Elia Kazan
Known For
Directing
Born
1909-09-07 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire [now Istanbul, Turkey]
Died
2003-09-28
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.
Most Known For
The Mike Douglas Show
as Self
The Dick Cavett Show
as Self - Guest
The Merv Griffin Show
as Self
Apostrophes
as Self
Spécial cinéma
as Self
The Oscars
as Self
Die Drehscheibe
as Self
Cinépanorama
as Self
The Kennedy Center Honors
as Self
Empire City
as Self
Mist
as Old man in the coffee house
Hello Actors Studio
as Self
Panic in the Streets
as Cleaver - Mortuary Assistant (uncredited)
City for Conquest
as 'Googi'
A Letter to Elia
as Self (archive footage)
Arthur Miller: Writer
as Self (archive footage)
Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
as Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
Inside Rupert Pupkin
as Self (archive footage)
Elia Kazan: An Outsider
as Self
The Screen Director
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)