Kazan, Elia

Kazan, Elia (1909-2003), American stage and film director, and novelist. Born Elia Kazanjoglous of Greek parents in Constantinople (now İstanbul), he emigrated to the United States in 1913. A member of the Group Theatre and later of the Actors Studio, he became known as a creative and sensitive stage director through his work on such Broadway plays as The Skin of Our Teeth (1942), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and Sweet Bird of Youth (1959). He was also the successful director of such films as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), and East of Eden (1955), and received two Best Director Academy Awards, for Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and On the Waterfront (1954). Kazan was a proponent of the “method” approach to acting, developed by Russian director and author Konstantin Stanislavski.

Also a writer, Kazan made films of his novels about Greek immigrants, America, America (1962) and The Arrangement (1966). Later novels, written in his popular, highly accessible style, include The Assassins (1972), The Understudy (1975), and The Anatolian (1982). His autobiography, Elia Kazan: A Life, was published in 1988.

In 1999, Kazan collected an honorary Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. This award triggered protests outside the Oscar ceremony because of Kazan's notorious cooperation with the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952. At the height of the “anti-Red” fever at the start of the Cold War, Senator Joseph McCarthy had been determined to eradicate Communist sympathizers from the film industry; Kazan identified eight people in the entertainment industry as being associated with the Communist Party and the ensuing investigations led to the blacklisting (being fired or denied jobs) of many screenwriters and other industry figures. Though some members of the audience refused to applaud, Kazan accepted his award without incident or direct reference to the controversy.