This is Elia Kazan. He was one of America’s greatest film directors.

He started his
professional life as an actor, working in theatre for eight years. In 1932, he
joined the Group Theatre, where he met Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler – the principle architects of the American
version of the Stanislavski discipline of acting.

Konstantin Stanislavski
In 1947, along with Strasberg, Kazan co-founded
the Actors Studio.

Elia Kazan in front of the Actors Studio in New York City circa 1950s
This was to become America’s premier acting school
developing a variation on Stanislavsky’s ‘method’, a highly naturalistic style
of self-expression in performance. Many of America’s greatest actors, past and
present, have passed through its doors.

Paul Newman in class at the Actors Studio in the 1950s

And Marilyn Monroe around the same time
Kazan had a passion for exposing the social and
personal issues that concerned him. His first film of note in this area was Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) starring Gregory Peck. It dealt
head on with the subtle anti-Semitism in America at the time and received three
Oscars, including Best Director. Later came A
Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Viva Zapata! (1952) and On the Waterfront (1954), all starring Marlon Brando, a
method actor Kazan had nurtured along with the young James Dean, who he
directed in East of Eden (1955). He later directed Warren
Beatty in Splendor in the Grass (1961).

Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire 1951

Marlon Brando in Viva Zapata! 1952

Patricia Neal and Andy Griffith in A Face
in The Crowd 1957

James Dean and Julie Harris in East of Eden
1955

Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty in Splendor
in The Grass 1961
He was very much an actor’s director, drawing
out astonishing performances, 21 of which led to Oscar nominations and 9 wins.
In his own life, Kazan received two best director Oscars for Gentleman’s
Agreement and On the Waterfront.

Gregory Peck in Gentleman’s Agreement 1947

Eva Marie Saint and Marlon Brando in On The
Water Front 1954
But not all revered Kazan. He was heavily
criticised for testifying before the Congressional Committee in 1952. Nicknamed
‘the witch hunt’, it was headed up by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Kazan ‘named
names’ of people and friends who might have little or no connection to the
Communist Party, the dreaded enemy of the United States. Among the people he
named were Lillian Hellman, Dashiell Hammett and Clifford Odets. Many were
blacklisted, destroying their careers and ruining their lives. In 1999, when
Kazan received a lifetime achievement Oscar from the Academy, many of the
audience protested and others refused to clap him on the night.

Kazan reciving his Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 1999
But, for all that, he has left a magnificent
body of films well worth watching.

James Dunn in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 1943
Do look at his earlier A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943), which verges on sentimental
but is a delightful film with a wonderful performance from James Dunn, for
which he won an Oscar.

Peggy Ann Garner in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Haliee Sinfield in the Coen Brothers True Grit 2010, looking remarkably similar to Garner above
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