John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes[a] (December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was a Greek-American filmmaker and actor. He began as an actor in film and television before helping to pioneer modern American independent cinema as a writer and director, often producing and distributing his films with his own money.[2] He received nominations for three Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and an Emmy Award.
John Cassavetes
December 9, 1929
February 3, 1989 (aged 59)
- Filmmaker
- actor
1951–1989
Katherine Cassavetes (mother)
After studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Cassavetes started his career in television acting in numerous network dramas. From 1959 to 1960 he played the title role in the NBC detective series Johnny Staccato. He then acted in notable films such as Martin Ritt's film noir Edge of the City (1957), Roman Polanski's horror film Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Elaine May's crime drama Mikey and Nicky (1976). He earned an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance in the Robert Aldrich war film The Dirty Dozen (1967).[3][4]
Cassavetes became known for directing a string of critically acclaimed independent films including Shadows (1959), Faces (1968), Husbands (1970), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Opening Night (1977), Gloria (1980), and Love Streams (1984). His films employed an actor-centered approach which prioritized raw character relationships and "small feelings" while rejecting traditional Hollywood storytelling, method acting, and stylization. His films became associated with an improvisational aesthetic and a cinéma vérité feel.[b] He received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay (Faces) and Best Director (A Woman Under the Influence).
He frequently collaborated with American actress Gena Rowlands (to whom he was married from 1954 until his death in 1989) and friends Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara, and Seymour Cassel. Many of his films were shot and edited in his and Rowlands' own Los Angeles home. He and Rowlands had a son named Nick and two daughters named Alexandra and Zoe, all of whom followed them into acting and filmmaking.
Early life and education[edit]
John Nicholas Cassavetes was born in New York City on December 9, 1929, the son of Greek-American actress Katherine Cassavetes (née Demetre), who was later featured in some of his films, and Greek immigrant Nicholas John Cassavetes. His early years were spent with his family in Greece; when he returned to New York at the age of seven, he spoke no English.[6] He was then raised on Long Island, where he attended Paul D. Schreiber Senior High School (then known as Port Washington High School) from 1945 to 1947 and participated in Port Weekly (the school paper), Red Domino (interclass play), football, and the Port Light (yearbook).
Cassavetes attended Blair Academy in New Jersey and spent a semester at Champlain College in Plattsburgh, New York, but was expelled due to his failing grades.[c][9] He spent a few weeks hitchhiking to Florida and then transferred to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, encouraged by recently enrolled friends who told him the school was "packed with girls".[10] He graduated in 1950 and met his future wife Gena Rowlands at her audition to enter the Academy[11] in 1953. They were married four months later in 1954.[12] He continued acting in the theater, took small parts in films, and began working on television in anthology series such as Alcoa Theatre.
Career[edit]
Acting workshop[edit]
By 1956, Cassavetes had begun teaching an alternative to method acting in his own workshop—co-founded with friend Burt Lane in New York City—in which performance would be based on character creation, rather than backstory or narrative requirements.[13] Cassavetes particularly scorned Lee Strasberg's Method-based Actors Studio, believing that the Method was "more a form of psychotherapy than of acting" which resulted in sentimental cliches and self-indulgent emotion.[13] In contrast to the Actors Studio's "moody, broody anguish", the Cassavetes-Lane approach held that acting should be an expression of creative joy and exuberance, with emphasis put on the character's creation of "masks" in the process of interacting with other characters.[13]
Shortly after opening the workshop, Cassavetes was invited to audition at the Actors Studio, and he and Lane devised a prank: they claimed to be performing a scene from a recent stage production but in fact improvised a performance on the spot, fooling an impressed Strasberg.[13] Cassavetes then fabricated a story about his financial troubles, prompting Strasberg to offer him a full scholarship to the Studio; Cassavetes immediately rejected it, feeling that Strasberg did not know anything about acting if he had been so easily fooled by the two ruses.[13]
An improvisation exercise in the workshop inspired the idea for his writing and directorial debut, Shadows (1959; first version 1957). Cassavetes raised the funds for the production from friends and family, as well as listeners to Jean Shepherd's late-night radio talk-show Night People. His stated purpose was to make a film about modest-income “little people”, unlike Hollywood studio productions, which focused on stories about wealthy people. Cassavetes was unable to gain American distribution of Shadows, but it won the Critics Award at the Venice Film Festival. European distributors later released the movie in the United States as an import. Although the box-office returns of Shadows in the United States were slight, it did gain attention from the Hollywood studios.
Filmmaking style[edit]
Directing[edit]
Cassavetes' films aim to capture "small feelings" often repressed by Hollywood filmmaking, emphasizing intimate character examination and relationships rather than plot, backstory, or stylization.[32] He often presented difficult characters whose behaviors were not easily understood, rejecting simplistic psychological or narrative explanations for their actions.[33] Cassavetes also disregarded the "impressionistic cinematography, linear editing, and star-centred scene making" fashionable in Hollywood and art films.[34] Instead, he worked to create a comfortable and informal environment where actors could freely experiment with their performances and go beyond acting clichés or "programmed behaviors."[33]
Cassavetes also rejected the dominance of the director's singular vision, instead believing each character must be the actor's "individual creation" and refusing to explain the characters to his actors in any significant detail.[35] He claimed that "stylistic unity drains the humanity out of a text [...] The stories of many different and potentially inarticulate people are more interesting than a contrived narrative that exists only in one articulate man's imagination."[35] He frequently filmed scenes in long, uninterrupted takes, explaining that:
Personal life[edit]
Marriage[edit]
Cassavetes was married to American actress Gena Rowlands from 1954 until his death in 1989. Many of his films were shot and edited in his and Rowlands' own Los Angeles home. He and Rowlands had a son named Nick and two daughters named Alexandra and Zoe, all of whom followed them into acting and filmmaking.
Death[edit]
A long-time alcoholic,[47] Cassavetes died in Los Angeles from complications of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 59 on February 3, 1989. He is buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park cemetery in Los Angeles.
At the time of his death, Cassavetes had amassed a collection of more than 40 unproduced screenplays, as well as a novel, Husbands.[48] He also left three unproduced plays: Sweet Talk, Entrances and Exits, and Begin the Beguine, the last of which, in German translation, was co-produced by Needcompany of Belgium and Burgtheater of Vienna, and premiered on stage at Vienna's Akademietheater in 2014.[49][50]
As director