Elia Kazan: the story on HearLore

Elia Kazan

Elias Kazantzoglou, the name that would eventually become Elia Kazan, was born in the Kadıköy district of Constantinople on the 7th of September 1909, into a family of Cappadocian Greek parents who had fled the turmoil of Anatolia. His father, George, was a rug merchant, and his mother, Athena, came from a family of cotton merchants who had imported goods from England. The family's surname, Kazantzoglou, translates from Turkish as pot maker son, a reminder of the humble trade that had once defined their lineage. In 1913, the family made a perilous journey to the United States, arriving on the 8th of July, after a harrowing escape that Kazan would later dramatize in his autobiographical film America America. He described how his uncle, Avraam Elia, had taken the family's wealth, which was loaded onto the back of a donkey, and traveled to Istanbul to bring the rest of the family to America. The uncle lost the money on the way and ended up sweeping rugs in a small store, a stark contrast to the American dream that awaited them. Kazan grew up in New Rochelle, New York, where he attended a Catholic catechism school because there was no Orthodox church nearby, a detail that highlighted the alienation his family felt from both their Greek Orthodox values and mainstream American society. He was a shy boy, often characterized by his college classmates as a loner, and he earned the nickname Gadg, for Gadget, because he was small, compact, and handy to have around. This early life of displacement and the struggle to find a place in a new world would later fuel his artistic drive and his deep empathy for the marginalized and the outcast.

The Group Theatre And The Method

In 1932, after spending two years at the Yale School of Drama, Kazan moved to New York City to become a professional stage actor, joining the Group Theatre, a collective of actors and directors who were dedicated to presenting plays with deep social and political messages. It was within this group that he found his first strong sense of self, discovering a family of radical social and cultural movements that would shape his entire career. He studied singing with Lucia Dunham at the Juilliard School and worked as a bartender at various fraternities, never joining one, but finding a home in the Group Theatre. His first national success came as a New York theatrical director, and he surprised many critics by becoming one of the Group's most capable actors, playing the role of a strike-leading taxi driver in Clifford Odets' Waiting for Lefty, a performance that was called dynamic and led some to label him the proletarian thunderbolt. The Group Theatre's summer rehearsal headquarters was at Pine Brook Country Club in Nichols, Connecticut, where Kazan worked alongside numerous other artists, including Harry Morgan, John Garfield, Luise Rainer, Frances Farmer, Will Geer, Howard da Silva, Clifford Odets, Lee J. Cobb, and Irwin Shaw. It was here that he discovered his first strong sense of self, and more loosely in the radical social and cultural movements of the time. He also praised Lee Strasberg as a vital leader of the Group, and later, along with Robert Lewis and Cheryl Crawford, he co-founded the Actors Studio in 1947, which introduced Method Acting under the direction of Lee Strasberg. This method, an umbrella term for a constellation of systemizations of Konstantin Stanislavski's teachings, became the predominant system of post-World War II Hollywood, and Kazan would go on to direct two of the Studio's protégés, Karl Malden and Marlon Brando, in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire.

When and where was Elia Kazan born?

Elia Kazan was born in the Kadıköy district of Constantinople on the 7th of September 1909. He was born into a family of Cappadocian Greek parents who had fled the turmoil of Anatolia.

What films did Elia Kazan direct that won Academy Awards?

Elia Kazan directed Gentleman's Agreement in 1947 which won three Oscars including Best Director. He also directed On the Waterfront in 1954 which won eight Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director.

Why did Elia Kazan testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952?

Elia Kazan testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952 after being called under oath to identify Communists from his time in the Communist Party USA between 1934 and 1936. He eventually named eight former Group Theatre members and published an ad in the New York Times explaining his reasons for naming names.

Who were the actors that Elia Kazan gave their first major movie roles to?

Elia Kazan gave actors such as Lee Remick, Jo Van Fleet, Warren Beatty, Andy Griffith, Eva Marie Saint, James Dean and Jack Palance their first major movie roles. He also directed Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire which was Brando's breakthrough role.

When did Elia Kazan die and what was his birth name?

Elia Kazan died in 2003 and his birth name was Elias Kazantzoglou. He was born in 1909 and passed away in 2003 after a career spanning from the 1930s to the 1970s.

The James Dean Connection

After the success of On the Waterfront, Kazan went on to direct another screen adaptation of a John Steinbeck novel, East of Eden in 1955, starring James Dean, who was an unknown actor at the time. Kazan had seen Dean on stage in New York and after an audition gave him the starring role along with an exclusive contract with Warner Bros. Dean flew back to Los Angeles with Kazan in 1954, the first time he had ever flown in a plane, bringing his clothes in a brown paper bag. The film's success introduced James Dean to the world and established him as a popular actor, and he went on to star in Rebel Without a Cause in 1955, directed by Kazan's friend Nicholas Ray, and then Giant in 1956, directed by George Stevens. Author Douglas Rathgeb recounts the difficulties Kazan had in turning Dean into a new star, noting how Dean was a controversial figure at Warner Bros. from the time he arrived. There were rumors that he kept a loaded gun in his studio trailer, that he drove his motorcycle dangerously down studio streets or sound stages, and that he had bizarre and unsavory friends. As a result, Kazan was forced to baby-sit the young actor in side-by-side trailers, so he would not run away during production. Co-star Julie Harris worked overtime to quell Dean's panic attacks, and in general, Dean was oblivious to Hollywood's methods, and Rathgeb notes that his radical style did not mesh with Hollywood's corporate gears. Dean was amazed at his own performance on screen when he later viewed a rough cut of the film, and Kazan had invited director Nicholas Ray to a private showing, with Dean, as Ray was looking for someone to play the lead in Rebel Without a Cause. Ray watched Dean's powerful acting on the screen, but it seemed impossible that it was the same person in the room. Ray felt Dean was shy and totally withdrawn as he sat there hunched over, and Dean himself did not seem to believe it, watching himself with an odd, almost adolescent fascination, as if he were admiring someone else. The film also made good use of on-location and outdoor scenes, along with effective use of early widescreen format, making the film one of Kazan's most accomplished works. James Dean died the following year, at the age of 24, in an accident with his sports car about 200 miles north of Los Angeles, and he had only made three films, and the only completed film he ever saw was East of Eden.

The HUAC Testimony And The Blacklist

A turning point in Kazan's career came with his testimony as a friendly witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952 at the height of the Hollywood blacklist. When Kazan was in his mid-20s in the Depression years 1934 to 1936, he had been a member of the Communist Party USA, and in April 1952, the HUAC called on him, under oath, to identify Communists from that period 16 years earlier. Kazan initially refused to provide names, but eventually named eight former Group Theatre members who he said had been Communists: Clifford Odets, J. Edward Bromberg, Lewis Leverett, Morris Carnovsky, Phoebe Brand, Tony Kraber, Ted Wellman, and Paula Miller, who later married Lee Strasberg. He testified that Odets quit the party at the same time he did, and Kazan alleged that all the persons named were already known to the HUAC, although this has been contested. He later acknowledged that he received a letter detailing how his naming of Art Smith damaged the actor's career. Kazan's naming names cost him many friends within the film industry, including playwright Arthur Miller, although Kazan notes the two did work together again. In his book How We Forgot the Cold War in 2012, historian Jon Wiener wrote that lots of people named names, but Kazan went further than any of them, when, two days later after his April 1952 testimony, he took out an ad in the New York Times explaining his reasons for naming names and urging others to follow his example. In his large, defiant ad entitled A STATEMENT by Elia Kazan, the director briefly chronicled his 1934, 1936 experiences in the Communist Party, and then he wrote that his time in the Party left him with the passionate conviction that they must never let the Communists get away with the pretense that they stand for the very things which they kill in their own countries. Decades later in his memoirs, he still struck a defiant tone when describing his warrior pleasure at withstanding his enemies, who judged him for giving names to the HUAC, and he also insisted that despite the snubs he received, he felt no lingering guilt, stating that there's a normal sadness about hurting people, but he'd rather hurt them a little than hurt himself a lot.

The Controversial Legacy And The Honorary Oscar

Nearly a half-century later, his 1952 HUAC testimony continued to cause controversy, and when Kazan was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1999, dozens of actors chose not to applaud as 250 demonstrators picketed the event. The audience was noticeably divided in their reaction, with some, including Jack Nicholson, Nick Nolte, Ed Harris, Ian McKellen, Frank Langella and Amy Madigan, refusing to applaud, and others, such as actors Kathy Bates, Meryl Streep, Karl Malden, Debbie Allen, and Warren Beatty, and producer George Stevens Jr., standing and applauding. Stevens speculates on why he, Beatty, and many others in the audience chose to stand and applaud, and in an interview for the Associated Press, actor Liam Neeson said that they were honoring an extraordinary artist, period. Director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro presented the award to Kazan, whom he thanked in his acceptance speech, and he ended by saying that he wanted to thank them all very much, and he thought he could just slip away. In 1982, Orson Welles was asked a question about Kazan at the Cinémathèque française in Paris, and Welles replied that Elia Kazan is a traitor, a man who sold to McCarthy all his companions at a time when he could continue to work in New York at high salary, and having sold all his people to McCarthy, he then made a film called On the Waterfront which was a celebration of the informer. While the audience applauded, Welles said that he had to add that he is a very good director. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan wrote that the only criterion for an award like this is the work, and Kazan was already denied accolades from the American Film Institute and other film critics' associations. According to Mills, it's time for the Academy to recognize this genius, adding that they applauded when the great Chaplin finally had his hour. In response, Joseph McBride, former vice president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, claimed that an honorary award recognizes the totality of what he represents, and Kazan's career, post 1952, was built on the ruin of other people's careers. In subsequent interviews, Kazan explained some of the early events that made him decide to become a friendly witness, most notably in relation to the Group Theatre, which he called his first family, and the best thing professionally that ever happened to him.

The Actor's Director And The Final Years

Kazan was noted for his close collaboration with screenwriters, and on Broadway, he worked with Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and William Inge, and in film, he worked again with Williams, Inge, Budd Schulberg, John Steinbeck, and Harold Pinter. As an instrumental figure in the careers of many of the best writers of his time, he always treated them and their work with the utmost respect. In 2009, a previously unproduced screenplay by Williams, The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, was released as a film, and Williams wrote the screenplay specifically for Kazan to direct during the 1950s. Among Kazan's other films were Panic in the Streets in 1950, East of Eden in 1955, Baby Doll in 1956, Wild River in 1960, and The Last Tycoon in 1976. Williams became one of Kazan's closest and most loyal friends, and Kazan often pulled Williams out of creative slumps by redirecting his focus with new ideas. In 1959, in a letter to Kazan, he wrote that some day you will know how much I value the great things you did with my work, how you lifted it above its measure by your great gift. Kazan strove for cinematic realism, a quality he often achieved by discovering and working with unknown actors, many of whom treated him as their mentor, which gave him the flexibility to depict social reality with both accuracy and vivid intensity. He also felt that casting the right actors accounted for 90% of a movie's ultimate success or failure, and as a result of his efforts, he also gave actors such as Lee Remick, Jo Van Fleet, Warren Beatty, Andy Griffith, Eva Marie Saint, James Dean and Jack Palance their first major movie roles. He explained to director and producer George Stevens Jr. that he felt that big stars are barely trained or not very well trained, and they also have bad habits, and they're not pliable anymore. Kazan also describes how and why he gets to know his actors on a personal level, and as an example, he recalled during an interview how he came to understand James Dean. He held strong ideas about the scenes and would try to merge an actor's suggestions and inner feelings with his own, and despite the strong eroticism created in Baby Doll, for example, he set limits. Before shooting a seduction scene between Eli Wallach and Carroll Baker, he privately asked Wallach, Do you think you actually go through with seducing that girl? Wallach writes that he hadn't thought about that question before, but he answered No, and Kazan replies, Good idea, play it that way. Kazan's need to remain close to his actors continued up to his last film, The Last Tycoon in 1976, and he remembered that Robert De Niro, the star of the film, would do almost anything to succeed, and even cut his weight down from 170 to 128 pounds for the role. Kazan adds that Bobby is one of a select number of actors I've directed who work hard at their trade, and the only one who asked to rehearse on Sundays. Most of the others play tennis, and Bobby and I would go over the scenes to be shot.