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.
Arthur Miller: Writer
(Self (archive footage))
An Actor Named Brando
(Self (archive footage))
City for Conquest
('Googi')
Backstory: 'Gentleman's Agreement'
(Self (archive footage))
Blues in the Night
(Nickie Haroyen)
A Letter to Elia
(Self (archive footage))
Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey
(Self)
Elia Kazan: An Outsider
(Self)
Hello Actors Studio
(Self)
Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret
(Self)
Strangers All
(Protester Calling for a Ballot at Communist Meeting)
Inside Rupert Pupkin
(Self (archive footage))
Faye
(Self (archive footage))
A Man Named Brando
(Self)
Mist
(Old man in the coffee house)
Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
(Self - Filmmaker (archive footage))
A New Lifestyle
(Self)
Pie in the Sky
The Screen Director
(Self (archive footage) (uncredited))
Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
(Self (archive footage))
I Am Wanda
(Self)
An American Named Kazan
(Self (archive footage))
Empire City
(Self)
Panic in the Streets
(Cleaver - Mortuary Assistant (uncredited))
A Streetcar in Hollywood
(Self (archive footage))
A Streetcar on Broadway
(Self (archive footage))
Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan and the Blacklist: None Without Sin
(Self (Archive footage))
Life at Any Cost
The Merv Griffin Show
(Self)
The Oscars
(Self)
The Kennedy Center Honors
(Self)
Spécial cinéma
(Self)
Cinépanorama
(Self)
Apostrophes
(Self)
The Dick Cavett Show
(Self - Guest)
Die Drehscheibe
(Self)
East of Eden
(Director)
East of Eden
(Producer)
On the Waterfront
(Director)
A Streetcar Named Desire
(Director)
Viva Zapata!
(Director)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
(Director)
A Face in the Crowd
(Director)
A Face in the Crowd
(Producer)
Panic in the Streets
(Director)
Gentleman's Agreement
(Director)
Baby Doll
(Director)
Splendor in the Grass
(Director)
Splendor in the Grass
(Producer)
America America
(Producer)
Baby Doll
(Producer)
Pinky
(Director)
The Last Tycoon
(Director)
America America
(Director)
America America
(Writer)
The Arrangement
(Writer)
The Arrangement
(Novel)
Boomerang!
(Director)
Wild River
(Director)
The Sea of Grass
(Director)
Man on a Tightrope
(Director)
The Visitors
(Director)
Watchtower Over Tomorrow
(Co-Director)
People of the Cumberland
(Assistant Director)
The Arrangement
(Producer)
The Arrangement
(Director)
Pinky
(Additional Writing)
Wild River
(Producer)
Diaspora
(Writer)