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Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan, (pronounced ē-LĒ-ä ka-ZAHN) (September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003), was a Turkish-born American film and theatre director, film and theatrical producer, screenwriter, novelist and co-founder of the influential Actors Studio in New York in 1947. Kazan was a three-time Academy Award winner, a five-time Tony Award winner, a four-time Golden Globes winner, as well as a recipient of numerous awards and nominations in other prestigious festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival.
Early life
Kazan was born Elias Kazanjoglou (Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου in Greek) in the Anatolian city of the Kayseri, Turkey (Turkey was the Ottoman Empire then) to an Ottoman-Greek family.
His family emigrated to the United States in 1913 and settled in New York City, where his father, George Kazanjoglu, became a rug merchant. Kazan's father expected that his son would go into the family business, but his mother, Athena (née Sismanoglou), encouraged Kazan to make his own decisions.
Kazan attended public schools in New York City and New Rochelle, New York. After graduating from Williams College, Massachusetts, Kazan studied at Yale University's School of Drama. In the 1930s, Kazan acted with New York's Group Theatre, alongside (among others) Lee Strasberg, Clifford Odets, and Stella and Luther Adler. During this period, Kazan earned his nickname 'Gadg,' short for Gadget - he never learned to love the name. For about 19 months in 1934-36, Kazan was a member of a secret Communist cell.
Career
Theatrical
He became one of the most visible members of the New York elite. Kazan's theater credits included acting in ''Men in White'', ''Waiting for Lefty'', ''Johnny Johnson'', ''Golden Boy'', and the 1940 revival of ''Liliom''. Kazan directed ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' (1951) and ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' (1955), two of the plays that made Tennessee Williams a theatrical and literary force. He also directed ''All My Sons'' (1947) and ''Death of a Salesman'', (1949) the plays which did much the same for Arthur Miller. He received three Tony Awards, winning for ''All My Sons'', ''Death of a Salesman'', and ''J.B.''
Film director
Kazan's history as a film director is equally noteworthy, if not more impressive. He won two Academy Awards for Best Director, for ''Gentleman's Agreement'' (1947) and ''On the Waterfront'' (1954). He elicited critically acclaimed performances from actors such as Marlon Brando and Oscar winners Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter in ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' (1951) (the film version of Tennessee Williams' play), James Dean and Oscar winner Jo Van Fleet in ''East of Eden'' (adapted from the John Steinbeck novel), Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, and Jo Van Fleet in ''Wild River'' (1960), reportedly one of Kazan's favorite films, Natalie Wood in ''Splendor in the Grass'' and Andy Griffith in ''A Face in the Crowd''.
Before he began directing films, however, he occasionally played supporting roles in them, one of those films being the 1941 ''Blues in the Night''.
Controversial House Committee testimony
Kazan remained controversial in some circles until his death for testimony he gave before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1952, in which (after previously refusing to do so) he named associates from his days as a member of the Communist Party of the United States of America in the 1930s.
He began his career as an actor and stage manager for New York's Group Theatre Company, which was just recently established. His involvement in the group led him to join the "American Communist Party" in 1934. He was only involved with the Communist Party for a short time; however, he was quickly recognized as a potential communist by the HUAC, a group that was investigating the motion picture industry because of growing concern over communists working in the industry. A blacklist of names was being circulated, and those on the list could be in serious trouble and be denied work in the film industry again. The Committee called on people to identify others, and many refused; however, Kazan in his testimony named eight other members of the Communist Party, including some who had worked with him in The Group Theater; all the persons so named were already known to HUAC.
Among the people Kazan named in his testimony were two individuals, Phoebe Brand and Tony Kraber, whom Kazan had himself recruited into the Communist Party in the 1930s. Others included Zero Mostel, who had acted in Kazan's films, and was blacklisted and unable to work for the rest of the 1950s.
When Kazan received an Honorary Academy Award in 1999, surviving victims of the McCarthy-era blacklist, as well as some younger actors, protested. Kazan defended his actions long after the fact, writing, "I'd had every good reason to believe the party should be driven out of its many hiding places and into the light of scrutiny, but I'd never said anything because it would be called 'red-baiting.' [. . .] The `horrible, immoral thing' that I did I did out of my own true self."
Personal life
Elia Kazan was married three times.
Awards and nominations
In 1999, Kazan received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement. He was accompanied by Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. Robert De Niro himself had appeared in a film about the Hollywood Red Scare (''Guilty by Suspicion''). While many in Hollywood who had experienced the Red Scare felt that enough time had passed that it was appropriate to bury the hatchet and recognize Kazan's great artistic accomplishments, others did not and refused to applaud.
Academy Awards
*1948: Best Director – Gentleman's Agreement
*1955: Best Director – On the Waterfront
*1999: Academy Honorary Award – Lifetime Achievement
;Nominations
*1964: Best Picture – America, America
*1964: Best Adapted Screenplay – America, America
*1964: Best Director-America, America
*1956: Best Director-East of Eden
*1952: Best Director-A Streetcar Named Desire
Tony Awards
*1956: Best Director – ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof''
*1958: Best Play – ''The Dark at the Top of the Stairs ''
*1958: Best Director – ''The Dark at the Top of the Stairs''
*1960: Best Direction of a Play – ''Sweet Bird of Youth''
*1965: Best Producer of a Play – ''Tartuffe
;Nominations
*1959: Best Direction – ''J.B.''
*1949: Best Director – ''Death of a Salesman''
*1947: Best Direction – ''All My Sons''
Cannes Film Festival Awards
*1955: Best Dramatic Film – ''East of Eden'' (1955)
;Nominations
*1952: Grand Prize of the Festival – ''Viva Zapata!''
*1955: Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) – ''East of Eden''
*1972: Palme d'Or – ''The Visitors''
Venice Film Festival Awards
*1950: International Award – ''Panic in the Streets''
*1951: Special Jury Prize – ''A Streetcar Named Desire''
*1954: Italian Film Critics Award – ''On the Waterfront''
*1954: Leone d’Argento (Silver Lion) – ''On the Waterfront''
*1955: OCIC Award – ''On the Waterfront''
;Nominations
*1948: Leone d'Oro (Golden Lion) – ''Gentleman's Agreement''
*1950: Leone d'Oro – ''Panic in the Streets'' (1950)
*1951: Leone d'Oro – ''A Streetcar Named Desire''
*1954: Leone d'Oro – ''On the Waterfront''
Filmography
Bibliography
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Source: Wikipedia