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Elia Kazan
Birthday:
7 September 1909
Birth Name:
Elias Kazancioglu
Height:
173 cm
Biography
[from a letter to John Steinbeck, while casting East of Eden (1955)] I looked through a lot of kids before settling on this [James Dean]. He hasn't [Marlon Brando]'s stature, but he's a good deal younger and is very interesting, has balls and eccentricity and a "real problem" somewhere in his guts, I don't know what or where. He's a little bit of a bum, but ...
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[from a letter to John Steinbeck, while casting East of Eden (1955)] I looked through a lot of kids before settling on this [James Dean]. He hasn't [Marlon Brando]'s stature, but he's a good deal younger and is very interesting, has balls and eccentricity and a "real problem" somewhere in his guts, I don't know what or where. He's a little bit of a bum, but he's a real good actor and I think he's the best of a poor field. Most kids who become actors at 19 or 20 or 21 are very callow and strictly from NY professional school. Dean has got a real mean streak and [a] real sweet streak.
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[on the possibility of casting Paul Newman as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954)] This boy will definitely be a film star. He's just as good looking as [Marlon Brando] and his masculinity, which is strong, is also more actual. He's not as good an actor as Brando yet, and probably will never be. But he's a darn good actor with plenty of power, plenty of...
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[on the possibility of casting Paul Newman as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954)] This boy will definitely be a film star. He's just as good looking as [Marlon Brando] and his masculinity, which is strong, is also more actual. He's not as good an actor as Brando yet, and probably will never be. But he's a darn good actor with plenty of power, plenty of insides, plenty of sex.
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[on the labored introspection demanded of students in Actors Studio workshops] There have been days when I felt like I would swap them all for a gang of wandering players who could dance and sing, and who were, above all else, entertainers.
[on the labored introspection demanded of students in Actors Studio workshops] There have been days when I felt like I would swap them all for a gang of wandering players who could dance and sing, and who were, above all else, entertainers.
Fredric March was as warmhearted and genuine a man as ever lived . . . Poor, blacklisted Freddie was no more a Communist than my cat.
Fredric March was as warmhearted and genuine a man as ever lived . . . Poor, blacklisted Freddie was no more a Communist than my cat.
[at the Group Theater, 1932] I think Franchot Tone takes pleasure in upsetting the chalice of high art here. You can't help admiring him. He's better educated, just plain smarter, than most of the others and has greater curiosity about life and boldness in dealing with his desires. I like him. Perhaps some of the self-righteous members think of Tone as a sin...
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[at the Group Theater, 1932] I think Franchot Tone takes pleasure in upsetting the chalice of high art here. You can't help admiring him. He's better educated, just plain smarter, than most of the others and has greater curiosity about life and boldness in dealing with his desires. I like him. Perhaps some of the self-righteous members think of Tone as a sinner because he wakes the sinner in them . . . Meanwhile, he continues as the chink in their idealism. He does what he wants and isn't a bit docile. He believe in the Group idea but is not sure it's for him; he asks questions. Despite all, the directors admire him. He could burn the place down and still be the white-haired boy. He's the only really top-grade actor here--in my opinion--and that's the problem. I mean, that's their problem, the directors: how to hold people of his talent and temperament while they get rid of three or four duds they've got here who believe! Oh, how those mediocrities believe! Oh, how they listen to Lee Strasberg and nod and smile at his quips. Me, too.
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So it goes in America: great plans in youth, realism at the end.
So it goes in America: great plans in youth, realism at the end.
Lee Strasberg was God almighty, he was always right, only he could tell if an actor had had it--the real thing--or not. To win Lee's favor and the reassurance it would convey was everyone's goal.
Lee Strasberg was God almighty, he was always right, only he could tell if an actor had had it--the real thing--or not. To win Lee's favor and the reassurance it would convey was everyone's goal.
[of Charles Bickford] Men like that will eat a director alive, if he allows it.
[of Charles Bickford] Men like that will eat a director alive, if he allows it.
[on Franchot Tone] He died before he should have and without fulfilling his promise or his hopes.
[on Franchot Tone] He died before he should have and without fulfilling his promise or his hopes.
[on Marlon Brando's performance in On the Waterfront (1954)] If there is a better performance by a man in the history of film in America, I don't know what it is
[on Marlon Brando's performance in On the Waterfront (1954)] If there is a better performance by a man in the history of film in America, I don't know what it is
[on working with Marlon Brando] Every word seemed not something memorized but the spontaneous expression of an inner experience--which is the level of work all actors strive to reach.
[on working with Marlon Brando] Every word seemed not something memorized but the spontaneous expression of an inner experience--which is the level of work all actors strive to reach.
[on Faye Dunaway] Faye carries a cloud of drama round with her. There is something in her at hazard.
[on Faye Dunaway] Faye carries a cloud of drama round with her. There is something in her at hazard.
[on James Cagney] I learned something from Jimmy Cagney--he taught me quite a lot about acting. Jimmy taught me some things about being honest and not overdoing it. He even affected my work with ]Marlon Brando] a little bit. I mean, "Don't show it, just do it."
[on James Cagney] I learned something from Jimmy Cagney--he taught me quite a lot about acting. Jimmy taught me some things about being honest and not overdoing it. He even affected my work with ]Marlon Brando] a little bit. I mean, "Don't show it, just do it."
[on Kirk Douglas] He fits into being an advertising man and a driving, ruthless person better than [Marlon Brando] could have. You would always suspect Brando. Kirk's awfully bright. He's as bright a person as I've met in the acting profession.
[on Kirk Douglas] He fits into being an advertising man and a driving, ruthless person better than [Marlon Brando] could have. You would always suspect Brando. Kirk's awfully bright. He's as bright a person as I've met in the acting profession.
[on John Ford] Orson Welles was once asked which American directors most appealed to him. "The old masters," he replied. "By which I mean John Ford, John Ford and John Ford." Well, I studied Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), for example. As I say, John Ford had a big influence on me.
[on John Ford] Orson Welles was once asked which American directors most appealed to him. "The old masters," he replied. "By which I mean John Ford, John Ford and John Ford." Well, I studied Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), for example. As I say, John Ford had a big influence on me.
[on James Dean] He was sad and sulky. You kept expecting him to cry.
[on James Dean] He was sad and sulky. You kept expecting him to cry.
[on Marlon Brando] He was deeply rebellious against the bourgeois spirit, the over-ordering of life.
[on Marlon Brando] He was deeply rebellious against the bourgeois spirit, the over-ordering of life.
[on Natalie Wood] The quality I remember about her was a kind of sweetness. When her persona fitted the role you couldn't do better. She was it.
[on Natalie Wood] The quality I remember about her was a kind of sweetness. When her persona fitted the role you couldn't do better. She was it.
[on Marlon Brando] To my way of thinking, his performance in On the Waterfront (1954) is the best male performance I've ever seen in my life.
[on Marlon Brando] To my way of thinking, his performance in On the Waterfront (1954) is the best male performance I've ever seen in my life.
[on James Dean] Dean's body was very graphic; it was almost writhing in pain sometimes. He was very twisted, as if he were cringing all the time. Dean was a cripple anyway, inside--he was not like [Marlon Brando]. People compared them, but there was no similarity. He was a far, far sicker kid and Brando's not sick, he's just troubled.
[on James Dean] Dean's body was very graphic; it was almost writhing in pain sometimes. He was very twisted, as if he were cringing all the time. Dean was a cripple anyway, inside--he was not like [Marlon Brando]. People compared them, but there was no similarity. He was a far, far sicker kid and Brando's not sick, he's just troubled.
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan was a Greek-American director, producer, writer and actor. Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He directed a string of successful films, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), and East of Eden (1955). During his career, he won two Oscars as Best Director and received an Honorary Oscar, won three Tony Awards, and four Golden Globes.His films were concerned with personal or social issues of special concern to him. Kazan writes, "I don't move unless I have some empathy with the basic theme." His first such "issue" film was Gentleman's Agreement (1947), with Gregory Peck, which dealt with anti-Semitism in America. It received 8 Oscar nominations and 3 wins, including Kazan's first for Best Director. It was followed by Pinky (1949), one of the first films in mainstream Hollywood to address racial prejudice against black people. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), an adaptation of the stage play which he had also directed, received 12 Oscar nominations, winning 4, and was Marlon Brando's breakthrough role. In 1954, he directed On the Waterfront (1954), a film about union corruption on the New York harbor waterfront. In 1955, he directed John Steinbeck's East of Eden (1955), which introduced James Dean to movie audiences.A turning point in Kazan's career came with his testimony as a witness before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952 at the time of the Hollywood blacklist, which brought him strong negative reactions from many liberal friends and colleagues. His testimony helped end the careers of former acting colleagues Morris Carnovsky and Art Smith, along with ending the work of playwright Clifford Odets. Kazan later justified his act by saying he took "only the more tolerable of two alternatives that were either way painful and wrong." Nearly a half-century later, his anti-Communist testimony continued to cause controversy. When Kazan was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1999, dozens of actors chose not to applaud as 250 demonstrators picketed the event.Kazan influenced the films of the 1950s and '60s with his provocative, issue-driven subjects. Director Stanley Kubrick called him, "without question, the best director we have in America, and capable of performing miracles with the actors he uses."Kazan died in September 28, 2003 at the age of 94.In 2010, Martin Scorsese co-directed the documentary film A Letter to Elia (2010) as a personal tribute to Kazan.
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