Job Director, actor, producer, screenwriter and novelist
Years active 1934-1976
Known for With Lee Strasberg, introduced Method acting to the American stage and cinema
Top Roles Nickie Haroyen, Cleaver, 'Googi'
Top GenresDrama, Film Adaptation, Romance, Crime, Film Noir, Family
Top TopicsBook-Based, Romance (Drama), True Story (based on)
Top Collaborators , , ,
Shares birthday with Peter Lawford, Roscoe Karns, Cliff Reid  see more..

Elia Kazan Overview:

Legendary director, Elia Kazan, was born Elias Kazanjoglou on Sep 7, 1909 in Constantinople [now Istanbul], Turkey. Kazan died at the age of 94 on Sep 28, 2003 in Manhattan, New York City .

MINI BIO:

Elia Kazan made excellent, and sometimes controversial films, for 17 years and is considered one of American cinema's giants from 1945 to 1961, surviving even the odor that clung to him when he 'named names' to the House Un-American Activities Committee in the early 1950s.

After being brought to America at the age of four, Kazan studied drama at university and acted on and off through the 1930s, working also as a stage manager, and from 1935, a director.  Apart from a couple of documentary films, Kazan continued to build his reputation as a Broadway director until 1944, when Twentieth Century-Fox lured him to Hollywood to make the screen version of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The film premiered in February 1945, won veteran actor James Dunn an Oscar, and won Kazan a place with Fox for the next nine years.

Kazan's early 'problem' films have lost some of their original impact, but Gentleman's Agreement, about racial prejudice, won him an Academy Award for direction and also an Oscar as best picture, while Viva Zapata and On The Waterfront (which won Kazan his second Oscar) both retain much of their original power. And East of Eden and Baby Doll were both smoldering drams that did well with critics and the public. Kazan's next two films, A Face in the Crowd and Wild River did less well at the box-office, although the latter, a bleakly picturesque and oddly affecting drama is considered by some to be his best film. Kazan was married (second of three wives) to actress/director Barbara Loden.

(Source: available at Amazon Quinlan's Film Directors).

HONORS and AWARDS:

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Elia Kazan was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning two for Best Director for Gentleman's Agreement and On the Waterfront in 1947 and 1954 respectively. He also won one Honorary Award in 1998 in recognition of his indelible contributions to the art of motion picture direction .

Academy Awards

YearAwardFilm nameRoleResult
1947Best DirectorGentleman's Agreement (1947)N/AWon
1951Best DirectorA Streetcar Named Desire (1951)N/ANominated
1954Best DirectorOn the Waterfront (1954)N/AWon
1955Best DirectorEast of Eden (1955)N/ANominated
1963Best DirectorAmerica, America (1963)N/ANominated
1963Best WritingAmerica AmericaN/ANominated

Academy Awards (Honorary Oscars)

YearAwardDescription
1998Honorary Awardin recognition of his indelible contributions to the art of motion picture direction

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He was honored with one star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the category of Motion Pictures.

BlogHub Articles:

Wild River (1960): and Monty Clift at Their Most Subtle

By 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 30, 2019 From 4 Star Films

“You’re getting awful human aren’t you Chuck?” ~ Lee Remick as Carol “I was always human, wasn’t I?” ~ Montgomery Clift as Chuck With the mention of the Tennessee Valley Authority and what feels like Depression newsreel footage?suggesting the work they are l... Read full article


Baby Doll (1956): Does Southern Comedy

By 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 24, 2019 From 4 Star Films

had a fairly lucrative partnership with Tennessee Williams and the same could be said of his ongoing working relationship with Karl Malden. It’s fitting that all three are back for Baby Doll and yet it still manages to feel like a bit of an outlier in Kazan’s?oeuvre thus far. ... Read full article


On the Waterfront (1954, )

By Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 3, 2015 From The Stop Button

On the Waterfront is relentlessly grim until the strangest moment in the finale. As the film finally reaches the point of savage, physical violence–it opens with the implication, but not the visualization of such violence–a supporting character (familiar but mostly background) makes a wi... Read full article


On the Waterfront, 1954,

By Aaron West on May 17, 2015 From Criterion Blues

May 17 Posted by aaronwest Waterfront Week was quite an experiment. This is not something I’ve done before but I’ll most likely do it again for important films as they come along. Here are the posts from the week: Kazan Naming Names – This is about ’s experiences w... Read full article


On the Waterfront, 1954,

By Aaron West on May 17, 2015 From Criterion Blues

May 17 Posted by aaronwest Waterfront Week was quite an experiment. This is not something I’ve done before but I’ll most likely do it again for important films as they come along. Here are the posts from the week: Kazan Naming Names – This is about ’s experiences w... Read full article


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Elia Kazan Facts
His selection for an Honorary Oscar angered many in the filmmaking community on account of his being among the first to cooperate with the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in 1952, which led to the blacklisting that ruined many careers in Hollywood because of their political beliefs, and that Kazan had publicly stated that he had no regrets for that action. In response, there were loud protests against his selection for the award and some attendees of the awards ceremony - such as Nick Nolte , Ed Harris - stayed in their seats and refused to applaud when he received the award. However, others both stood and applauded Kazan, such as Warren Beatty, Meryl Streep, Helen Hunt, Karl Malden, Kurt Russell, and Kathy Baker. Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese presented the honorary Oscar to Kazan.

In 1958 he received his fourth nomination for Best Director. He was also nominated that same year in the category of Best Play along with co-producer Arnold Saint Subber. Both nominations were for the play "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs".

Despite having had two cinematic successes with Tennessee Williams works A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and Baby Doll (1956), Kazan did not direct the movie version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), although he won a Tony Award nomination as Best Director for staging Williams' Pultizer Prize-winning play on Broadway. Richard Brooks directed the film. During the play's production, Kazan had had trouble with Williams, and eventually demanded that Williams rewrite the second act of the play to bring Big Daddy back on stage. Williams complied, but had Big Daddy tell what Kazan felt was the equivalent of a dirty joke, possibly out of pique.

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