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Actress Barbara Bel Geddes -- "Miss Ellie" -- Dies at 82
11 August 2005 (StudioBriefing)
Award-winning actress Barbara Bel Geddes, best known for her role as Miss Ellie on Dallas from 1978-89 (she dropped out of the series in 1984 because of health problems but returned the following year), has died of lung cancer in Northeast Harbor, Maine at age 82. Bel Geddes received three Emmy nominations and one win during the Dallas run. She had a distinguished career on Broadway and films in the late '40s and received a best-supporting-actress Oscar nomination for I Remember Mama in 1949. Her career was interrupted for seven years in 1951, however, when she was blacklisted after director Elia Kazan, in congressonal testimony, named her as a fellow member of the Communist Party.

Arthur Miller: 1915-2005
11 February 2005 (IMDb News Flash)
Arthur Miller, the playwright who wrote Death of a Salesman and was briefly married to Marilyn Monroe, died yesterday at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut of heart failure. He was 89.

Often called America's greatest living playwright, Miller was 33 when he wrote one of the quintessential plays in the 20th century canon, Death of a Salesman, about Willy Loman, a man struggling with his past inequities while facing his own mortality and worth. The original 1949 play was directed by Elia Kazan and Miller won the Pulitzer Prize for his work.

Miller's other best-known play was The Crucible, about the repression and mass hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts that resulted in the Salem witch trials. It was later made into a film of the same name starring his son-in-law, Daniel Day-Lewis (who married Miller's daughter, filmmaker Rebecca Miller, in 1996).

Arthur Miller was born in Manhattan on October 17, 1915, one of three children in a middle-class Jewish family that had emigrated from Poland. He worked as a laborer in an automobile parts warehouse and on the night shift of the Brooklyn Naval Yards. It was through hard work that he gained entrance into college, which enabled him to pursue his love of writing, while the Hopwood Award, a university prize for best student play with a purse of $250 that he won--twice--made him enough money to see his degree through.

Upon leaving college he married his college sweetheart, Mary Grace Slattery, and promptly had two children. His first plays were summarily rejected by producers and Miller had to keep afloat by returning to the Navy Yard. Success finally came with All My Sons, a play about the tragic deaths of Army pilots due to a mechanical defect and the politics and chicanery that followed in their aftermath.

But it was Salesman that catapulted Miller into the upper stratosphere of fame. In addition to the Pulitzer, the play won the Tony and the Drama Critics' Circle awards. He would never equal it and lived, for some time, struggling in the shadow of its singular acclaim.

The Crucible, a thinly-veiled indictment of the House Committee on un-American Activities, was somewhat of a success (bad attendance yet it won the Tony), but it caused a permanent rift with Miller and Elia Kazan (who saw it as a personal rebuke on his decision to name names to the committee).

Miller refused to testify before the committee, placing him in contempt of court, but he was engaged in an even more tumultuous struggle with his new bride, Marilyn Monroe. Their marriage lasted four years in which Miller wrote virtually nothing save the screenplay for The Misfits, a play about Gay (played by Clark Gable), an aging cowboy, and Roslyn (Monroe), an aging beauty with a heart-of-gold. John Huston directed it but Monroe was offended by the character of Roslyn, which she thought was a caricature of her. Their marriage ended shortly after, and Monroe was dead of an overdose six months later. Miller went on to remarry Inge Morath, a still photographer who was working on The Misfits, a year later. He had a daughter, Rebecca, with her, but Monroe still seemed to haunt him. In 1964 he wrote After the Fall, which was deemed his most autobiographical play and detailed the trials of living with a drug-addicted, emotionally needy blonde. Miller was roundly criticized for capitalizing on their relationship though he insisted the characters were entirely fictional. That pretense fell when, in October 2004, Miller premiered "Finishing the Picture," a play based upon the making of The Misfits and the dissolution of his marriage to Monroe. It was again attacked as a scathing and unfair criticism of a woman dead nearly 35 years, though it had its defenders as well. Miller's last lines in the sad and beautiful The Misfits, the last full roles for both Monroe and Gable, are not Miller's best known, but they may serve as an epitaph for a playwright who struggled to shine a light on the human condition:

Roslyn: Which way is home?

Gay: God bless you girl.

Roslyn: How do you find your way back in the dark?

Gay: Just head for that big star straight on. The highway's under it. It'll take us right home.

Oscars To Rock
15 October 2004 (StudioBriefing)
In an apparent effort to attract younger viewers, Academy Awards producer Gil Cates has called on Chris Rock to host next year's Oscars telecast. "I am a huge fan of Chris Rock," said Cates. "He always makes me laugh and he always has something interesting to say. Chris represents the best of the new generation of comics. Having him host the Oscars is terrific. I can't wait." Nevertheless, Rock's hosting stint is almost certain to generate controversy. Critics have sometimes criticized his humor as heavy-handed and sophomoric. Presenting a sound-effects award at the 1999 Oscar ceremonies, at which Elia Kazan was presented the academy's Lifetime Achievement Award, Rock was booed when he referred to Kazan's decision a half century earlier to cooperate with the congressional investigation of Communists in the entertainment business. Saying that he had just seen Kazan and Robert De Niro backstage, Rock commented: "You better get Kazan away from De Niro, because you know, he hates rats." Later, when Kazan received the award, he was accompanied onto the stage by De Niro.

Marlon Brando Dies at 80
2 July 2004 (IMDb News Flash)
Marlon Brando, the legendary actor whose performances in A Streetcar Named Desire, The Godfather and Last Tango in Paris made him one of the most important screen actors of all time and whose larger-than-life persona offscreen dominated his later years, died Thursday at an undisclosed location in Los Angeles; he was 80. According to Brando's attorney, David J. Seeley, the cause of the actor's death was being withheld because the actor was "a very private man." (A later report from Reuters stated that a UCLA Medical Center spokesperson said the actor died there at 6:30pm on Thursday of lung failure.) The most famous proponent of Method acting and considered by many to be America's finest actor, Brando paved the way for a new style of acting in the 40s and 50s, first working on Broadway, where he created his first signature role as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. He made his screen debut in 1950's The Men, which was followed by his Oscar-nominated re-creation of Kowalski in Elia Kazan's film of A Streetcar Named Desire. Riding his sudden superstardom, roles in Viva Zapata, Julius Caesar, The Wild One and On the Waterfront followed, the latter of which won him his first Oscar. Once he became a true icon in the late 50s and 60s, he branched into directing (1961's One Eyed Jacks) and a troubled, bloated adaptation of Mutiny on the Bounty, where his need for perfection (and infatuation with the south Pacific) put the movie over budget and over schedule.

That film marked the beginning of a string of failures in the 60s, and by the early 70s the actor's star seemed to have faded. However, it was a little gangster film in 1972 called The Godfather that catapulted Brando back into the spotlight, and his phenomenal turn as mob boss Vito Corleone earned him a second Oscar – which he notoriously refused, sending an actress dressed in Native American garb to the Academy Award ceremony to reject the award with a diatribe against the wrongs done to Native Americans by the U.S. He courted even more controversy with Bernardo Bertolucci's X-rated Last Tango in Paris (though he grabbed another Oscar nomination), and appeared in both Hollywood projects (Superman, for which he received a record salary at the time) and award-winning films (appearing as Kurtz in Francis Ford Coppola's troubled masterpiece Apocalypse Now) through the 70s. Sporadic film appearances marked the end of his career, including The Freshman, A Dry White Season and Don Juan De Marco, and his later years were dominated by scandal when his son, Christian Brando, shot and killed the lover of his half sister, Cheyenne, at the family's home in 1990; Christian was jailed and Cheyenne committed suicide five years later. Legal fees reportedly drained the actor's fortune, and the scandal contributed to the stories of Brando's bizarre offscreen antics. He lived in seclusion for the past few years, and most recently was the target of yet more rumors to be published in an unauthorized biography (one of many). Details about funeral arrangements were not immediately forthcoming. --Prepared by IMDb staff

Elia Kazan Dies at 94
29 September 2003 (StudioBriefing)
On Sunday, director Elia Kazan, who turned 94 on Sept. 7, died at his home in Manhattan. In 1999, he received the Academy's lifetime achievement award for films that included On the Waterfront, East of Eden, and A Streetcar Named Desire, among others.

Director Elia Kazan Dies at 94
29 September 2003 (IMDb News Flash)
Director Elia Kazan, who helmed A Streetcar Named Desire and won directing Oscars for Gentleman's Agreement and On the Waterfront died Sunday at his home in New York. He had celebrated his 94th birthday on the 7th of this month. Kazan made some of the most important films of the 1950s and worked particularly well with young talent. In Streetcar he introduced Marlon Brando to the world, gave James Dean his major motion picture debut in East of Eden and provided Warren Beatty with his big break in Splendor in the Grass.

The child of Greek immigrants, Kazan's first love was the stage and he first gained notoriety with his productions of "A Streetcar Named Desire" and the 1948 first run of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman." In addition to Miller, Kazan worked with many of the greatest playwrights and writers of the 20th century, including Tennessee Williams, John Steinbeck and Thornton Wilder.

In 1948 Kazan helped to found Lee Strasberg's Actors' Studio (itself a product of the Group Theater) in New York wherein the "Method" was taught, an acting discipline that brought a heightened realism to film. Despite the organic emotion onscreen, Kazan was frequently criticized for his stage-blocking style in his earlier films, something that dissipated nearly completely with Waterfront. He also worked with Brando on Viva Zapata! (nominated for five Oscars in 1953), and also contributed Baby Doll, and A Face in the Crowd to the 50s.

Earlier in the decade, at the height of Communist paranoia, Kazan agreed to testify at hearings before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Kazan admitted to membership in the Communist party in the latter half of the 1930s (mostly from his association with the members of the Group Theater) but earned eternal enmity from many of his colleagues by naming other names as well, including Clifford Odets. When Kazan was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Oscar at the 1999 ceremony, the chill was still felt as Chris Rock ad-libbed that Kazan was "a rat," for which Rock was then, much to his surprise, booed. Though many sat on their hands, Kazan was escorted onstage flanked by Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro and his brief, addled acceptance ended any more occasion for politics and bad blood.

Kazan is survived by his third wife, Frances, and his four children: Christopher, Nicholas, (also a director and screenwriter), Judy, and Katharine. --Prepared by IMDb staff

Actress Kim Hunter Dies
12 September 2002 (WENN)
Actress Kim Hunter, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Stella in the 1951 adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire, died Wednesday in her Greenwich Village apartment from an apparent heart attack, Associated Press reports. She was 79. The versatile actress originated the role of Stella on Broadway for director Elia Kazan, with a legendary cast that included Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, and Jessica Tandy; Brando and Malden also starred in the film version with Hunter. A stage actress who originally signed a contract with David O. Selzinck, only to find her way back to the theater, Hunter was also well-known for her film role as chimpanzee psychiatrist Dr. Zira in three of the Planet of the Apes films. The actress spent hours as the makeup and monkey suit were applied and later removed; she once remarked, "The only thing of me that came through was my eyeballs." After the Planet of the Apes movies, Hunter appeared on Broadway in Darkness at Noon, The Children's Hour and The Tender Trap and toured extensively in regional theater. Hunter was most recently seen in the Canadian film Here's To Life (2000), A Price Above Rubies (1998), and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). --Prepared by IMDb staff

Actress Kim Hunter Dies
11 September 2002 (WENN)
Actress Kim Hunter, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Stella in the 1951 adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire, died Wednesday in her Greenwich Village apartment from an apparent heart attack, Associated Press reports. She was 79. The versatile actress originated the role of Stella on Broadway for director Elia Kazan, with a legendary cast that included Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, and Jessica Tandy; Brando and Malden also starred in the film version with Hunter. A stage actress who originally signed a contract with David O. Selzinck, only to find her way back to the theater, Hunter was also well-known for her film role as chimpanzee psychiatrist Dr. Zira in three of the Planet of the Apes films. The actress spent hours as the makeup and monkey suit were applied and later removed; she once remarked, "The only thing of me that came through was my eyeballs." After the Planet of the Apes movies, Hunter appeared on Broadway in Darkness at Noon, The Children's Hour and The Tender Trap and toured extensively in regional theater. Hunter was most recently seen in the Canadian film Here's To Life (2000), A Price Above Rubies (1998), and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). --Prepared by IMDb staff

Love's Labors Won
22 March 1999 (StudioBriefing)
Shakespeare in Love (1998) may have won the best picture award. Steven Spielberg may have won for best director. But it was Roberto Benigni who enlivened Sunday night's Academy Awards presentations, standing in triumph atop the seat backs at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles when his film, Life Is Beautiful (1997), won for best foreign-language film and later when he launched into a rambling, virtually incomprehensible -- yet utterly charming -- acceptance speech when he was named best actor -- the first man ever to receive that award for a foreign-language film. He thanked the Oscar crowd for their "hailstorm of kindness of gratitude" and his parents for giving him the greatest gift of all -- "poverty." (Benigni easily upstaged the show's host, Whoopi Goldberg, whose often, er, off-color comments appeared especially crude and strained at the black-tie affair. At one point, even she seemed to concede that she was amusing herself more than the audience. "Your missing Billy just about now, ain't ya?" she said.) Even what had been expected to be the most electric moment of the evening, the presentation of a lifetime-achievement award to 89-year-old director Elia Kazan turned out to be something of a dud. Early in the evening presenter Chris Rock, taking a shot at Kazan, who had cooperated with the Communist witch hunters of the fifties, badly misfired with a crude crack: "You better get Kazan away from De Niro because you know he hates rats." Robert De Niro, who, with Martin Scorsese, presented the award to Kazan, blew his lines, and Scorsese nervously appeared to be bracing himself for an outburst from the audience. None was heard. Most in the crowd gave the seemingly befuddled Kazan a standing ovation (although some seemed slow to rise, seeming to check first to see who was and who was not doing so) with Nick Nolte and Ed Harris being notable exceptions. (Spielberg applauded but did not stand.) Kazan spoke briefly. "I want to thank the Academy for its courage, generosity, " he said. "I think I could just slip away."

Wga-East Damns Kazan Award
15 March 1999 (StudioBriefing)
The executive council of the Eastern unit of the Writers Guild of America has voted to protest against the motion picture Academy's decision to present an honorary Oscar to Elia Kazan at the awards ceremony next Sunday night. In a statement, the group accused Kazan of causing "irrevocable harm to the lives and careers of several professional colleagues by informing the committee that they had once belonged to the Communist Party."

Movie Academy Selects Presenters For Kazan Award
5 March 1999 (StudioBriefing)
In an apparent ploy to stifle any possible demonstrations at the Oscars over the motion picture Academy's decision to present Elia Kazan a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's Oscars, the Academy has chosen Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese as the award's presenters, the New York Post reported today (Friday). De Niro and Scorsese are each identified with numerous leftist causes. Meanwhile, playwright Arthur Miller, who himself was the object of attack by Red hunters following World War 2, comments on the controversy in the current issue of The Nation, concluding: "I am perhaps overly sensitive to any attempts to, in effect, obliterate an artist's name because of his morals or political actions. ... History ought not to be rewritten; Elia Kazan did sufficient extraordinary work in theater and film to merit its acknowledgment."

Blacklisted Writers Step Up Anti-Kazan Campaign
18 February 1999 (StudioBriefing)
Onetime blacklisted screenwriter Bernard Gordon plans to leaflet a Writers Guild ceremony in Los Angeles Saturday to protest the decision of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to honor director director Elia Kazan with a special Oscar on March 21. Today's (Thursday) USA Today quotes Gordon as saying, "When the academy gives an award to an informer, they're saying informing and McCarthyism isn't so bad. They're validating those heinous actions." Another former blacklisted writer, Abraham Polonsky told the newspaper that Kazan "should be getting the Benedict Arnold award and the snitch-and-tell brass cross. ... When he goes to Dante's last circle in hell, he'll sit right next to Judas."

Will Kazan Foes Disrupt Oscars?
12 February 1999 (StudioBriefing)
Some members of the audience attending the March 21 Oscar ceremonies intend to demonstrate their displeasure at the decision to honor Elia Kazan this year by sitting on their hands or booing when the director appears on stage, the New York Post reported today (Friday). The intensity of the feelings against Kazan -- a onetime Communist who agreed to recant and name fellow party members in 1952 after reportedly being summoned to a meeting with 20th Century Fox president Spiros Skouras -- was illustrated by the comments of onetime blacklisted writer-director Abraham Polonsky, who told Entertainment Weekly: "I'll be watching, hoping someone shoots him."

On The Oscar Front
11 February 1999 (StudioBriefing)
The decision to honor famed director Elia Kazan at this year's Oscar ceremonies may well overshadow other award presentations as controversy over it continues to mount. Today's (Thursday) Los Angeles Times reported that a group calling itself the Committee Against Silence, whose motto is "the blacklist is never over, " is planning to stage a protest at the ceremonies over the the decision to award a special Oscar to Kazan, the director of such films as On the Waterfront (1954), Streetcar Named Desire, A (1951), Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and East of Eden (1955). In 1952, under intense pressure from 20th Century Fox president Spiros Skouras, Kazan agreed to cooperate with the House Unamerican Activities Committee, confess that he had been a member of the Communist party and name party comrades.

Heston Says Kazan Honor Was Vetoed By Afi
20 January 1999 (StudioBriefing)
Charlton Heston has revealed that the American Film Institute had considered awarding director Elia Kazan (Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Streetcar Named Desire, A (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), East of Eden (1955)) its Life Achievement Award in 1988 and 1989. In 1988, Heston writes in a letter appearing in today's (Wednesday) Wall Street Journal, Kazan was edged out by David Lean. The following year, Heston, who had resigned as AFI chairman but remained as president, attended a board meeting -- his last -- at which, he writes, it appeared that Kazan would be selected for the Institute's top honor. "We were down to a short list of three when a young producer, Gayle Ann Hurd, stood up abruptly, " Heston recalls. "'I know he's a great director, ' she said, 'but we can't give this award to a man who named names!' Testified as a "friendly" witness before HUAC ... Once again Mr. Kazan was denied." Commenting on the decision by the Motion Picture Academy to present a special Oscar to Kazan in March, Heston remarks, "It took a long time, but justice has been done. ... Will the AFI do the same -- at last?"