Elia Kazan
Biography
Elia Kazan ( September 7 , 1909, Kayseri – September 28, 2003) was a Greek-American director and actor, described as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". He also produced, and wrote screenplays and novels. Born in the Kayseri, Ottoman Empire to Greek parents, they emigrated to New York when he was four. After two years studying acting at Yale, he acted professionally for eight years before becoming a stage and film director. Kazan co-founded the influential Group Theater in 1932 and Actors Studio in 1947, and together with Lee Strasberg, introduced Method acting to the American stage and cinema as a new form of self-expression and psychological "realism". Having been an actor himself for eight years, he brought sensitivity and understanding of the acting process, and was later considered the ideal "actor's director". He himself acted in only a few films, including City for Conquest (1940), alongside James Cagney. Overall, Kazan influenced the films of the 1950s and 1960s by his run of provocative, issues-driven subjects, and acting. Moreover, his personal brand of cinema, employing real locations over sets, unknowns over stars, and realism over convenient genres, proved influential to a whole generation of independent filmmakers in the 1960s. Film author Ian Freer concludes that "If his achievements are tainted by political controversy, the debt Hollywood — and actors everywhere — owes him, is enormous." In 2010, Martin Scorsese co-directed the documentary film, A Letter to Elia, as a personal tribute to Kazan, who he credits as the inspiration for his becoming a filmmaker.
Personal Details
Also Known As
Movies (41)
An American Named Kazan
as Self (archive footage)
2019
Arthur Miller: Writer
as Self (archive footage)
2017
Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
as Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
2014
Inside Rupert Pupkin
as Self (archive footage)
2014
A Letter to Elia
as Self (archive footage)
2010
An Actor Named Brando
as Self (archive footage)
2006
A Man Named Brando
as Self
2006
A Streetcar in Hollywood
as Self (archive footage)
2006
A Streetcar on Broadway
as Self (archive footage)
2006
East of Eden: Art in Search of Life
as Himself
2005
Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan and the Blacklist: None Without Sin
as Self (Archive footage)
2003
Backstory: 'Gentleman's Agreement'
as Self (archive footage)
2001
Diaspora
Writer (Writing)
2001
Life at Any Cost
1998
Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey
as Self
1995
Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
as Self (archive footage)
1994
Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret
as Self
1990
Hello Actors Studio
as Self
1988
Mist
as Old man in the coffee house
1988
Empire City
as Self
1985
Elia Kazan: An Outsider
as Self
1982
I Am Wanda
as Self
1980
The Last Tycoon
Director (Directing)
1976
The Visitors
Director (Directing)
1972
The Arrangement
Writer (Writing)
1969
A New Lifestyle
as Self
1969
America America
Producer (Production)
1963
Splendor in the Grass
Director (Directing)
1961
Wild River
Director (Directing)
1960
A Face in the Crowd
Director (Directing)
1957
Baby Doll
Director (Directing)
1956
East of Eden
Director (Directing)
1955
On the Waterfront
Director (Directing)
1954
Man on a Tightrope
Director (Directing)
1953
Viva Zapata!
Director (Directing)
1952
A Streetcar Named Desire
Director (Directing)
1951
The Screen Director
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
1951
Panic in the Streets
as Cleaver - Mortuary Assistant (uncredited)
1950
Pinky
Director (Directing)
1949
Gentleman's Agreement
Director (Directing)
1947
The Sea of Grass
Director (Directing)
1947
