Elia Kazan

Elia Kazan
File:Elia Kazan.jpg
Birth name:	Elias Kazanjoglou
Date of birth:	September 7 1909(1909-09-07)
Birth location:	Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Date of death:	September 28 2003 (aged 94)
Death location:	New York, US
Academy Awards:	Best Director 1947 Gentleman's Agreement 1954 On the Waterfront Academy Honorary Award 1999 Lifetime Achievement
Spouse:	Molly Day Thatcher (1932-1963) Barbara Loden (1967-1980) Frances Rudges (1982-2003)

Elia Kazan, (Greek: Ηλίας Καζάν), (September 7 1909 – September 28 2003) was a Greek-American film and theatre director, film and theatrical producer, screenwriter, novelist and cofounder of the influential Actors Studio in New York in 1947.

Kazan collaborated with Arthur Miller in creating Miller's best work and went on to direct it, especially Death of a Salesman, with Lee J. Cobb in the leading role in the first Broadway run of the show. This show garnered enthusiastic reviews, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1949, the 1949 Tony Award for Best Play, as well as the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play. Death of a Salesman was the first play to win these three major awards. It also won Kazan the Tony Award for Best Direction, and it ran for 742 performances.

Kazan directed Marlon Brando in both the theater and film versions of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire—those performances by Brando are two of the most electric and stunning and inflential performances in the entire history of American theater and film. Kazan went on to direct James Dean (in East of Eden) and Marlon Brando again in On the Waterfront.

Kazan won two Academy Awards for Best Director, for Gentlemen's Agreement, 1947, and On The Waterfront, 1954; he also received a controversial Academy Honorary Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1999.

Early life

Elia Kazan was born Elias Kazanjoglou in 1909 in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul, Turkey), then capital of the Ottoman Empire, to a Greek family. According to some sources he was born in the Anatolian city of Kayseri. Suffering the prejudice of being Greek, from the newly formed government of the Young Turks, his family emigrated to the United States in 1913—a story partly told in Kazan's book America, America and the movie by the same title based on it; Kazan called this his favorite of all his films. The family settled in New York City, where his father, George Kazanjoglou, became a rug merchant. Kazan's father expected that his son would go into the family business, but his mother, Athena, 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 received his nickname 'Gadg,' short for Gadget, given to him partly because of his short height—he never learned to love the name, and sometimes spoke resentfully of it. For about 19 months in 1934-36, Kazan was a member of a secret Communist cell.

Theatrical career

He became one of the most visible members of the Hollywood elite. Kazan's theater credits included acting in Men in White, Waiting for Lefty, Johnny Johnson, and Golden Boy, and directing 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, and 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

Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

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.

HUAC controversy

Kazan's later career was marked by his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) during the postwar "Red Scare", in which he "named names." Some others who named names, for a variety of reasons, included Jerome Robbins, Robert Taylor, Sterling Hayden, Leo Townsend, Burl Ives, Budd Schulberg and Lela Rogers (mother of Ginger Rogers).

Kazan had briefly been a member of the Communist Party in his youth, when working as part of a theater troupe, the Group Theater, in the 1930s. At the time, the Group Theater included several theater professionals who had Communist or other left-wing sympathies. A committed Socialist, Kazan felt betrayed by Stalin's atrocities and the ideological rigidity of Communists in general. He was personally offended when Party functionaries tried to intervene in the artistic decisions of his theater group.

At first, although Kazan agreed to testify before HUAC, and readily admitted his former membership in the Communist Party, he refused to name others who had been members. But Kazan felt increasing pressure from Hollywood studio management to cooperate with the Committee and provided the names of former Party members or those connected with Party activities, in order to preserve his career.

He knew that the names were already known to the Committee, since HUAC had already obtained copies of Communist Party membership archives, and that his testimony would be used primarily to increase media attention. After a delay, during which he asked for and received permission to release the names of former members of the Party, he was recalled to testify, and at the second examination Kazan provided testimony to the Committee.

The 'naming of names' by some in Hollywood was used as a tactic by HUAC to validate the Committee's actions and galvanize reaction against those who were merely friends or relations of the accused, so-called fellow travelers. One of those named as being a Party member was the wife of noted actor John Garfield, with whom Kazan had worked in the Group Theatre troupe, and who was being investigated by HUAC. HUAC failed to uncover any evidence of Communist Party membership by Garfield himself, but Garfield was nonetheless subpoenaed.

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. Kazan felt no allegiance to Communism, and had been disillusioned by the Soviet Union's brutal record of murder and repression during Stalin's Purges, and the Polish massacres of World War II. He still resented the Party's attempt to force their agenda on him during his theatre group days. American playwrights Lillian Hellman and Arthur Miller publicly and bitterly disagreed with Kazan's reasoning. Ironically, though Kazan testified to HUAC under threat of ostracism and blacklisting by the Hollywood studios, he was in turn shunned and ostracized by many of his former friends. Always a confirmed liberal and progressive, even socialist in his political outlook, Kazan now found himself hated by the left, yet mistrusted by many on the right. Some have perceived elements of Kazan's own reaction to his critics in the film On the Waterfront.

Kazan in 1967

The life of a Greek-American

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 elements 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.

Honorary Award

In 1999, Kazan received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement. He was accompanied by Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro who warned the audience sotto voce not to misbehave. Robert De Niro himself had appeared in a film about the Hollywood Red Scare. 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. Some Hollywood celebrities expressed outrage, and former blacklisted writer Abraham Polonsky stated that he wished Kazan would be shot onstage. 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 footage also showed actors such as Ed Harris, Nick Nolte, Ian McKellen, Richard Dreyfuss, Amy Madigan, Ed Begley, Jr. and Holly Hunter sitting on their hands or refusing to applaud. Still others, such as Steven Spielberg and Sherry Lansing applauded politely, but did not rise.

Personal life

Elia Kazan was married three times. His first wife was Molly Day Thacher, playwright; married from 1932 until her death in 1963, this marriage produced two daughters and two sons. His second wife was Barbara Loden, actress; married from 1969 until her death in 1980, this marriage produced two sons. Finally, he was married to Frances Rudge from 1982 until his death in 2003 from natural causes at his home in New York. He was 94 years old. Constance Dowling had been involved in a long affair with him while in New York. He couldn't bring himself to leave his first wife and the affair ended when Dowling went to Hollywood under contract to Goldwyn.

Awards and nominations

Academy awards

• 1948: Won Academy Award for Best Director, Gentleman's Agreement
• 1955: Won Academy Award for Best Director, On the Waterfront.
• Nominated for Best Director, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), East of Eden (1956) and America, America (1963).
• Also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay (from his own novel) and Best Picture for America, America (1963).

Cannes film festival

• 1952: Nominated for Grand Prize of the Festival, Viva Zapata! (1952)
• 1955: Won Best Dramatic Film, East of Eden (1955), nominated for Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) East of Eden (1955)
• 1972: Nominated for Palme d'Or, The Visitors (1972)

Venice film festival

• 1948: Nominated for Golden Lion (Leone d'Oro), Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
• 1950: Won International Award, Panic in the Streets (1950)
• 1950: Nominated for Golden Lion, Panic in the Streets (1950)
• 1951: Won Special Jury Prize, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), " For having produced a stage play on screen, poetically interpreting the humanity of the characters, thanks to masterly direction."
• 1951: Nominated for Golden Lion, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
• 1954: Won Italian Film Critics Award, On the Waterfront (1954)
• 1954: Won Silver Lion, On the Waterfront (1954)
• 1954: Nominated Golden Lion, On the Waterfront (1954)
• 1955: Won OCIC Award, On the Waterfront (1954)

Filmography

• The People of the Cumberland (1937) (short subject)
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
• Watchtower Over Tomorrow (1945) (short subject) (uncredited)
• The Sea of Grass (1947)
• Boomerang! (1947)
• Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
• Pinky (1949)
• Panic in the Streets (1950)
• A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
• Viva Zapata! (1952)
• Man on a Tightrope (1953)
• On the Waterfront (1954)
• East of Eden (1955)
• Baby Doll (1956)
• A Face in the Crowd (1957)
• Wild River (1960)
• Splendor in the Grass (1961)
• America, America (1963)
• The Arrangement (1969)
• The Visitors (1972)
• The Last Tycoon (1976)

Bibliography

• America America (1963)
• The Arrangement (1967)
• The Assassins (1972)
• The Understudy (1975)
• Kazan Reader' (1977)
• Acts of Love (1978)
• The Anatolian (1983)
• Elia Kazan: A Life (1988)

Awards
Preceded by: William Wyler for The Best Years of Our Lives	Academy Award for Best Director 1947 for Gentleman's Agreement	Succeeded by: John Huston for Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Preceded by: Fred Zinnemann for From Here to Eternity	Academy Award for Best Director 1954 for On the Waterfront	Succeeded by: Delbert Mann for Marty

See also

• Actors Studio
• Group Theatre (New York)

Further reading

• Kazan, Elia (1988). Elia Kazan: A Life. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0-394-55953-3. 
• Schickel, Richard (2005). Elia Kazan: A Biography. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-019579-7. 
• (1999) in Young, Jeff: Kazan - The Master Director Discusses His Films: Interviews with Elia Kazan. New York: Newmarket Press. ISBN 1-55704-338-8. 

External links

• Elia Kazan at the Internet Movie Database
• Elia Kazan at the Internet Broadway Database
• 1985 audio interview with Elia Kazan by Don Swaim of CBS Radio - RealAudio
• Assessing Kazan: His Life and Choice (NYT Books of the Times)

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