Elia Kazan

His father sold rugs in Manhattan and expected his son to sell them too. The family had come out of Kayseri in Anatolia to Constantinople and then, on July 8, 1913, to New York, where Elias Kazantzoglou was four years old and spoke Turkish. He got out by working — waiting tables and washing dishes through Williams College, graduating cum laude, picking up the name Gadg, short for Gadget, because he was small and handy to have around. Two years at the Yale drama school followed, then the Group Theatre in 1932, where Lee Strasberg and Harold Clurman told him after one summer that he might have talent for something, but not for acting.

Then he directed nearly everything that mattered. The Skin of Our Teeth in 1942, A Streetcar Named Desire in December 1947, Death of a Salesman 14 months later — the two plays that fixed how American theatre sounded at midcentury were both his. He founded the Actors Studio in 1947 with Robert Lewis and Cheryl Crawford. He won the Best Director Oscar twice. He gave Marlon Brando the part of Stanley Kowalski and James Dean his first starring role. Actors he directed took 24 Academy Award nominations and won nine. None of that is what he is argued about.

He had been a Communist from 1934 to 1936 and left after the Party tried him for refusing to organize a strike inside the Group Theatre. The humiliation stayed with him. Called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in executive session on January 14, 1952, he named nobody. On April 10 he went back and named eight former Group members, among them Clifford Odets, Morris Carnovsky, Phoebe Brand and Paula Miller. Two days later he took out an advertisement in the New York Times urging others to do the same. Careers ended. He argued to the end of his life that the Party had been a tyranny over its members and that he would not surrender his work for people he had come to despise. His critics answered that he informed to keep a career he could have survived losing.

Two years after he testified he made On the Waterfront, in which a dockworker informs on his union and the film treats him as a hero for it. Budd Schulberg, who wrote it, had named names in 1951. Defenders and critics alike have read the picture as self-justification — Orson Welles called it a celebration of the informer — while Kazan said only that every film he made was autobiographical in some way. It won eight Oscars. On March 21, 1999, the Academy gave him an honorary award. Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro presented it. Karl Malden and Meryl Streep stood. Nick Nolte, Ed Harris and Amy Madigan kept their seats, and 250 people picketed outside.

Elia Kazan's life against the full span of the corpus.

• Gentleman's Agreement film
  His first Best Director Oscar 1947
• A Streetcar Named Desire (Broadway) other
  The original production, with Brando as Stanley Kowalski 1947
• Death of a Salesman (Broadway) other
  Won him the Tony Award for direction 1949
• On the Waterfront film
  Eight Academy Awards, and the film his testimony is read into 1954
• East of Eden film
  James Dean's first starring role and the only finished film he saw 1955
• Elia Kazan: A Life book
  The autobiography, unrepentant about 1952 1988

• July 8, 1913 aged 3 Arrives in New York at four, a Greek child out of Constantinople His father, a rug merchant, had gone ahead and sent for the family.
• 1932 aged ~23 Joins the Group Theatre after two years at the Yale drama school Strasberg and Clurman told him he had talent for something other than acting.
• 1934 aged ~25 Joins the Communist Party and leaves it two years later He resigned in 1936 after the Party tried him for refusing to organize a strike inside the Group.
• December 3, 1947 aged 38 A Streetcar Named Desire opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden and an unknown Marlon Brando.
• February 10, 1949 aged 39 Death of a Salesman opens at the Morosco and runs 742 performances
• January 14, 1952 aged 42 Appears before HUAC in executive session and names no one
• April 10, 1952 aged 42 Returns to the committee and names eight former Group Theatre members Two days later he bought space in the New York Times to explain himself and urge others to do the same.
• 1954 aged ~45 On the Waterfront wins eight Academy Awards Written by Budd Schulberg, who had testified the year before Kazan did.
• March 21, 1999 aged 89 Accepts an honorary Oscar while much of the room refuses to stand Scorsese and De Niro presented it. Roughly 250 demonstrators picketed the ceremony.

• Marlon Brando 1924–2004
  Actor whose method acting revolutionized film performance and influenced generations of actors. directed
• James Dean 1931–1955
  Actor whose brief career and rebellious image in Rebel Without a Cause made him a symbol of teenage disillusionment. directed
• Tennessee Williams 1911–1983
  Playwright whose A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof defined American theater. staged
• Arthur Miller 1915–2005
  Playwright whose Death of a Salesman and The Crucible are cornerstones of American drama. staged and then broke with
• Lee Strasberg 1901–1982
  Taught the Method to two generations of American actors, and made affective memory the centre of it. Group Theatre colleague
• Joseph McCarthy 1908–1957
  Senator whose unsupported accusations and investigations gave “McCarthyism” its name and damaged civil liberties. named names in the era of