
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.
Personal Info
Gender
Male
Birthday
1909-09-07
Place of Birth
Constantinople, Ottoman Empire [now Istanbul, Turkey]
Images





Cast
Arthur Miller: Writer
20177.1 / 10
An Actor Named Brando
20060.0 / 10
City for Conquest
19406.8 / 10
Backstory: 'Gentleman's Agreement'
20010.0 / 10
Blues in the Night
19416.3 / 10
A Letter to Elia
20106.4 / 10
Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey
19955.8 / 10
Elia Kazan: An Outsider
19825.7 / 10
Hello Actors Studio
19886.0 / 10
Strangers All
19355.5 / 10
Inside Rupert Pupkin
20140.0 / 10
Faye
20246.7 / 10
A Man Named Brando
20060.0 / 10
Mist
19884.7 / 10
Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
20147.3 / 10
A New Lifestyle
19690.0 / 10
Pie in the Sky
19356.4 / 10
The Screen Director
19516.0 / 10
I Am Wanda
19806.0 / 10
An American Named Kazan
20196.0 / 10
Empire City
19859.0 / 10
Panic in the Streets
19506.9 / 10
A Streetcar in Hollywood
20066.5 / 10
A Streetcar on Broadway
20066.5 / 10
Life at Any Cost
19986.5 / 10
East of Eden: Art in Search of Life
20056.0 / 10
Crew
East of Eden
19557.5 / 10
On the Waterfront
19547.9 / 10
A Streetcar Named Desire
19517.6 / 10
Viva Zapata!
19526.9 / 10
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
19457.6 / 10
A Face in the Crowd
19577.6 / 10
Panic in the Streets
19506.9 / 10
Gentleman's Agreement
19476.9 / 10
Baby Doll
19567.1 / 10
Splendor in the Grass
19617.5 / 10
America America
19636.9 / 10
Pinky
19497.1 / 10
The Last Tycoon
19766.3 / 10
The Arrangement
19696.7 / 10
Boomerang!
19477.0 / 10
Wild River
19607.2 / 10
The Sea of Grass
19476.3 / 10
Man on a Tightrope
19536.5 / 10
The Visitors
19726.2 / 10
Watchtower Over Tomorrow
19455.0 / 10
People of the Cumberland
19375.8 / 10
Diaspora
20010.0 / 10