Elia Kazan

Elia Kazan, born Elias Kazantzoglou in the Chalcedon district of Constantinople to Cappadocian Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, arrived in the United States with his family on July 8, 1913. His family settled eventually in New Rochelle, New York, where his father worked as a rug merchant. Kazan attended public schools before enrolling at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he graduated cum laude while working as a waiter, dishwasher, and bartender to help cover his expenses. His college classmates remembered him as a loner, and he earned the nickname "Gadg," short for Gadget, a name his future stage and film collaborators would later adopt. He went on to spend two years at the Yale School of Drama before moving to New York City in 1932 to pursue a professional career in theatre.

Kazan joined the Group Theatre in 1932, marking the beginning of a Broadway career that extended through 1941. His stage acting credits during that period included Golden Boy, The Gentle People, Night Music, Liliom, and Five Alarm Waltz, among other productions. In 1947, he co-founded the Actors Studio alongside Robert Lewis and Cheryl Crawford, an institution that introduced Method Acting under the subsequent direction of Lee Strasberg. His work as a director on Broadway earned him three Tony Awards: Best Direction in 1947, Best Director in 1949, and Best Direction again in 1959.

His transition to film brought him sustained recognition. Gentleman's Agreement, released in 1947 and starring Gregory Peck, addressed antisemitism in the United States and received eight Academy Award nominations, winning three, including Kazan's first Oscar for Best Director. Pinky followed in 1949 as one of the earliest mainstream Hollywood films to confront racial prejudice against African Americans. His 1951 adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire, a stage production he had also directed, received twelve Oscar nominations and won four, and served as Marlon Brando's breakthrough role. Kazan directed Brando again in On the Waterfront, a film about union corruption on the New York waterfront that received twelve Oscar nominations and won eight. In 1955, he directed John Steinbeck's East of Eden, starring James Dean. Kazan also appeared as an actor in the 1940 film City for Conquest.

A defining and deeply controversial moment in Kazan's career came in 1952, when he testified as a friendly witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee during the height of the Hollywood blacklist. His decision to cooperate with the committee and name former colleagues caused lasting damage to the careers of actors Morris Carnovsky and Art Smith, as well as playwright Clifford Odets. In his memoirs, Kazan wrote that he and Odets had made a pact to name each other before the committee. He later described his choice as "only the more tolerable of two alternatives that were either way painful and wrong." The controversy surrounding his 1952 testimony persisted for decades. When Kazan received an honorary Academy Award in 1999, dozens of actors declined to applaud and approximately 250 demonstrators picketed the ceremony outside.

Much of Kazan's early family history informed his autobiographical film America America, released in 1963, which he described as his favorite among all the films he made and the first he considered entirely his own. The film drew on stories he had heard as a child about how his family left Turkey for the United States, details he later verified by recording his parents' recollections. Director Stanley Kubrick described Kazan as without question the best director in America. In 2010, Martin Scorsese co-directed the documentary A Letter to Elia as a personal tribute to his work and influence.