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.

Filmography

• 2019The Making of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
• 2001Diaspora — Writer
• 1998Life at Any Cost
• 1988Mist — Old man in the coffee house
• 1976The Last Tycoon — Director
• 1972The Visitors — Director
• 1969The Arrangement — Novel, Writer, Producer, Director
• 1963America America — Producer, Director, Writer
• 1961Splendor in the Grass — Producer, Director
• 1960Wild River — Director, Producer
• 1957A Face in the Crowd — Producer, Director
• 1956Baby Doll — Director, Producer
• 1955East of Eden — Producer, Director
• 1954On the Waterfront — Director
• 1953Man on a Tightrope — Director
• 1952Viva Zapata! — Director
• 1951A Streetcar Named Desire — Director
• 1950Panic in the Streets — Cleaver - Mortuary Assistant (uncredited), Director
• 1949Pinky — Director, Additional Writing
• 1947Boomerang! — Director
• 1947Gentleman's Agreement — Director
• 1947The Sea of Grass — Director
• 1945A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — Director
• 1945Watchtower Over Tomorrow — Co-Director
• 1941Blues in the Night — Nickie Haroyen
• 1940City for Conquest — 'Googi'
• 1937People of the Cumberland — Assistant Director
• 1935Pie in the Sky
• 1935Strangers All — Protester Calling for a Ballot at Communist Meeting

Appearances as themselves (33)

• 2019An American Named Kazan — Self (archive footage)
• 2017Arthur Miller: Writer — Self (archive footage)
• 2015Listen to Me Marlon — Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
• 2014Inside Rupert Pupkin — Self (archive footage)
• 2014Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire — Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
• 2010A Letter to Elia — Self (archive footage)
• 2006A Man Named Brando — Self
• 2006A Streetcar in Hollywood — Self (archive footage)
• 2006A Streetcar on Broadway — Self (archive footage)
• 2006An Actor Named Brando — Self (archive footage)
• 2005East of Eden: Art in Search of Life — Self
• 2005James Dean: Forever Young — Self (archive footage)
• 2003Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan and the Blacklist: None Without Sin — Self (Archive footage)
• 2001Backstory: 'Gentleman's Agreement' — Self (archive footage)
• 1995Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey — Self
• 1994Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage — Self (archive footage)
• 1990Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret — Self
• 1988Hello Actors Studio — Self
• 1985Empire City — Self
• 1982Elia Kazan: An Outsider — Self
• 1982Natalie - A Tribute to a Very Special Lady — Self
• 1980I Am Wanda — Self
• The Kennedy Center Honors — Self
• Apostrophes — Self
• Spécial cinéma — Self
• 1969A New Lifestyle — Self
• The Dick Cavett Show — Self - Guest
• Die Drehscheibe — Self
• The Merv Griffin Show — Self
• The Mike Douglas Show — Self
• Cinépanorama — Self
• The Oscars — Self
• 1951The Screen Director — Self (archive footage) (uncredited)