Elia Kazan

Elia Kazan September 7 1909 Kayseri September 28 2003 was a GreekAmerican 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 cofounded 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 selfexpression 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 actors 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 issuesdriven 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 codirected the documentary film A Letter to Elia as a personal tribute to Kazan who he credits as the inspiration for his becoming a filmmaker