John Nicholas Cassavetes December 9 1929 February 3 1989 was an American actor film director and screenwriter First known as an actor on television and in film Cassavetes also became a pioneer of American independent cinema writing and directing movies financed in part with income from his acting work AllMovie called him an iconoclastic maverick while The New Yorker suggested that he may be the most influential American director of the last half century As an actor Cassavetes starred in notable Hollywood films throughout the 1950s and 1960s including Edge of the City 1957 The Dirty Dozen 1967 and Rosemarys Baby 1968 He began his directing career with the 1959 independent feature Shadows and followed with independent productions such as Faces 1968 Husbands 1970 A Woman Under the Influence 1974 Opening Night 1977 and Love Streams 1984 in addition to intermittent studio work Cassavetes films employed an actorcentered approach which privileged character examination over traditional Hollywood storytelling or stylized production values His films became associated with an improvisational cinéma vérité aesthetic He collaborated frequently with a rotating group of friends crew members and actors including his wife Gena Rowlands Peter Falk Ben Gazzara and Seymour Cassel For his role in The Dirty Dozen Cassavetes received a Best Supporting Actor nomination As a filmmaker he was nominated for Best Original Screenplay for Faces 1968 and Best Director for A Woman Under the Influence 1974 Description from the Wikipedia article John Cassavetes licensed under CCBYSA
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