Martin Ritt

Martin Ritt (March 2, 1914 – December 8, 1990) was an American actor, director, and producer who worked across theater, television, and film. Born in Manhattan to a Jewish immigrant family, he grew up in New York City and attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx before enrolling at Elon College in North Carolina, where he played football. He later attended St. John's University before leaving to pursue work in the theater.

Ritt's first stage role was as Crown in a production of Porgy and Bess, and the favorable reception it received convinced him to commit to a life in the theater. He subsequently worked as a playwright for the Federal Theater Project under the Roosevelt administration's Works Progress Administration, then moved through the Theater of Arts before joining the Group Theatre in New York City. It was there that he met Elia Kazan, who cast him as an understudy in Golden Boy. The professional relationship between the two men extended well beyond a decade, with Ritt later serving as an assistant to Kazan at the Actors Studio and eventually becoming one of the Studio's few non-performing life members.

His Broadway career spanned from 1937 to 1954 and included appearances in a number of productions. During World War II, Ritt served with the U.S. Army Air Forces and performed as an actor in Winged Victory, the Air Forces' Broadway play. While the production was still running, he directed a staging of Sidney Kingsley's Yellow Jack, rehearsing between midnight and 3 a.m. using cast members from Winged Victory. That production had a brief Broadway run and was later performed again in Los Angeles when the Winged Victory company relocated there to shoot the film version. His other Broadway credits include The Eve of St. Mark, They Should Have Stood in Bed, Men of Distinction, and The Flowering Peach, among additional productions.

Following his stage work, Ritt built a successful career as a television director and producer, with credits including episodes of Danger, Somerset Maugham TV Theatre, Starlight Theatre, and The Plymouth Playhouse. That career was cut short in 1952 when he was caught up in the Red Scare. Though not directly named by the House Un-American Activities Committee, Ritt was cited in the anticommunist newsletter Counterattack, which alleged that he had helped Communist Party-affiliated union locals stage their annual show and had directed a production for Russian War Relief at Madison Square Garden. His prior associations with the Group Theatre and the Federal Theater Project were also known to HUAC. He was ultimately blacklisted by the television industry after a Syracuse grocer accused him of donating money to Communist China in 1951. During the five years he was unable to work in television, Ritt supported himself by teaching at the Actors Studio.

By 1956, as the intensity of the Red Scare diminished, Ritt transitioned to film directing. His debut feature, Edge of the City (1957), was followed by No Down Payment (1957). Producer Jerry Wald then engaged him to direct two William Faulkner adaptations, both featuring Joanne Woodward: The Long, Hot Summer (1958) with Paul Newman, which received a Palme d'Or nomination at the Cannes Film Festival, and The Sound and the Fury (1959) with Yul Brynner. The Long, Hot Summer was the first of three Cannes Palme d'Or nominations Ritt would receive over the course of his career. He also directed The Black Orchid (1958) and 5 Branded Women (1960) before reuniting Woodward and Newman for Paris Blues (1961).

Ritt's 1963 film Hud, starring Newman in the title role, was a major commercial success and earned Ritt an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. His 1965 Cold War thriller The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, adapted from John le Carré's novel and starring Richard Burton, won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film. Two later films, Sounder (1972) and Norma Rae (1979), each received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture. Over the course of his directing career, Ritt guided thirteen actors to Academy Award wins or nominations, among them Paul Newman, Patricia Neal, Melvyn Douglas, Richard Burton, James Earl Jones, Jane Alexander, Paul Winfield, Cicely Tyson, Geraldine Page, Sally Field, Rip Torn, Alfre Woodard, and James Garner. Four of his films — Edge of the City, Hud, Sounder, and Norma Rae — were selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. Ritt died on December 8, 1990.