Personal Info
Known For:
Directing
Birthday:
September 7, 1909
Place of Birth:
Constantinople, Ottoman Empire [now Istanbul, Turkey]
Social Media
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.
Known For
Filmography
| Year | Movie | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Faye | Self (archive footage) |
| 2019 | An American Named Kazan | Self (archive footage) |
| 2017 | Arthur Miller: Writer | Self (archive footage) |
| 2014 | Inside Rupert Pupkin | Self (archive footage) |
| 2014 | Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire | Self - Filmmaker (archive footage) |
| 2010 | A Letter to Elia | Self (archive footage) |
| 2006 | An Actor Named Brando | Self (archive footage) |
| 2006 | A Man Named Brando | Self |
| 2006 | A Streetcar in Hollywood | Self (archive footage) |
| 2006 | A Streetcar on Broadway | Self (archive footage) |
| 2005 | East of Eden: Art in Search of Life | Himself |
| 2003 | Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan and the Blacklist: None Without Sin | Self (Archive footage) |
| 2001 | Backstory: 'Gentleman's Agreement' | Self (archive footage) |
| 1998 | Life at Any Cost | |
| 1995 | Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey | Self |
| 1994 | Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage | Self (archive footage) |
| 1990 | Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret | Self |
| 1988 | Hello Actors Studio | Self |
| 1988 | Mist | Old man in the coffee house |
| 1985 | Empire City | Self |
| 1982 | Elia Kazan: An Outsider | Self |
| 1980 | I Am Wanda | Self |
| 1969 | A New Lifestyle | Self |
| 1951 | The Screen Director | Self (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| 1950 | Panic in the Streets | Cleaver - Mortuary Assistant (uncredited) |
| 1941 | Blues in the Night | Nickie Haroyen |
| 1940 | City for Conquest | 'Googi' |
| 1935 | Strangers All | Protester Calling for a Ballot at Communist Meeting |
| 1935 | Pie in the Sky |
| Year | TV Show | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1978 | The Kennedy Center Honors | Self |
| 1975 | Apostrophes | Self |
| 1974 | Spécial cinéma | Self |
| 1968 | The Dick Cavett Show | Self - Guest |
| 1964 | Die Drehscheibe | Self |
| 1962 | The Merv Griffin Show | Self |
| 1961 | The Mike Douglas Show | Self |
| 1956 | Cinépanorama | Self |
| 1953 | The Oscars | Self |