Director Elia Kazan dies at 94

Elia Kazan (who was borned in Turkey) I read his autobiography "A Life" years ago.

Flashes of sudden insight or eloquence keep the reader turning the pages of Kazan's garrulous 864-page autobiography. The famous director, now 78, apparently wanted it all: comfortable domesticity (provided by three wives) and a bachelor's sexual freedom. An ambitious Anatolian of Greek ancestry craving acceptance in America, a bourgeois adventurer, a truth-teller and wearer of masksthese paradoxes in his own character are the driving force of his life and career. Kazan, an ex-Communist, makes no apologies for his agonizing decision to name names before the House Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy era. Focusing on Death of a Salesman, America, America and many other plays and films he directed, his expansive memoir includes cutting portraits of Lillian Hellman and Arthur Miller, as well as glimpses of Odets, Cagney, Bankhead, Monroe, Brando, Goldwyn, dozens more. Kazan is candid about his own flaws and generous in his assessment of others. (from Publishers Weekly)

The first Elia Kazan film I remember wathing was: America America and Viva Zapata

The stage and film director Elia Kazan, who has died aged 94, had outlived so many friends and enemies; yet there are actors everywhere working towards a mystery he did so much to define. He had helped found the Actors' Studio and whole scheme of psychological naturalism; he had directed the first stage productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and Death of a Salesman: he had made movies like Viva Zapata!, On the Waterfront and East of Eden; he was a father-figure to Brando, Dean, Clift, Steiger, Beatty.

The quote above is from Guardian.co.uk: Obituary-Elia Kazan You can read more about him in Reel Classics.

Posted by Fikirbaz at October 1, 2003 12:14 AM

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