- Cassavetes, John
-
born Dec. 9, 1929, New York, N.Y., U.S.died Feb. 3, 1989, Los Angeles, Calif.U.S. film director and actor.He acted in films and in television dramas before making his directorial debut with the critically praised Shadows (1961), a low-budget independent film in the cinéma vérité style. He played featured roles in such films as The Dirty Dozen (1967) and Rosemary's Baby (1968) and returned to directing independent films, including Faces (1968), Husbands (1970), and A Woman Under the Influence (1974), which dramatized marital problems.
* * *
▪ American actor and directorborn Dec. 9, 1929, New York, N.Y., U.S.died Feb. 3, 1989, Los Angeles, Calif.American film director and actor who was regarded as a pioneer of American cinema verité (cinéma vérité).Cassavetes majored in English at Colgate University before studying acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City (1950). A method actor, he made his motion-picture debut as an extra in 14 Hours (1951) and his first television appearance in an episode of “Omnibus” in 1953. Although Shadows (1960), his directorial debut, was a low-budget, semi-improvised motion picture shot on 16-millimetre film stock, it captured the Critics Award at the 1960 Venice Film Festival. This success earned him two movie studio commissions, Too Late Blues (1962) and A Child Is Waiting (1963), both of them commercial failures. Specializing in villainous roles, he appeared as an actor in a number of motion pictures, including The Dirty Dozen (1967) and Rosemary's Baby (1968).As a director, Cassavetes was masterful in dramatizing marital problems, notably in such independent films as Faces (1968), Husbands (1970), and A Woman Under the Influence (1974), which starred his wife, Gena Rowlands. Some of his other directorial efforts include The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), Love Streams (1984), and Big Trouble (1986).* * *
Universalium. 2010.
