Harold Israel (1903–1964) was an itinerant former serviceman wrongly accused of murdering a priest in Bridgeport, Connecticut , in 1924. The charges against Israel were dismissed by the prosecutor, Homer Stille Cummings , who later became Attorney General of the United States .
88-631: The case, which gained national attention, became the basis for a 1947 film by Elia Kazan , Boomerang! . The Israel prosecution was praised in the Wickersham Commission report on law enforcement in the United States, which criticized police interrogation methods. Israel, a vagrant and former serviceman, was charged with the murder of Father Hubert Dahme, a popular Catholic priest, at the intersection of High and Main Street in downtown Bridgeport on
176-671: A 1963 film . In it, he describes his family as "alienated" from both their parents' Greek Orthodox values and from those of mainstream America. His mother's family were cotton merchants who imported cotton from England and sold it wholesale. His father had become a rug merchant after immigrating to the United States, and he expected his son would someday take over the family business. After attending public schools through high school, Kazan enrolled at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he helped pay his way by waiting tables and washing dishes; he still graduated cum laude. He also worked as
264-476: A "prize that launched his career". The Group Theatre's summer rehearsal headquarters was at Pine Brook Country Club , located in the countryside of Nichols, Connecticut , during the 1930s and early 1940s. Along with Kazan were numerous other artists: Harry Morgan , John Garfield , Luise Rainer , Frances Farmer , Will Geer , Howard da Silva , Clifford Odets , Lee J. Cobb and Irwin Shaw . In 1940, Kazan had
352-422: A bartender at various fraternities, but never joined one. While a student at Williams, he earned the nickname "Gadg", for Gadget, because, he said, "I was small, compact, and handy to have around." The nickname was eventually taken up by his stage and film stars. In America America he tells how, and why, his family left Turkey and moved to America. Kazan notes that much of it came from stories that he heard as
440-454: A director of operas and filmed musicals in Hollywood. In 1931, Lewis became one of the 28 original members of New York's revolutionary Group Theatre . Formed by Harold Clurman , Lee Strasberg and producer Cheryl Crawford , The Group was an ensemble of passionate young actors, directors and writers who came together to explore the inner processes of theatre craft. Lewis and other members of
528-536: A few years earlier. Kazan writes of his decision: Each director has a favorite in his cast… my favorite this time was Zero Mostel… I thought him an extraordinary artist and a delightful companion, one of the funniest and most original men I'd ever met… I constantly sought his company… He was one of the three people whom I rescued from the "industry's" blacklist… For a long time, Zero had not been able to get work in films, but I got him in my film. In 1951, after introducing and directing Marlon Brando and Karl Malden in
616-637: A few. Lewis eventually left The Actors Studio over differences with Kazan and Crawford involving the production of a play (later resolved) and a desire to concentrate on his burgeoning directorial career on Broadway. Indeed, 1947 saw the opening of his first big commercial Broadway hit, Alan Jay Lerner's Brigadoon . Years after Lewis' departure, Lee Strasberg was asked to join the studio. Years later, Lewis differed with Strasberg over certain particulars of The Method – as did others. Despite any such differences, The Actors Studio flourished under Strasberg's leadership and he became Artistic Director several years later,
704-612: A large supporting role as a flamboyantly dressed gangster in the boxing thriller City for Conquest starring James Cagney , Ann Sheridan and Anthony Quinn . His stylishly distinctive but raffish clothing seems to have been copied by Frank Sinatra a decade and a half later and his part is both sympathetic and extremely dramatic. In 1947, he founded the Actors Studio , a non-profit workshop, with actors Robert Lewis and Cheryl Crawford . In 1951, Lee Strasberg became its director after Kazan left for Hollywood to focus on his career as
792-477: A long time. A lot of people, who don't understand how desperate people can get, advised me to cut it. When I am accused of being excessive by the critics, they're talking about moments like that. But I wouldn't take it out for the world. It actually happened. Believe me, if a Turk could get out of Turkey and come here, even now, he would kiss the ground. To oppressed people, America is still a dream. Before undertaking America America , Kazan wanted to confirm many of
880-603: A more truthful, more believable, and therefore more powerful stage performance than could be accomplished with more seemingly external techniques common at that time. Lewis appeared in several original Group Theatre productions in the 1930s including Sidney Kingsley 's Pulitzer Prize -winning Men in White and Clifford Odets ' plays Waiting for Lefty , Awake and Sing! , Paradise Lost and Golden Boy . Lewis summered at Pine Brook Country Club in Nichols, Connecticut . Pinebrook
968-613: A movie director. It remained a non-profit enterprise. Strasberg introduced the " Method " to the Actors Studio, an umbrella term for a constellation of systemizations of Konstantin Stanislavski 's teachings. The "Method" school of acting became the predominant system of post-World War II Hollywood. Among Strasberg's students were Montgomery Clift , Mildred Dunnock , Julie Harris , Karl Malden , Patricia Neal , Maureen Stapleton , Eli Wallach , and James Whitmore . Kazan directed two of
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#17328798149921056-531: A position he maintained until his death. The Actors Studio, which is still active today, became one of the leading centers for the Stanislavski System, or Method, of dramatic training, producing some of the most influential performers in American theatre and film in the later half of the 20th century. With the critical and commercial success of Brigadoon (1947), Robert Lewis was on his way to becoming one of
1144-517: A professional actors' workshop, with former Group members, director Elia Kazan and producer Cheryl Crawford . The Actors Studio was an attempt to recapture the close ensemble nature of the Group, and to evolve and refine the methods first explored by the Group in the 1930s. The first year, about fifty young actors were invited to join. Lewis taught classes for advanced members with emphasis on inner action or intention, while Kazan, who preferred to work with
1232-639: A professional stage actor. He continued his professional studies at the Juilliard School where he studied singing with Lucia Dunham . His first opportunity came with a small group of actors engaged in presenting plays containing "social commentary". They were called the Group Theatre , which showcased many lesser known plays with deep social or political messages. After struggling to be accepted by them, he discovered his first strong sense of self in America within
1320-456: A seldom-discussed topic in America, antisemitism , for which he won his first Oscar as Best Director. In 1947, he directed the courtroom drama Boomerang! . In 1949 he again dealt with a controversial subject when he directed Pinky , which dealt with issues of racism in America, and was nominated for three Academy Awards. In 1950 he directed Panic in the Streets , starring Richard Widmark ,
1408-551: A star in On the Waterfront . As a continuation of the socially relevant themes that he developed in New York, the film exposed corruption within New York's longshoremen's union. It too was nominated for twelve Academy Awards , and won eight, including Best Picture , Best Director , and Best Actor for Marlon Brando. On the Waterfront was also the screen debut for Eva Marie Saint , who won
1496-516: A stylized method of speaking. In his lectures, Lewis maintained that by using their voices properly, Method actors could not only master formal ways of speaking, such as required for Shakespearean blank verse, but could create much more believable characters by doing so. Indeed, one of Lewis's students, and one of the actors most often associated with the Method, Marlon Brando, received rave reviews and an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Mark Antony in
1584-496: A thriller shot on the streets of New Orleans . In that film, Kazan experimented with a documentary style of cinematography, which succeeded in "energizing" the action scenes. He won the Venice Film Festival International Award as director, and the film also won two Academy Awards. Kazan had requested that Zero Mostel also act in the film, despite Mostel being "blacklisted" as a result of HUAC testimony
1672-399: A tiny dressing room ... whereupon the director proceeded to justify himself for two hours." Beatty, years later, during a Kennedy Center tribute to Kazan, stated to the audience that Kazan "had given him the most important break in his career". Beatty's costar, Natalie Wood , was in a transition period in her career, having mostly been cast in roles as a child or teenager, and she
1760-549: A vital leader of the Group: He carried with him the aura of a prophet, a magician, a witch doctor, a psychoanalyst, and a feared father of a Jewish home… [H]e was the force that held the thirty-odd members of the theatre together, and made them permanent. Kazan's first national success came as a New York theatrical director. Although initially he worked as an actor on stage, and told early in his acting career that he had no acting ability, he surprised many critics by becoming one of
1848-420: A young boy. He says during an interview that "it's all true: the wealth of the family was put on the back of a donkey, and my uncle, really still a boy, went to Istanbul… to gradually bring the family there to escape the oppressive circumstances… It's also true that he lost the money on the way, and when he got there he swept rugs in a little store." Kazan noted some of the controversial aspects of what he put in
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#17328798149921936-520: Is best known for becoming the summer home of the Group Theatre (New York) . Some of the other artists who summered there were; Elia Kazan , Harry Morgan , John Garfield , Lee J. Cobb , Will Geer , Clifford Odets , Howard Da Silva and Irwin Shaw . As in any artistic endeavor, differences in translation and emphasis between the Russian Stanislavski System, and what eventually came to be known as The Method, were debated vigorously in
2024-726: The Great White Way 's most respected directors. Among the plays directed by Robert Lewis were: My Hearts in the Highlands (1939) by William Saroyan; Brigadoon (1947) by Alan Jay Lerner; Regina (1949); The Happy Time (1950); An Enemy of the People (1950); The Grass Harp (1952); The Teahouse of the August Moon (1953), winner of the Tony Award for Best Play and New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Director ; Witness for
2112-562: The MGM version of Julius Caesar opposite the acclaimed Shakespearean actor John Gielgud . Lewis's lectures on Method acting later became the basis of his first book, Method — Or Madness? (Samuel French, 1958). In addition to teaching at The Group Theatre, The Actors Studio, his own Robert Lewis Theatre Workshop and the Lincoln Center Training Program, Lewis was a popular lecturer at many colleges and universities throughout
2200-487: The "family of the Group Theatre, and more loosely in the radical social and cultural movements of the time", writes film author Joanna E. Rapf. In Kazan's autobiography, he writes of the "lasting impact on him of the Group", noting in particular, Lee Strasberg and Harold Clurman as "father figures", along with his close friendship with playwright Clifford Odets . During an interview with Michel Ciment, Kazan described
2288-1026: The "need to sin" in Hollywood (as Odets called it) irresistible. In his book Slings and Arrows: Theater in My Life , Lewis complains that "being short and round", he reluctantly had to accept that, as an actor, he fell into the character, rather than the leading man category. True enough, after moving to Los Angeles in 1940, he became known in Hollywood for his ability to transform himself into memorable screen characters, particularly characters of different nationalities. He played German officers, such as Colonel Pirosh in Paris After Dark (FOX, 1943), opposite George Sanders , and Sergeant Schmidt in Son of Lassie (MGM, 1945), starring Peter Lawford , Donald Crisp and June Lockhart . He became French collaborationist Maurice Bonnard in Tonight We Raid Calais (FOX, 1943), and
2376-418: The "sages" of the film community declared her as "washed up" as an actress, although he still wanted to interview her for his next film: When I saw her, I detected behind the well-mannered 'young wife' front a desperate twinkle in her eyes ... I talked with her more quietly then and more personally. I wanted to find out what human material was there, what her inner life was ... Then she told me she
2464-416: The .32 caliber revolver, and said that the confession was coerced from a person of diminished mental capacity. Three physicians had found that Israel was exhausted and overwhelmed, and Israel said he would have confessed to anything just to get some sleep. Cummings called expert witnesses who undermined the ballistics evidence. Cummings told the court that "it is just as important for a state's attorney to use
2552-771: The 1930s. In the 1970s, he was the Head of the Yale School of Drama Acting and Directing Departments. Robert (Bobby) Lewis was born in Brooklyn in 1909 to a middle-class working family. Encouraged in the arts by his mother, a former contralto , Lewis acquired an early and lifelong interest in music, particularly opera. He studied cello and piano as a child but these eventually gave way to his love of acting. In 1929, he joined Eva Le Gallienne 's Civic Repertory Theatre in New York City. His musical background proved invaluable later when he became
2640-615: The 1956 version of Anything Goes (Paramount), starring Bing Crosby and Donald O'Connor , Lewis was strictly tied to a contract with MGM studios. Lewis reminisced he felt bored, underused and flustered in Hollywood; and struggled for some years to get out of his contract at MGM so he could return to Broadway and the East coast. Robert Lewis did return to New York in 1947 to direct his first big commercial success on Broadway, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe 's whimsical musical play Brigadoon . In 1947, Lewis co-founded The Actors Studio ,
2728-497: The Bible but did not go to church. When Kazan was about eight years old, the family moved to New Rochelle, New York , and his father sent him to a Roman Catholic catechism school because there was no Orthodox church nearby. As a young boy, he was remembered as being shy, and his college classmates characterized him as more of a loner. Much of his early life was portrayed in his autobiographical book, America America , which he made into
Harold Israel - Misplaced Pages Continue
2816-460: The Group's most capable actors. In 1935 he played the role of a strike-leading taxi driver in a drama by Clifford Odets, Waiting for Lefty , and his performance was called "dynamic", leading some to label him the "proletarian thunderbolt". Among the themes that would run through all of his work were "personal alienation and an outrage over social injustice", writes film critic William Baer. Other critics have likewise noted his "strong commitment to
2904-403: The Group's success, internal disagreements, the lure of Hollywood and financial issues began to take a toll and, by late 1936, production was suspended. Officially released from Group obligations, many of the members, including Lewis and Group founder Harold Clurman, went off to join other Group members already in Hollywood. In April 1937, Lee Strasberg and Cheryl Crawford resigned as directors of
2992-612: The Group, such as Stella Adler and Elia Kazan , were proponents of a new form of acting based on the techniques of Russian director Constantin Stanislavski . They believed the Stanislavski System , first taught in America in the 1920s by former members of the Moscow Art Theatre , Richard Boleslavski and Maria Ouspenskaya at the American Laboratory Theatre where Clurman and Strasberg had studied, resulted in
3080-445: The Group. A year later, however, Robert Lewis and Elia Kazan returned to New York to restart Group workshops and The Group Theatre Studio resumed with fifty actors chosen from four hundred who auditioned. Lewis, Kazan and Sanford Meisner were the principal teachers. That same year, Harold Clurman returned from Hollywood to stage the Group's production of Clifford Odets' Golden Boy , which became its most successful play. Robert Lewis
3168-490: The Group. In the summer of 1934, Stella Adler returned from a trip to Paris where she had worked privately with Stanislavski and directly challenged Lee Strasberg's approach, deepening tensions which led to Strasberg's departure from the Group in 1937. In later years, Lewis held that Strasberg's Method, while valid in its particulars, was a misrepresentation of Stanislavski because it emphasized only some parts of Stanislavski's theory. (See Method — Or Madness?, below) Despite
3256-524: The Group: The Group was the best thing professionally that ever happened to me. I met two wonderful men. Lee Strasberg and Harold Clurman, both of whom were around thirty years old. They were magnetic, fearless leaders. During the summer I was an apprentice, they were entertaining in a Jewish summer camp ... At the end of the summer they said to me: "You may have talent for something, but it's certainly not acting." Kazan also praised Strasberg as
3344-723: The New York harbor waterfront. It also received twelve Oscar nominations, winning eight. In 1955, he directed John Steinbeck 's East of Eden , starring James Dean . A turning point in Kazan's career came with his testimony as a "friendly witness" before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1952 at the height of the Hollywood blacklist . His decision to cooperate and name names brought him strong negative reactions from many friends and associates. His harshly anti-communist testimony "damaged if not shattered
3432-477: The Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role. Saint recalls that Kazan selected her for the role after he had her do an improvisational skit with Brando playing the other character. She had no idea that he was looking to fill any particular film part, however, but remembers that Kazan set up the scenario with Brando which brought out surprising emotions: I ended up crying. Crying and laughing ... I mean there
3520-648: The Players (Harper & Row, 1980), an actors handbook, and Slings and Arrows: Theater in My Life ( Stein and Day , 1984), a memoir. In 1978, in an ill-fated attempt to establish a professional repertory company in Westchester County, Lewis established the Robert Lewis Acting Company which was housed in the College of New Rochelle. Although Lewis was able to draw upon his vast roster of talent when casting,
3608-748: The Prosecution (1954) from Agatha Christie; Mister Johnson (1956); Jamaica (1957); The Hidden River (1957); Handful of Fire (1958); Chéri (1959); Kwamina (1961); Foxy (1964); Traveller Without Luggage (1964); On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965); and Harold and Maude (1980). By the 1950s, Stanislavski's ideas on acting technique had become very popular in America. In his memoirs, Lewis notes that widespread adoption had also fostered widespread confusion and misinformation, both among its defenders and its detractors. There were many different proponents and many different interpretations, some successful and some less so, all lumped together under
Harold Israel - Misplaced Pages Continue
3696-595: The Shrew” which was to be directed by Charles Marowitz. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a second season. Lewis remained active in theater in the 1980s and continued to teach a new generation of actors and directors through his Robert Lewis Theatre Workshop and at Rice University in 1981-82. He also served as the first artistic director at the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts outside Washington, D.C. He
3784-661: The Studio's protégés, Karl Malden and Marlon Brando , in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire . Though at the height of his stage success, Kazan turned to Hollywood as a director of motion pictures. He first directed two short films, but his first feature film was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), one of his first attempts to film dramas focused on contemporary concerns, which later became his forte. Two years later he directed Gentleman's Agreement , where he tackled
3872-593: The United States with his parents, Athena ( née Shishmanoglou ) and George Kazantzoglou, on July 8, 1913. He was named after his paternal grandfather, Elia Kazantzoglou. His maternal grandfather was Isaak Shishmanoglou. Elia's brother, Avraam, was born in Berlin and later became a psychiatrist. Kazan was raised in the Greek Orthodox Church and attended Greek Orthodox services every Sunday, where he had to stand for several hours with his father. His mother read
3960-490: The Waterfront that she "starts her real trip to fame". The film made use of extensive on-location street scenes and waterfront shots, and included a notable score by noted composer Leonard Bernstein . After the success of On the Waterfront , he went on to direct another screen adaptation of a John Steinbeck novel, East of Eden (1955). As director, Kazan again used another unknown actor, James Dean . Kazan had seen Dean on stage in New York and after an audition gave him
4048-404: The air surrounding Method acting, one of Lewis' points revolved around the idea that there are many facets of an actor's preparation and Stanislavski intended that the actor prepare internally and externally, rather than relying exclusively, or too heavily, upon internal techniques such as affective memory . Opponents of Method acting complained of a "generation of mumblers", whose acting conveyed
4136-482: The careers of his former colleagues, Morris Carnovsky and Art Smith , both actors, and the playwright Clifford Odets ." In his memoirs, Kazan writes that he and Odets had made a pact at the time to name each other in front of the committee. Kazan later justified his actions by saying he took "only the more tolerable of two alternatives that were either way painful and wrong." Nearly a half-century later, his 1952 HUAC testimony continued to cause controversy. When Kazan
4224-446: The character based on Israel was played by Arthur Kennedy . Elia Kazan Elias Kazantzoglou ( Greek : Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου , IPA: [iˈli.as kazanˈdzoɣlu] ; September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003), known as Elia Kazan ( / ˈ iː l i ə k ə ˈ z æ n / EE -lee-ə kə- ZAN ), was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by The New York Times as "one of
4312-609: The country for the better part of his career. He returned to the Yale School of Drama often, for long and short stints, depending on his directing schedule, and eventually became Chairman of the Yale Acting and Directing departments in the 1970s under Dean Robert Brustein. During his tenure at Yale, Lewis helped shape the careers of many successful actors such as Meryl Streep . He retired from Yale in 1976. After Method — or Madness? , Robert Lewis wrote two other books on acting, Advice to
4400-466: The crime, though he later recanted and protested his innocence. At arraignment on May 27, 1924, Cummings entered a declaration of nolle prosequi , effectively dropping the case, and proceeded to discredit the evidence compiled by the Bridgeport police in a 90-minute presentation to the court. Cummings rebutted the circumstantial case against Israel, who was serving a 90-day jail term for possession of
4488-581: The debt Hollywood—and actors everywhere—owes him is enormous." Orson Welles said "Kazan is a traitor [...] [but] he is a very good director". In 2010, Martin Scorsese co-directed the documentary film A Letter to Elia as a personal tribute to Kazan. Kazan was born in the Kadıköy district of Constantinople (now Istanbul), to Cappadocian Greek parents, originally from Kayseri in Anatolia . He arrived in
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#17328798149924576-484: The details about his family's background. At one point, he sat his parents down and recorded their answers to his questions. He remembers eventually asking his father a "deeper question: 'Why America? What were you hoping for? ' " His mother gave him the answer, however: "A.E. brought us here." Kazan states that "A.E. was my uncle Avraam Elia, the one who left the Anatolian village with the donkey. At twenty-eight, somehow—this
4664-552: The difficulties Kazan had in turning Dean into a new star, noting how Dean was a controversial figure at Warner Bros. from the time he arrived. There were rumors that he "kept a loaded gun in his studio trailer; that he drove his motorcycle dangerously down studio streets or sound stages; that he had bizarre and unsavory friends." As a result, Kazan was forced to "baby-sit the young actor in side-by-side trailers", so he would not run away during production. Co-star Julie Harris worked overtime to quell Dean's panic attacks. In general, Dean
4752-497: The direction of Lee Strasberg . Kazan acted in a few films, including City for Conquest (1940). His films were concerned with personal or social issues of special concern to him. Kazan writes, "I don't move unless I have some empathy with the basic theme". His first such "issue" film was Gentleman's Agreement (1947), with Gregory Peck , which dealt with antisemitism in America . It received eight Oscar nominations and three wins, including Kazan's first for Best Director . It
4840-416: The effort only lasted one season. That season opened with the world premiere of “The Club Champion’s Widow” by John Ford Noonan. It featured Maureen Stapleton in the lead role. It was announced that Farley Granger would play the title role in the second production, “Caligula” (Camus, 1961), but he was replaced before opening. Peter Gallagher was Scipio and Julius LaRosa, famously fired on air by Arthur Godfrey,
4928-475: The evening of Feb. 4, 1924. Twelve thousand people attended the funeral. Newspapers pressed authorities to find the killer, and police conducted an intense search for the perpetrator. Eight days later, Israel, who had been arrested in Norwalk, Connecticut on a gun-possession charge, was accused of the murder. He was described as a "transient indigent, and a person of low mentality of the moron type". Homer Cummings ,
5016-516: The film one of Kazan's most accomplished works. James Dean died the following year, at the age of 24, in an accident with his sports car about 200 miles north of Los Angeles. He had only made three films, and the only completed film he ever saw was East of Eden . In 1961, Kazan introduced Warren Beatty in his first screen appearance with a starring role in Splendor in the Grass (1961), with Natalie Wood ;
5104-420: The film was nominated for two Oscars and won one. Author Peter Biskind points out that Kazan "was the first in a string of major directors Beatty sought out, mentors or father figures from whom he wanted to learn." Biskind notes also that they "were wildly dissimilar—mentor vs. protégé, director vs. actor, immigrant outsider vs. native son. Kazan was armed with the confidence born of age and success, while Beatty
5192-475: The film: "I used to say to myself when I was making the film that America was a dream of total freedom in all areas." To make his point, the character who portrays Kazan's uncle Avraam kisses the ground when he gets through customs, while the Statue of Liberty and the American flag are in the background. Kazan had considered whether that kind of scene might be too much for American audiences: I hesitated about that for
5280-560: The first week of shooting, where Beatty was angered at something Kazan said: "The star lashed out at the spot where he knew Kazan was most vulnerable, the director's friendly testimony before the HCUA. He snapped, 'Lemme ask you something—why did you name all those names? ' " Beatty recalled the episode: "In some patricidal attempt to stand up to the great Kazan, I arrogantly and stupidly challenged him on it." Biskind relates how "Kazan grabbed his arm, asking, 'What did you say?' and dragged him off to
5368-564: The foremost interpreters of his theories. At Chekov's studio in Devonshire at Dartington Hall, Lewis further shaped his understanding of Stanislavski's techniques, or "method", as it was informally known in America. The following year, Lewis made his Broadway directorial debut with a critically successful production of William Saroyan 's My Heart's in the Highlands (1939). As did other Group members like Franchot Tone , Clifford Odets, Stella Adler , Elia Kazan and Harold Clurman , Lewis found
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#17328798149925456-534: The great powers of his office to protect the innocent as it is to convict the guilty." Cummings' decision to drop the case surprised and outraged Bridgeport police, and Cummings received criticism from the Democratic Party , where he was a national committeeman. However, despite being snubbed by Franklin D. Roosevelt , former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, he was chosen by Roosevelt as his first Attorney General (after
5544-423: The influential Actors Studio in New York in 1947. In addition to his accomplishments on Broadway and in Hollywood, Lewis' greatest and longest lasting contribution to American theater may be the role he played as one of the foremost acting and directing teachers of his day. He was an early proponent of the Stanislavski System of acting technique and a founding member of New York's revolutionary Group Theatre in
5632-603: The most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Constantinople (now Istanbul) to Cappadocian Greek parents, his family came to the United States in 1913. After attending Williams College and then the Yale School of Drama , he acted professionally for eight years, later joining the Group Theatre in 1932, and co-founded the Actors Studio in 1947. With Robert Lewis and Cheryl Crawford , his actors' studio introduced " Method Acting " under
5720-409: The movie was the last one, when Wood goes back to see her lost first love, Bud (Beatty). "It's terribly touching to me. I still like it when I see it", writes Kazan. "And I certainly didn't need to tell her how to play it. She understood it perfectly." Robert Lewis (director) Robert Lewis (March 16, 1909 – November 23, 1997) was an American actor, director, teacher, author and founder of
5808-506: The play because we'd lost all the compression. In the play, these people were trapped in a room with each other. What I actually did was to make the set smaller. As the story progressed… the set got smaller and smaller. Kazan's next film was Viva Zapata! (1952) which also starred Marlon Brando. This time the film added real atmosphere with the use of location shots and strong character accents. Kazan called this his "first real film" because of those factors. In 1954 he again used Brando as
5896-472: The popular moniker of " The Method ". On the stage of the Playhouse Theatre in New York City, at 11:30 p.m. on the evening of Monday, April 15, 1957, Robert Lewis presented the first of eight lectures to professional actors, directors and playwrights on the subject of what, exactly, Method acting is and is not. There were some 5,000 written applications to attend the lectures. In an attempt to clear
5984-421: The prosecutor, said the evidence was so strong that "upon its face, at least, seemed well nigh a perfect case". Israel met the general physical description of the gunman, was in the vicinity at the time of the shooting, and was in possession of a gun that the police believe had been used in the crime, a black .32 caliber revolver. The police case included identifications by seven eyewitnesses, and Israel confessed to
6072-435: The screen; but it seemed impossible that it was the same person in the room. Ray felt Dean was shy and totally withdrawn as he sat there hunched over. "Dean himself did not seem to believe it", notes Rathgeb. "He watched himself with an odd, almost adolescent fascination, as if he were admiring someone else." The film also made good use of on-location and outdoor scenes, along with effective use of early widescreen format, making
6160-447: The social and social psychological—rather than the purely political—implications of drama". By the mid-1930s, when he was 26, he began directing a number of the Group Theatre's plays, including Robert Ardrey 's well-known play Thunder Rock . In 1942 he achieved his first notable success by directing a play by Thornton Wilder , The Skin of Our Teeth , starring Tallulah Bankhead and Fredric March . The play, though controversial,
6248-491: The stage version, he went on to cast both in the film version of the play, A Streetcar Named Desire , which won four Oscars and was nominated for twelve. Despite these plaudits, the film was considered a step back cinematically with the feel of filmed theater; though Kazan did at first use a more open setting, he then felt compelled to revert to the stage atmosphere to remain true to the script. He explains: On "Streetcar" we worked very hard to open it up, and then went back to
6336-545: The starring role along with an exclusive contract with Warner Bros. Dean flew back to Los Angeles with Kazan in 1954, the first time he had ever flown in a plane, bringing his clothes in a brown paper bag. The film's success introduced James Dean to the world and established him as a popular actor. He went on to star in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), directed by Kazan's friend Nicholas Ray , and then Giant (1956), directed by George Stevens . Author Douglas Rathgeb recounts
6424-460: The sudden death of his first nominee Thomas J. Walsh ). The case was never solved. In 1954, a Bridgeport resident admitted to witnessing the killing, said that he was threatened with death if he spoke about it, and said that Israel was not the killer. Israel later married and had "a house, a Ford, a wife, and a child". In the 1947 movie Boomerang , which was largely filmed in Stamford, Connecticut ,
6512-478: The truth of the actor but not necessarily the truth of the character on the stage. Lewis felt that such performances were the result of an unfortunate misinterpretation of Stanislavski's ideas. Lewis lamented throughout his career, in fact, that Method actors, who simply spoke stage dialogue truthfully, exactly as they would in life, were sometimes discouraged from playing Shakespeare or other classical writers because some people believed these authors' plays required
6600-562: The villainous Japanese Colonel Sato in Dragon Seed (MGM, 1944), starring Katharine Hepburn . A highlight of his Hollywood character actor career came when he played Frenchman Maurice Bottello opposite his friend Charles Chaplin in Chaplin's controversial film Monsieur Verdoux (1947). Though he went on to perform in and co-direct (with Vincente Minnelli ) musicals like Ziegfeld Follies (MGM, 1946), starring Fred Astaire , and he directed
6688-505: The younger actors, held forth on technique exercises such as sensory recall, imagination and improvisation. In the first year alone, Robert Lewis' group, meeting three times a week, consisted of Marlon Brando , Montgomery Clift , Mildred Dunnock , Jerome Robbins , Herbert Berghof , Tom Ewell , John Forsythe , Kevin McCarthy , Karl Malden , E. G. Marshall , Patricia Neal , Eva Marie Saint , Beatrice Straight and David Wayne , to name
6776-506: Was a critical and commercial success and won Wilder a Pulitzer Prize . Kazan won the New York Drama Critics Award for Best Director and Bankhead for best actress. Kazan then went on to direct Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller , and then directed A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams , both of which were also successful. Kazan's wife, Molly Thacher, the reader for the Group, discovered Williams and awarded him
6864-482: Was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1999, dozens of actors chose not to applaud as 250 demonstrators picketed the event. Kazan influenced the films of the 1950s and 1960s with his provocative, issue-driven subjects. Director Stanley Kubrick called him, "without question, the best director we have in America, [and] capable of performing miracles with the actors he uses." Film author Ian Freer concludes that even "if his achievements are tainted by political controversy,
6952-401: Was being psychoanalyzed. That did it. Poor R.J. [Wagner, Wood's husband], I said to myself. I liked Bob Wagner , I still do. Kazan cast her as the female lead in Splendor in the Grass , and her career rebounded. Finstad feels that despite Wood never receiving training in Method acting techniques, "working with Kazan brought her to the greatest emotional heights of her career. The experience
7040-560: Was cast as Helicon. The final play was a translation of a play by Alejandro Casona called, "Suicide Prohibited in Springtime" (Madrid, 1937). Directed by one of Bobby’s Yale school students, David Rotenberg, it featured Earle Hyman, Lenka Peterson (one of the first actors admitted to the Actors’ Studio), Michael Lipton and Brenda Lewis. Meryl Streep, one of Bobby’s students from Yale, had been in discussions with Lewis about doing “The Taming of
7128-495: Was cast as Roxy Gottlieb, the prizefight promoter. Lewis later maintained that he had been miscast in the original production, though he assumed a more satisfying role as director of his own successful production of Golden Boy at the St. James Theatre in London, in 1938. While in London, Lewis studied with Michael Chekov , an actor whose work he admired and whom Stanislavski considered one of
7216-524: Was exhilarating but wrenching for Natalie, who faced her demons on Splendor ." She adds that a scene in the film, as a result of "Kazan's wizardry ... produced a hysteria in Natalie that may be her most powerful moment as an actress." Actor Gary Lockwood , who also acted in the film, felt that "Kazan and Natalie were a terrific marriage, because you had this beautiful girl, and you had somebody that could get things out of her." Kazan's favorite scene in
7304-431: Was followed by Pinky (1949), one of the first films in mainstream Hollywood to address racial prejudice against African Americans . A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), an adaptation of the stage play which he had also directed, received twelve Oscar nominations, winning four, and was Marlon Brando 's breakthrough role. Three years later, he directed Brando again in On the Waterfront , a film about union corruption on
7392-415: Was now hoping to be cast in adult roles. Biographer Suzanne Finstad notes that a "turning point" in her life as an actress was upon seeing the film A Streetcar Named Desire : "She was transformed, in awe of Kazan and of Vivien Leigh's performance ... [who] became a role model for Natalie." In 1961, after a "series of bad films, her career was already in decline", notes Rathgeb. Kazan writes that
7480-468: Was oblivious to Hollywood's methods, and Rathgeb notes that "his radical style did not mesh with Hollywood's corporate gears". Dean was amazed at his own performance on screen when he later viewed a rough cut of the film. Kazan had invited director Nicholas Ray to a private showing, with Dean, as Ray was looking for someone to play the lead in Rebel Without a Cause . Ray watched Dean's powerful acting on
7568-479: Was such an attraction there ... That smile of his ... He was very tender and funny ... And Kazan, in his genius, saw the chemistry there. Life magazine described On the Waterfront as the "most brutal movie of the year" but with "the year's tenderest love scenes", and stating that Saint was a "new discovery" in films. In its cover story about Saint, it speculated that it will probably be as Edie in On
7656-472: Was the wonder—he made his way to New York. He sent home money and in time brought my father over. Father sent for my mother and my baby brother and me when I was four." Kazan writes of America America , "It's my favorite of all the films I've made; the first film that was entirely mine." In 1932, after spending two years at the Yale University School of Drama, he moved to New York City to become
7744-541: Was virtually aflame with the arrogance of youth." Kazan later recorded his impressions of Beatty: Warren—it was obvious the first time I saw him—wanted it all and wanted it his way. Why not? He had the energy, a very keen intelligence, and more chutzpah than any Jew I've ever known. Even more than me. Bright as they come, intrepid, and with that thing all women secretly respect: complete confidence in his sexual powers, confidence so great that he never had to advertise himself, even by hints. Biskind describes an episode during
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