CAUSE: Katy Jurado died aged 78 of a heart attack in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
K
Pauline Kael
Born June 19, 1919
Died September 3, 2001
Rude critic. Born in Sonoma County, California, Pauline Kael studied philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley but left without taking a degree. She came late to journalism; she was 35 before she penned her first review (of Limelight which she slated as “Slimelight”). Her critical career lasted 38 years, mostly with the New Yorker, during which time she delighted readers and annoyed film-makers in equal measure. She was called “the most brilliantly ad hoc critic of her time” by one fellow critic. Kael enjoyed championing movies that she believed in even if the public consensus was against her. She called Rain Man “a wet piece of kitsch”. Of a famous albeit unnamed actress she commented, “She makes a career of seeming to overcome being miscast.” For ten years from 1955 she was a cinema manager in Berkeley. Then she and daughter, Gina, moved to the East Coast of America where she began reviewing for several magazines although she lost her job with McCall’s when she criticised The Sound Of Music. In 1979 and 1980 she took a break from reviewing and worked for Warren Beatty as a production executive and also as a scout for Paramount. She retired in March 1991. She published several books of movie criticism.
CAUSE: Kael died aged 82 at her home in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, from Parkinson’s disease.
Madeleine Kahn
Born September 29, 1942
Died December 3, 1999
Quirkily original. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised there and in New York, Madeleine Kahn is probably best known for her work with Mel Brooks. She studied speech therapy at Hofstra University on Long Island and also appeared in drama there. She was warned by a teacher that her baby way of talking would hinder her career but instead Kahn used it to her advantage. She became a regular at New York’s Upstairs at the Downstairs Club and on television’s Tonight Show With Johnny Carson. It was Peter Bogdanovich who spotted her potential and cast her in her first two films. Her movies included The Dove (1968) as Sigfrid, What’s Up, Doc? (1972) as Eunice Burns, a teacher in From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler (1973), Paper Moon (1973) as the floozy Trixie Delight for which she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, Young Frankenstein (1974) as Elizabeth, Blazing Saddles (1974) as Lili Von Shtupp (shtupp is Yiddish for fuck) for which she was nominated for her second Best Supporting Actress Oscar, The Adventure Of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother (1975) as Jenny Hill, At Long Last Love (1975) as Kitty O’Kelly, Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) as Estie Del Ruth, High Anxiety (1977) as Victoria Brisbane, The Cheap Detective (1978) as Mrs Montenegro, Happy Birthday, Gemini (1980) as Bunny Weinberger, Wholly Moses (1980) as the witch, History Of The World: Part I (1981) as Empress Nympho, Yellowbeard (1983) as Betty, Clue (1985) as Mrs White, An American Tail (1986) as Gussie Mausheimer, Betsy’s Wedding (1990) as Lola Hopper, Nixon (1995) as Martha Mitchell, A Bug’s Life (1998) as Gypsy and Judy Berlin (1999) as Alice Gold. She was the only cast member who could actually sing and dance in Bogdanovich’s execrable musical At Long Last Love but she did seem to pick an unusually large number of bad films. On stage she fared rather better, picking up a Tony award in 1993 for The Sisters Rosensweig. In October 1998 she married lawyer John Hansbury.
CAUSE: She died of ovarian cancer aged 57 in New York.
Boris Karloff
(WILLIAM HENRY PRATT)
Born November 23, 1887
Died February 2, 1969
The horror star. Born in Camberwell, London, the unfortunately named Bill Pratt was the youngest of nine children (eight boys) of Edward John Pratt, a civil servant with the Indian Salt Revenue Service. He intended to follow his father into diplomacy but instead emigrated to Montreal, Canada, in 1909 where he worked on a farm being paid $10 a month. He became interested in drama and joined various repertory companies touring Canada and America. He took his name in 1911 from a seventh-century ancestor, adding Boris because he liked the sound of it. During one foray to the States he made his first film, The Dumb Girl Of Portici (1916), which starred Anna Pavlova. He thought no more of filmdom until he found himself unemployed three years later and decided to have a crack at acting in movies. However, like many, he was not an overnight success and worked as a lorry driver and dug ditches to support himself while waiting for the big break. His early films included The Prince And Betty (1919), The Masked Raider (1919), The Lightning Raider (1919), His Majesty, The American (1919), The Last Of The Mohicans (1920) as a Native American, The Deadlier Sex (1920) as Jules Borney, The Hope Diamond Mystery (1921), Without Benefit Of Clergy (1921) as Ahmed Khan, Omar The Tentmaker (1922) as Imam Mowaffak, The Infidel as the Nabob, The Prisoner as Prince Kapolski, Dynamite Dan (1924) as Tony, Forbidden Cargo (1925) as Pietro Castillano, The Prairie Wife (1925) as Diego, Her Honor, The Governor (1926) as Snipe Collins, The Golden Web (1926) as Dave Sinclair, Flaming Fury (1926) as Gaspard, The Princess From Hoboken (1927) as Pavel, The Devil’s Chaplain (1929) as Boris, Anne Against The World (1929), The Unholy Night as Abdoul, The Bad One as Monsieur Gaston, The Utah Kid (1930) as Baxter, The Mad Genius as Fedor’s father, The Guilty Generation (1931) as Tony Ricca and Young Donovan’s Kid (1931) as Cokey Joe. He first came to notice in The Criminal Code (1931) as Ned Galloway, a role he had played on stage. It was later the same year that his star really shone, when James Whale cast him as the monster in Frankenstein. To add mystery, in the opening credits, Karloff was billed as ‘?’. The part had been turned down by Bela Lugosi but (6)߰Karloff was a natural and forever after would be associated with horror films. The costume he wore to transform himself into the monster weighed a staggering 67lb. Off screen Karloff was a kind, gentle man with a passion for cricket. His later films included Scarface as Gaffney, The Mummy (1932) as Imhotep/Ardath Bey, The Mask Of Fu Manchu (1932) as Dr Fu Manchu, The House Of Rothschild (1934) as Count Ledrantz, The Ghoul (1934) as Professor Morlant, The Black Cat (1934) as Hjalmar Poelzig, Bride Of Frankenstein (1935) as the monster, The Raven (1935) as Edmond Bateman, The Walking Dead (1936) as John Ellman, Charlie Chan At The Opera (1937) as Gravelle, West Of Shanghai (1937) as Wu Yen Fang, James Lee Wong in Mr Wong, Detective (1938), The Mystery Of Mr Wong (1939), Mr Wong In Chinatown (1939), The Fatal Hour (1940) and Doomed To Die (1940), The Man They Could Not Hang (1939) as Dr Henryk Savaard, Devil’s Island (1939) as Dr Charles Gaudet, Son Of Frankenstein (1939) as the monster, Before I Hang (1940) as Dr John Garth, Black Friday (1940) as Dr Ernest Sovac, The Man With Nine Lives (1940) as Dr Leon Kravaal, The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942) as Professor Nathaniel Billings, House Of Frankenstein (1944) as Dr Gustav Niemann, The Body Snatcher (1945) as John Gray, Isle Of The Dead (1945) as General Nikolas Pherides, Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947) as Gruesome, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (1947) as Dr Hugo Hollingshead, Unconquered (1947) as Chief Guyasuta, Abbott & Costello Meet The Killer, Boris Karloff ( 1949) in which Karloff doesn’t actually play the killer (he is Swami Talpur), Colonel March Investigates (1952) as Colonel March, Abbott & Costello Meet Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (1953) as Dr Henry Jekyll/Mr Hyde, Voodoo Island (1957) as Phillip Knight, Grip Of The Strangler (1958) as James Rankin (Dr Richard Tennant), Frankenstein – 1970 (1958) as Baron Frankenstein, The Raven (1963) as Dr Scarabus, El Coleccionista De Cadáveres (1967) as Charles Badulescu, Targets (1968) as Byron Orlok, Isle Of The Snake People (1968) as Carl van Molder, House Of Evil (1968) as Matthias Morteval and Curse Of The Crimson Altar (1968) as Professor John Marshe. In 1923 he married dancer Helen Vivien Soule but that ended in divorce five years later. In 1930 he married librarian Dot Stine but they divorced after one daughter (Sara Jane who was born in 1938) 16 years later on April 9, 1946. Two days later, he married Evelyn Hope Helmore in Boulder City, Nevada.
CAUSE: Aged 81, (6)߰Karloff died in Midhurst, Sussex, from a respiratory disease. He had spent his final years in a wheelchair due to crippling arthritis. He left £2,4
80. On February 3, 2000 Karloff’s daughter sued Universal City Studios for $10 million. She alleged that Universal had cheated her out of her share of the royalties from the merchandising of her father’s image and likeness. On December 15 a confidential settlement was reached between the two parties and all records sealed.
Danny Kaye
(DAVID DANIEL KAMINSKI)
Born January 18, 1913
Died March 3, 1987
All-rounder. Born in Brooklyn, New York, 5́ 11˝ Kaye grew up in a household in which the first language was Yiddish. While still in his early teens he became a stand-up comedian in hotels in the Catskills resort. He spent much time in the Thirties appearing in cabaret and later on Broadway, where he was spotted by Samuel Goldwyn. He was a hit in the Forties but by the Fifties his film career was almost over and so he turned to television. His films included Up In Arms (1944) as Danny Weems, Wonder Man (1945) as Buzzy Belew/Edwin Dingle, The Kid From Brooklyn (1946) as Burleigh ‘Tiger’ Sullivan, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (1947) as Walter Mitty, A Song Is Born (1948) as Professor Hobart Frisbee, The Inspector General (1949) as Georgi, On The Riviera (1951) as Jack Martin/Henri Duran, Hans Christian Andersen (1952) as Hans Christian Andersen, White Christmas (1954) as Phil Davis, Knock On Wood (1954) as Jerry Morgan/Papa Morgan, The Court Jester (1956) as Hawkins, Me And The Colonel (1958) as S.L. Jacobowsky, The Five Pennies (1959) as Loring ‘Red’ Nichols, The Man From The Diner’s Club (1963) as Ernest Klenk and The Madwoman Of Chaillot (1969). Kaye had an aversion to autograph hunters, often telling them that he only looked like Danny Kaye. On January 3, 1940, he married Sylvia Fine (b. New York, August 29, 1893 or 1913, d. October 28, 1991, of emphysema) and she quickly took over the running of her husband’s life. Far from being the ideal couple as portrayed in the press it was a marriage of convenience and domination, both Sylvia’s. Their only daughter, Dena, was born in New York on December 17, 1946. In December 1983 he and Sylvia legally warned their daughter that if she were to write a book about “the family’s dirty laundry” she would be disinherited. Was the only “dirty laundry” the dysfunctional state of her parents’ marriage or was there more to it? For years rumours have circulated that Kaye was homosexual. In particular, it is said he had an affair with Laurence Olivier. Dame Peggy Ashcroft commented, “Of course I knew Laurence Olivier and Danny Kaye were having a long-term affair. So did all of London. So did their wives. Why is America always the last to know?” Elsa Lanchester added, “Danny Kaye is an acquired taste. On the screen. In person, he wasn’t the least bit funny. Rather, he was egotistical and one of those comedians who secretly envy dramatic actors. Add to that his ever-present and unpleasant wife, and his being as they say in the closet, and he was no picnic to work with.” Kaye’s biographer argues that there is no substantive evidence to support allegations of an affair, merely supposition. Two of Olivier’s biographers report on the affair and Olivier told his own editor that he had dropped tales of homosexuality from his own autobiography because he didn’t want to upset his wife, Joan Plowright. Gay actor-turned-designer Billy Haines said of Kaye: “I think that he’s the most repressed innate homosexual I ever met. Do not ask me if he’s been with this one or that one, I have no idea if he’s ever done it. But it’s there, in him.”
CAUSE: In November 1962 Kaye underwent an emergency appendectomy. In 1982 he was operated on for a hernia and the following year for a “leg condition”. This led to pains in his chest and he underwent a heart bypass procedure. During the operation Kaye contracted Hepatitis C, for which he was hospitalised several times. The chief surgeon was Dr Hyman Engelberg who had been Marilyn Monroe’s doctor. Rumours surfaced that Kaye had, in fact, contracted AIDS from the infected blood, because there was no screening in those days. However, his doctor insisted it was hepatitis. Kaye became weaker and died in Cedars-Sinai Hospital Medical Center, 8700 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, from “a heart attack brought on by internal bleeding and post-transfusion hepatitis”. He was 74. His body was taken to Hillside Memorial Park, 6001 West Centinela Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90045 but then was moved to a crematorium and then his ashes were taken to New York. His widow, Sylvia, as manipulating in death as she was in life, left strict instructions that the exact location of his final resting place was never to be revealed.
FURTHER READING: Nobody’s Fool: The Lives Of Danny Kaye – Martin Gottfried (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994).
Elia Kazan
(ELIA KAZANJIOGLOU)
Born September 7, 1909
Died September 28, 2003
Gadge. The method director who was regarded by some as the greatest single influence on post-war American theatre and cinema. Kazan was born in Constantinople, Turkey, the son of George Kazanjioglou and Athena Shishmanoglou (b. Makrikeu, Constantinople, Turkey, d. 1976 of cancer) into an Armenian family. When he was four, his parents moved to America and settled in New York where his father became a carpet dealer. Kazan was educated at Williams College, New York (enrolling in the autumn of 1926 and graduating in 1930), and Yale, and studied for the stage at Yale Dramatic School. In 1932, he joined the Group Theater as an actor and assistant stage manager. He was with the company on its successful visit to London with Golden Boy in 1938. Kazan directed his first stage play in 1935, and though he went on acting regularly for a decade, and occasionally in films, it was as a Broadway director that he made his name. His work included Thunder Rock (opening at the Mansfield Theater on November 14, 1939; running for 23 performances); The Skin Of Our Teeth (opening at the Plymouth Theater, November 18, 1944; running for 355 performances); Jacobowsky And The Colonel (opening at the Martin Beck Theater, March 14, 1939; running for 415 performances); Deep Are The Roots (opening at the Fulton Theater, September 26, 1945; running for 477 performances); Camino Real (opening at the National Theater, March 19, 1953; running for 60 performances); Tea And Sympathy (opening at the Barrymore Theater, September 30, 1953; running for 712 performances); William Inge’s The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs (opening at the Music Box Theater, December 5, 1957; running for 468 performances) and Archibald MacLeish’s J.B. (opening at the Anta Theater, December 11, 1958; running for 364 performances). In 1963 he became co-director of the Repertory Theater of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, staging Arthur Miller’s After The Fall (January 23, 1964) and Incident At Vichy, as well as The Changeling. Kazan forsook the theatre because, “There is no damned theatre any more. It’s boring and archaic and I never go to the theatre. I hate the theatre. Movies is where all the action is.” Kazan had made his film début in 1934 in Ralph Steiner’s short Pie In The Sky. Three years later, he directed a documentary about Tennessee miners, The People Of The Cumberland. He was also responsible for a full-length documentary for the US Department of Agriculture, It’s Up To You (1941), about food rationing. His feature film directing career began in 1945 when he made the big screen version of the Broadway play A Tree Grows In Brooklyn for Fox. When he landed in Tinseltown, he was advised to change his name to Cezanne. Kazan protested that there was already a celebrated painter of that name. A Fox executive responded, “You make just one good picture, and nobody will ever remember the other guy.” He directed an “epically dreary” Western The Sea Of Grass (released April 25, 1947) which starred Spencer Tracy as Colonel James Brewton, a cattle tycoon so obsessed by his work that he alienates his family. Kazan’s next film, the thriller Boomerang! (1947) starring Dana Andrews, Jane Wyatt, Lee J. Cobb, Sam Levene, Ed Begley, Sr and Karl Malden was shot entirely on location. In the summer of 1947 he filmed Laura Z. Hobson’s novel Gentlemen’s Agreement for 20th Century Fox and hired Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield and Celeste Holm. It was a film about a Gentile writer who poses as a Jew to expose anti-Semitism but Jews Louis B. Mayer and Samuel Goldwyn could not understand why the Gentile Darryl F. Zanuck wanted to make it. Peck was a Catholic and Garfield was the only principal cast member who was Jewish. Fox’s tag line for the film was “The Picture That Calls A Spade, A Spade”. On March 2
0, 1948, at the Oscars held at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, the film, which had opened in New York in November 1947 and Hollywood just before Christmas 1947, won Best Picture, Best Director (for Kazan) and Best Supporting Actress (for Holm). Holm obviously did not expect to win. As Donald Crisp announced her name she was sitting knitting and dropped the ball of yarn under her seat. Crisp stayed on stage to present Kazan with his gong. Gregory Peck was nominated as Best Actor but lost out to Ronald Colman in A Double Life (1947). Dorothy McGuire lost to Loretta Young in The Farmer’s Daughter (1947) for the Best Actress Oscar. Moss Hart was also nominated for Best Screenplay and Harmon Jones for Best Film Editing. Zanuck had been wary of hiring Kazan because “I am naturally suspicious of deep thinkers in relation to motion pictures. They sometimes think so deep that they miss the point.” Kazan’s next film was also a thinker. Pinky (1949) was a racial drama about a light-skinned black girl (Jeanne Crain) who passed for white until she went home to Mississippi. Another thriller followed. Panic In The Streets (1950) saw the nascence of the punchy realism that was to infect Kazan’s future work. Richard Widmark played Dr Clinton Reed, a New Orleans public health official, who has 48 hours to find Blackie (Jack Palance), a criminal who unknowingly carries a deadly virus. Edna and Edward Anhalt won the Best Motion Picture Story Oscar for Panic In The Streets. For his next film Kazan turned to Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Kazan had already directed Marlon Brando in the 1947 Broadway production and contrasted Brando’s brooding, instinctive Stanley Kowalski against the conventional histrionics of Vivien Leigh (who replaced the original Jessica Tandy) as Blanche Dubois. A Streetcar Named Desire was filmed on location in New Orleans, Louisiana and the Warner Bros studios between August 14 and mid-October 1950 and released on March 22, 1951. The film required 68 rewrites from the stage version to appease the various censorious bodies. Blanche’s nymphomania was toned down and mentions of her first husband’s homosexuality excised. Kazan wrote of Brando’s portrayal of the animally magnetic, uncouth, slobbish Kowalski, “If there is a better performance by a man in the history of film in America, I don’t know what it is.” The film received Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Black & White Art Direction, Best Sound Recording, Best Scoring Of A Dramatic Picture and Best Black & White Costume Design nominations. On March 20, 1952, only Leigh (Best Actress), Karl Malden (Best Supporting Actor as Mitch) and Kim Hunter (Best Supporting Actress as Stella Kowalski) went home from the RKO Pantages Theater in Hollywood clutching Oscars. Kazan worked again with Brando in Viva Zapata! (1952) even though studio honcho Darryl Zanuck did not want Brando. Kazan stood firm and Brando repaid his belief, receiving his second Oscar nod and his second defeat, losing to Gary Cooper in High Noon. Kazan’s next film was Man On A Tightrope (1953) starring Frederic March, Terry Moore, Cameron Mitchell, Gloria Grahame and Adolph Menjou. Then he was back working with Brando in On The Waterfront (filmed in Hoboken, New Jersey between November 17, 1953 and January 1954 and released on July 14, 1954). The powerful film about whistle blowing had parallels in real life. On April 13, 1952, Kazan named names before the House of Un-American Activities Committee about former Communist comrades in the theatre. Having admitted his membership of the Communist Party during his days with the Group Theater, he declined at first to name fellow artists but he later changed his mind. The next day he placed an advertisement in Daily Variety and The New York Times praising his own behaviour. Kazan did not need to testify. His Broadway career would have been safe as the black list only affected the West Coast. Rumours circulated that Fox had paid Kazan a large sum of money for testifying. His actions had cost him friends and would haunt him for the rest of his life. Brando was furious with Kazan for informing but full of admiration for his talent as a director. Arthur Miller refused to write the screenplay because of his disgust at Kazan’s actions. It was written by another informer Budd Schulberg and it co-starred Lee J. Cobb who had also blabbed about who was a communist or had sympathies. Many of the film’s leading characters were based on real people. Terry Malloy (Brando) was based on Anthony De Vincenzo, a whistle-blowing docker; Roman Catholic priest John M. Corridan was the basis for Father Barry (Karl Malden) and Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) was the gangster Anthony Anastasio (b. Italy 1906, d. 1963 of natural causes), the brother of Albert Anastasia who was known as the Lord High Executioner of Murder Inc. On March 30, 1955, On The Waterfront won Oscars for Brando, Best Film, Best Director (Kazan), Best Supporting Actress (Eva Marie Saint), Best Screenplay, Best Black & White Cinematography, Best Black & White Art Direction and Best Editing. Other nominations were two Best Supporting Actors (Malden and Cobb) and Best Dramatic Score. The film was Kazan’s way of rationalising his behaviour in naming names. In East Of Eden (filmed between May 27 and August 9, 1954 and premièred in New York on March 9, 1955), his first colour and widescreen film, Kazan introduced another superb method actor in James Dean whose casting had been announced by Warner Bros on March 6, 1954. It was Kazan’s last major hit apart from Splendour In The Grass. Written by Paul Osborn from John Steinbeck’s novel, East Of Eden was lauded as Kazan’s best work so far. More Oscar nominations followed. Best Actor (James Dean), Best Supporting Actress (Jo Van Fleet), Best Director and Best Screenplay but only Van Fleet won on March 21, 1956. Baby Doll (1956) starred Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach and Karl Malden and revealed Kazan’s fondness for long scenes. After filming East Of Eden in colour Kazan reverts to monochrome for this film and his next. A Face In The Crowd (1957) shows the abuse of television’s power over the masses. Written by Budd Schulberg, a TV executive creates a star out of a tramp. Kazan’s next film was Wild River (1960) about schemes to flood the Tennessee Valley and build dams at the end of the Depression. It was a flop. Splendour In The Grass (1961) introduced Warren Beatty to the screen as Natalie Wood’s love interest. It turned out to be a real affair as well as a reel one. Beatty was called “the most exciting American male in movies” by Life magazine. On April 9, 1962, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, William Inge won the Best Writing Oscar while Natalie Wood lost out to Sophia Loren for Two Women (1961) in the Best Actress category. Resorting at length to his own youthful memories in America, America (1963), known in Britain as The Anatolian Smile, Kazan seemed defeated by the mass of material he had taken from his own book. In The Arrangement (1969), another semi-autobiographical film from his shrill novel, the issue of selling out again cropped up. Kazan’s final film was The Last Tycoon (1976), based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s last and unfinished novel, with a script by Harold Pinter. The movie flopped. In 1987 the Directors’ Guild of America awarded Kazan the D.W. Griffith Award. In 1999, as a result of his stance during the HUAC hearings, there was controversy when he won a lifetime achievement Oscar. John Sanford whose late wife Marguerite Roberts had been a victim of the black list spoke for many when he said, “Kazan is a fink bastard. The son of a bitch deserves nothing more than a kick in the ass.” The Village Voice put a caricature of Kazan on its cover holding a golden rodent instead of an Oscar with the headline “Hollywood’s #1 Rat”. Film historian Patrick McGilligan said, “He didn’t name anyone in the cell. He named the people he didn’t like. He named the people who he felt condescended to him … He was a cut-throat guy.” Hollywood was divided. Charlton Heston, not surprisingly, was in favour of presenting Kazan with the award, as was director Mark Rydell, actors Warren Beatty, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, and Tom Arnold who said, “If we didn’t honour backstabbers in this town, there would be no awards ceremony.” Martin Landau, a friend of Kazan, admitted, “As an artist he deserves to be honoured, as a man he doesn’t.” Rod Steiger, who had appeared in On The Waterfront, also thought Kazan should not be honoured. On March 21, 1999, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 500 people gathered outside, many with banners declaring “Honor Courage, Not Kazan,” “Best Supporting Snitch,” “Blacklisted Directors Coulda Been Contenders” and “Kazan – the Linda Tripp of the 50
s”. At the Academy Awards, whenever a celebrity leaves their seat someone – a filler – sits in so that the auditorium never looks less than full. The presentation to Kazan was to be made after a commercial break. During the break so many of the audience left their seats so as not to be present when Kazan received his trophy that producers worried that they did not have enough fillers. Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese presented the Oscar to Kazan. Karl Malden, Warren Beatty, Kathy Bates, Lynn Redgrave, Kurt Russell, Meryl Streep, Billy Bob Thornton, Laura Dern, Linda Hunt and Debbie Allen stood to applaud. Steven Spielberg, Jim Carrey and Patrick Stewart clapped but remained seated. Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, Nick Nolte, Ian McKellen, Brendan Fraser, Holly Hunter, David Geffen and Sherry Lansing remained seated and passive. Elia Kazan was married three times. By his first wife, Molly Day Thatcher (d. December 1963), whom he married on December 2, 1932, he had two sons, Chris (b. 1938) and Nick (b. 1946), and two daughters, Judy (b. 1936) and Katharine (b. 1947); by his second wife, the actor and director Barbara Loden (b. Marion, North Carolina, July 8, 1932, d. New York, September 5, 1980 of liver and breast cancer), whom he married on June 5, 1967, he had one son, Leo (b. New York, January 2, 1962). He married Frances Rudge on June 28, 1982 and became stepfather to her two children.
Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Page 101