Happy Birthday, Elia Kazan! Born today in 1909 as Elias Kazantzoglou, this Greek-American studio co-founder, novelist, actor, screenwriter, producer and director has been described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history".
Kazan was born in the Fener district of Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey).
Kazan was raised in the Greek Orthodox religion, and attended Greek Orthodox services every Sunday, where he had to stand for several hours with his father. His mother read the Holy Bible but did not go to church.
As a young boy, Kazan was remembered as being shy, and his college classmates described him as more of a loner.
Much of his early life was portrayed in his 1962 autobiographical book, America America, which he later made into the titular 1963 American black and white drama film.
In his book, Kazan describes his family as "alienated" from both their parents' Greek Orthodox values and from those of mainstream America.
Kazan's mother's family were cotton merchants who imported cotton from England, and sold it wholesale. His father had become a rug merchant after emigrating to the United States, and expected that
His son would go into the same business.
Kazan wrote of his feature 'America America', "It's my favorite of all the films I've made; the first film that was entirely mine."
Kazan’s reputation has been forever sullied by his involvement with the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
After a stint as a member of the Communist Party of America in the 1930s, Kazan would leave, but his time there would come back to haunt him in 1951.
This was when Senator McCarthy’s hysterical attempt to purge Hollywood of leftists led to the devastation of countless lives and careers.
Kazan’s testified as a ‘friendly witness’ and decided to name the names of his fellow former communists at an HUAC hearing.
The choice set him up for recrimination for the rest of his life; in order to keep his own career, he sold out old friends and colleagues.
Such was the impact of his testimony that many of Kazan’s contemporaries refused to speak to him for the rest of their lives.
In 1952, as an ex-communist, desperate to make more personal movies, he came under pressure to testify at the HUAC.
This was a curse of the age, and the ruin of many careers. But Kazan mattered to HUAC because he was so prominent. Because of this, Kazan testified.
Such controversy inevitably has affected the director’s legacy, particularly at a moment when the religitation of filmmakers’ histories and moral standing is back in focus.
However, Kazan’s flaws can be held side by side with the beauty and paradox of his work, and as two parts of the same whole.
During an interview in 1988, Kazan said, "I did whatever was necessary to get a good performance including so-called Method acting.
I made them run around the set, I scolded them, I inspired jealousy in their girlfriends ... The director is a desperate beast! ... You don't deal with actors as dolls. You deal with them as people who are poets to a certain degree."
Robert De Niro called him a "master of a new kind of psychological and behavioral faith in acting." Kazan, however, held strong ideas about the scenes, and would try to merge an actor's suggestions and inner feelings with his own.
Kazan would be contemptuous when describing his relationship with Loden. In his 1988 autobiographical theatre criticism book Elia Kazan: A Life, Kazan revealed his desire and inability to control her.
Kazan wrote about Loden "with a mix of affection and patronization, emphasizing her sexuality and her backcountry feistiness."
In a "condescending" way, Kazan bemoaned that Loden had depended on her "sexual appeal" to get ahead and that he was afraid of "losing her." But Kazan was also, in his words, "protective" of Loden.
In 1989, 'On the Waterfront' was one of the first 25 films to be deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress ]and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
The following year, Kazan's son, American screenwriter, film producer and director Nicolas Kazan wrote the screenplay for Iranian-born Swiss director and film producer Barbet Schroeder's 1990 American drama/mystery film 'Reversal of Fortune'. It starred Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close.
For the film, Kazan was nominated an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, while Irons won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance.
In 1999, when Kazan received a lifetime achievement award at the 71st Academy Awards, many refused to applaud or even attend the ceremony.
Four years later, Kazan passed from natural causes in his Manhattan apartment in New York City, New York on September 28, 2003. He was 94.
According to Kazan's personal life, he was married three times. His most notable wife was his second, being the American actress and director of film and theater Barbara Loden (m. 1967; died 1980).
In 'Splendor in the Grass', she played the flapper and sexually-promiscuous party girl Ginny Stamper. In the film, she wasBud Stamper's (Warren Beatty) older sister.
Loden is also known for writing (uncredited, co-producing, directing and starring in her 1970 American independent crime/drama film 'Wanda'.
Among Kazan's two granddaughters, the most notable is American actress, playwright, and screenwriter Zoe Kazan. She has been the partner of Paul Dano since 2007.
On AFI's 100 Years... 100 Quotes list, the lines "You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am." ranked it at #3 and "Stella! Hey, Stella!" ranked in at #45.
Kazan's greatest films, if you’ve yet to see them, make for some truly life-changing viewing experiences. He had never made a bad one.
Within his masterpieces of method and melodrama, Kazan had influenced the films of the 1950s and 1960s with his provocative, issue-driven subjects.
Stanley Kubrick called him, "without question, the best director we have in America, [and] capable of performing miracles with the actors he uses."
British non-fiction author and film magazine editor Ian Freer concludes that even "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 one-hour documentary film 'A Letter to Elia' as a personal tribute to Kazan.
In 2016, 'East of Eden' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Kazan was noted for his successes on the stage—especially with plays by Tennessee and Arthur Miller—as well as for his critically acclaimed films and for his role in developing a revolutionary style of acting that embodied psychological and behavioral truth.
With his tender depictions of outsiders in American life – from disaffected dockworkers to the tenement poor to a light-skinned black woman who can pass as white, Kazan remains one of the great filmmakers of mid-century Hollywood.
With his deeply sensitive direction of actors, he first brought Marlon Brando and James Dean to our screens, created some of the most memorable screen moments of Hollywood history, and helped found the Actor’s Studio in 1947.
Kazan influenced the films of the 1950s and 1960s with his provocative, issue-driven subjects. Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he had directed twenty-one actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. Kazan had also directed a string of successful films.
Kazan had been active from 1934–1976.
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