for 130 performances and which McDowall said "broke the mould" in how he was judged as an actor.<ref>{{cite news|author=Steinmetz, J. |date=10 February 1987|title=RODDY MCDOWALL'S BEST FRIEND: CAMERA|work=Chicago Tribune|id={{ProQuest|291006412}}}}</ref>

He followed it with ''Escapade'' (1953) with [[Carroll Baker]] and [[Brian Aherne]]; [[Ira Levin]]'s ''[[No Time for Sergeants]] '' (1955–57), which was a huge hit;<ref>{{cite news|title=Roddy McDowall, stage actor|date=21 September 1955|work=The Christian Science Monitor|id={{ProQuest|509302561}}}}</ref> ''Diary of a Scoundrel'' (1956); and ''Good as Gold'' (1957).

He had a big critical success with ''[[Compulsion (play)|Compulsion]]'' (1957–58) based on [[Leopold and Loeb]] – although McDowall was not cast in the [[Compulsion (1959 film)|film version]]. He followed it with ''Handful of Fire'' (1958), [[Noël Coward]]'s ''[[Look After Lulu!]]'' (1959), and [[Peter Brook]]'s ''[[The Fighting Cock]]'' (1960). The latter earned him a [[Tony Award]].