Elia Kazan

Elia Kazan

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.

Faye
2024
Self (archive footage)
An American Named Kazan
2019
Self (archive footage)
Arthur Miller: Writer
2017
Self (archive footage)
Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
2014
Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
A Letter to Elia
2010
Self (archive footage)
An Actor Named Brando
2006
Self (archive footage)
A Streetcar in Hollywood
2006
Self (archive footage)
A Streetcar on Broadway
2006
Self (archive footage)
Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan and the Blacklist: None Without Sin
2003
Self (Archive footage)
Backstory: 'Gentleman's Agreement'
2001
Self (archive footage)
Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey
1995
Self
Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
1994
Self (archive footage)
Hello Actors Studio
1988
Self
Mist
1988
Old man in the coffee house
Empire City
1985
Self
Elia Kazan: An Outsider
1982
Self
I Am Wanda
1980
Self
The Last Tycoon
1976
Director
The Visitors
1972
Director
The Arrangement
1969
Novel
America America
1963
Producer
Splendor in the Grass
1961
Producer
Wild River
1960
Director
A Face in the Crowd
1957
Producer
Baby Doll
1956
Director
East of Eden
1955
Producer
On the Waterfront
1954
Director
Man on a Tightrope
1953
Director
Viva Zapata!
1952
Director
A Streetcar Named Desire
1951
Director
Panic in the Streets
1950
Director
Pinky
1949
Director
Gentleman's Agreement
1947
Director
Boomerang!
1947
Director
The Sea of Grass
1947
Director
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
1945
Director
Watchtower Over Tomorrow
1945
Co-Director
Blues in the Night
1941
Nickie Haroyen
City for Conquest
1940
'Googi'
Strangers All
1935
Protester Calling for a Ballot at Communist Meeting