Elia Kazan

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Elia Kazan

Born: 7 September 1909
İstanbul, Turkey
Died: 28 September 2003
New York, United States
Occupation: Film and theatre director and producer.

Elia Kazan, (Greek Ηλίας Καζάν), (September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American film and theatre director and producer.

Contents

[edit] Biography

He was born Elias Kazanjoglou in Istanbul (according to some sources Kayseri),capital of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey) in 1909 to Greek parents of Greek origin.[1][2] His first name is pronounced ['iliɑ] using IPA pronunciation. He became one of the most visible members of the Hollywood elite. He attended Yale University's School of Drama. Kazan's theater credits included directing A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) 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.

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.

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 included Jerome Robbins, Sterling Hayden, Burl Ives, Budd Schulberg and Lela Rogers (Ginger's mother).

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 was nonetheless subpoenaed. Garfield refused to provide corroborative testimony about his wife or others, and was subsequently blacklisted by Hollywood, ending a promising film career. He died the next year, aged 39.

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 and particularly the left wing in Hollywood, and this 'reverse blacklist', along with disputes with studio management, may have contributed to a premature end to his Hollywood career. 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
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Kazan in 1967

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.

In 1999, Kazan received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement. He was accompanied by Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro who warned the audience sotto voce not to misbehave. Robert DeNiro 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. Many left-leaning Hollywood celebrities expressed outrage, and one former blacklisted writer stated that he wished Kazan would be shot onstage.[1] 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 of a younger generation, such as Ed Harris, Nick Nolte, Sophia Loren, Irene Papas, 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.

Elia Kazan died of natural causes at his home in New York. He was 94 years old.

[edit] Awards

[edit] Related Links

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/1999/cyb19990322.asp] "Some Rude to Kazan"

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

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

[edit] Filmography

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
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