Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan, (
Greek Ηλίας Καζάν), (
September 7,
1909 –
September 28,
2003) was an
American film and
Theatre director and
producer.
He was born
Elias Kazanjoglou in
İstanbul in
1909 to
Greek parents.[
1][
2] His first name is pronounced using
IPA pronunciation.He became one of the most visible members of the
Hollywood elite. He attended
Yale University's School of Drama (his granddaughter also attended Yale College where as a senior she was a member of
Manuscript Society, one of the premiere selective senior groups). Kazan's theater credits included directing
A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), two of the plays that made
Tennessee Williams a theatrical and literary force, and
All My Sons (1947) and
Death of a Salesman, (1949) the plays which did much the same for
Arthur Miller.
Kazan's history as a film director is scarcely less noteworthy. He won two
Academy Awards for Best Director, for
Gentleman's Agreement (
1947) and
On the Waterfront (
1954). He elicited remarkable 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), and
Andy Griffith in
A Face in the Crowd.
Kazan's later career was clouded, however, by the fact that he was one of the few Hollywood luminaries who "named names" before the
House Un-American Activities Committee during the postwar "
Red Scare". Some others who named names included
Jerome Robbins,
Sterling Hayden,
Burl Ives, and Lela Rogers (
Ginger's mother).
Kazan had briefly been a member of the
Communist Party in his youth, when working as part of a radical theatre troupe in the
1930s. A committed liberal, Kazan felt betrayed by the atrocities of
Stalin and the ideological rigidity of the Stalinists. He was personally offended when Party functionaries tried to intervene in the artistic decisions of his theater group.
As Kazan later explained, he felt that it was in the best interest of the country and his own liberal beliefs to cooperate with HUAC's anti-communist efforts in order to counter Communists in Hollywood who were co-opting the liberal agenda. American playwrights
Lillian Hellman and
Arthur Miller publicly and bitterly disagreed with Kazan's reasoning.
One of those he named, noted actor
John Garfield, with whom he had worked in the Group Theatre troupe, was investigated by
HUAC, which failed to uncover any corroborating evidence of Communist Party membership. Garfield was nonetheless
blacklisted by Hollywood, ending a promising career, and died the next year, aged, 39 of a sudden heart attack.
In 1967, Kazan published
The Arrangement, a novel about an emotionally-battered middle-aged Greek-American living a double life in
California as both an
advertising executive, under the name "Eddie Andreson", and a serious, muckraking
magazine writer under the name "Evans Arness", neither of which was his birth name, Evangelos Arness. The character's "arrangement" of his life takes a huge toll on him, eventually leading him to a suicide attempt and a nervous breakdown. Critics saw parallels to Kazan's own life, most notably that the character had briefly been a member of the Communist Party prior to World War II and of course, the character's Anatolian Greek background and Americanization of his birth name. Kazan disclaimed any
autobiographical and stated that the novel was a work of fiction, nothing more or less. It served as the basis for his 1969
film of the same name.
In 1999, Kazan received an honorary
Oscar for lifetime achievement. He was accompanied by
Martin Scorsese and
Robert DeNiro who warned the audience
sotto voce not to misbehave. Robert DeNiro himself had appeared in a film about the Hollywood Red Scare. While many in
Hollywood felt that enough time had passed that it was appropriate to bury the hatchet and recognize Kazan's great artistic accomplishments, the decision was nonetheless controversial. Some footage from the 1999 Oscars suggests that fully three-quarters of those present in the audience gave him a standing ovation, including
Lynn Redgrave,
Karl Malden,
Meryl Streep and the very liberal
Warren Beatty (Beatty later said that he was applauding because Kazan had directed him in his first film
Splendor in the Grass, but was not endorsing the decision he made). However, the camera showed individual actors such as
Ed Harris,
Nick Nolte,
Amy Madigan and
Holly Hunter sitting on their hands and refusing to applaud. Others such as
Steven Spielberg and
Sherry Lansing applauded politely but did not rise.
Elia Kazan died of natural causes at his home in
New York. He was 94 years old.
1948: Won Academy Award for Best Director,
Gentlemen's Agreement1955: Won Academy Award for Best Director,
On The Waterfront.
Nominated for
A Streetcar Named Desire,
East of Eden and
America, America.
Also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay (from his own novel) and Best Picture for
America, America.
*
1985 audio interview with Elia Kazan by Don Swaim of CBS Radio - RealAudio*
Article on Kazan and The Last Tycoon*Kazan, Elia,
Elia Kazan: A Life, New York:Knopf, 1988. ISBN 0394559533
*Maslin, Janet,
Assessing Kazan: His Life and Choice (2005)
*Schickel, Richard,
Elia Kazan: A Biography, New York: HarperCollins Pulishers, 2005. ISBN 0-06-019579-7
*Young, Jeff (ed.),
Kazan - The Master Director Discusses His Films: Interviews with Elia Kazan, New York: Newmarket Press, 1999. ISBN 1557043388
*
The Last Tycoon , 1976
*
The Visitors, 1972
*
The Arrangement, 1969
*
America, America, 1963
*
Splendor in the Grass,1961
*
Wild River, 1960
*
A Face in the Crowd, 1957
*
Baby Doll, 1956
*
East of Eden, 1955
*
On the Waterfront, 1954
*
Man on a Tightrope, 1953
*
Viva Zapata!, 1952
*
A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951
*
Panic in the Streets, 1950
*
Pinky, 1949
*
Gentleman's Agreement, 1947
*
Boomerang!, 1947
*
The Sea of Grass, 1947
*
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, 1945
*
The People of Cumberland, 1937
