Within 30 days it would have been Tony Galento`s (Truck) 102th birthday.
* March 12, 1910
† July 22, 1979
This week 36 years ago Lee J. Cobb (Johnny Friendly) died (aged 65)
February 11, 1976
Release date: July 28 ,1954
The film was shot on location in New York City and in New Jersey. Both in the USA.
Director Kazan used the film to justify being an informer before HUAC with Terry Malloy acting as a heroic stand-in for himself. Kazan: “Terry Malloy felt as I did. He felt ashamed and proud of himself at the same time, he felt it was a necessary act”. Source / More (Book)
The movie was turned down by all the major studios in 1953. Producer Sam Spiegel saved the project. He persuaded Marlon Brando (who had cooled to director Kazan as a result of his testimony to House Un-American Activities Committee, HUAC), to work for the director once more.
Grace Kelly turned down the role of Edie Doyle, deciding to make Rear Window (1954) instead.
The film was inspired by “Crime on the Waterfront”, a series of articles in the New York Sun that won, Malcolm Johnson the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Reporting. Source / More (Book)
Rod Steiger complained that director Kazan was favoring Brando. He left the set before Steiger had a chance to do his close-ups and he was left to play to an assistant director. Steiger “It must have just burned him up that we came out even in that scene - Despite what he did.” Source / More (Book)
Director Kazan: “He [Steiger] was right, but in this case it didn’t hurt the scene. I believe what had happened hurt his self-esteem but not his performance. If Steiger has played a scene better than that one, I have yet to see it.” Source / More (Book)
Steiger: “That son of a gun went home. [] It was like a wound. [] Oh, it’s the lowest” Source / More (Book)
Elia was Francis Ford Coppola’s first choice for the role of Hyman Roth in The Godfather: Part II (1974)
September 7, 1909
Elia Kazanjoglous
September 28, 2003
He was born in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in Turkey. At age four, his Greek parents emigrated to New York City, the United States. After graduating college, Elia attended the Drama School at Yale University, and from 1932 to 1939 he was an actor with the Group Theatre in New York City, led by Lee Strasberg and Harold Clurman .
Kazan directed his first stage play in 1935 and in the 1940s he gained fame as one of Broadway's finest talents, especially for his realistic direction of A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Death of a Salesman (1948) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955).
In 1944 Elia began to direct motion pictures. His films, many of which incorporate liberal or socially critical themes, include A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) and Gentleman's Agreement (1947). The same year, he co-founded the famed Actor's Studio with Lee Strasberg; the school would serve as a training ground for legions of famous actors, includingMarlon Brando,Robert de Niroand Dustin Hoffman .
His classic films A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Viva Zapata! (1952), and On the Waterfront (1954) all starredMarlon Brando. Other famous films include East of Eden (1955), starring James Dean ; Baby Doll (1956); and Splendour in the Grass (1960).
In 1952, the director was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) regarding his involvement with the Communist Party. Kazan refused to name names, but after being told by 20th Century Fox President Spyros P. Skouras that he would never work in Hollywood again, Elia supplied HUAC with several names, including those of writer Clifford Odets and Paula and Lee Strasberg.
Kazan's last hit movie was Splendor in the Grass (1961), with Warren Beatty (in his film debut) and Natalie Wood.
In later years he turned to writing fiction. He published his autobiography, My Life, in 1988 (in it he defended his decision to comply with HUAC) , and Beyond the Aegean appeared in 1994.
Afflicted with deafness and arteriosclerosis, he received his controversial lifetime-achievement Oscar in 1999. Four years later he died, having just turned 94.
