John Nicholas Cassavetes (December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was an 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 self-financing, producing, and distributing his own films. He received nominations for three Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and an Emmy Award.

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 acted in notable films, such as Martin Ritt's film noir Edge of the City (1957), Robert Aldrich's war film The Dirty Dozen (1967), Roman Polanski's horror film Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Elaine May's crime drama Mikey and Nicky (1976). For The Dirty Dozen, he earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

As a director, Cassavetes became known for a string of critically acclaimed independent dramas including Shadows (1959), Faces (1968), Husbands (1970), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Opening Night (1977), and Love Streams (1984). His films employed an actor-centered approach which prioritized raw character relationships, "small feelings", and "messy anguish [that] sanctifies," while rejecting traditional Hollywood plotting, method acting, and stylization. His films became associated with an improvisational aesthetic and a cinéma vérité feel. He received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay (Faces) and Best Director (A Woman Under the Influence). Shadows, Faces, and A Woman Under the Influence have been inducted into the National Film Registry.

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

John Nicholas Cassavetes was born in New York City on December 9, 1929, the son of Greek-American actress Katherine Cassavetes (née Demetriou), 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. 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 Burlington, Vermont, but was expelled due to his failing grades.

When asked by André S. Labarthe during the making of Faces whether he had the desire to make a musical film, Cassavetes responded he wanted to make only one musical, Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Cassavetes was passionate about a wide range of music, from jazz to classical to rock, saying "I like all music. It makes you feel like living. Silence is death."

Cassavetes worked with composer Bo Harwood from 1970 to 1984 on six films in several different capacities, even though Harwood had initially only signed on to do "a little editing" for Husbands, and "a little sound editing" for Minnie and Moskowitz. Harwood composed poignant music for Cassavetes' following three films, and was also credited as "Sound" for two of them. During these projects Harwood wrote several songs, some with Cassavetes contributing lyrics and rudimentary tunes. During his work with Cassavetes, Harwood claimed the notoriously unpredictable director preferred to use the "scratch track" version of his compositions, rather than to let Harwood refine and re-record them with an orchestra. Some of these scratch tracks were recorded in Cassavetes' office, with piano or guitar, as demos, and then eventually ended up in the final film. While this matched the raw, unpolished feel that marks most of Cassavetes' films, Harwood was sometimes surprised and embarrassed.

The relationship between Harwood and Cassavetes ended amicably. When asked by documentarian Michael Ventura during the making of Cassavetes' last film Love Streams, what he had learned from working with Cassavetes, Harwood replied:

Personal life

thumb|Cassavetes with his wife, actress [[Gena Rowlands, in 1959]]

Marriage

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

A long-time alcoholic, Cassavetes died in Los Angeles from complications of cirrhosis 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. 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.

Legacy and reception

thumb|Cassavetes' grave

Cassavetes is the subject of several biographies. Cassavetes on Cassavetes is a collection of interviews collected or conducted by Boston University film scholar Ray Carney, in which the filmmaker recalled his experiences, influences, and outlook on the film industry. In the 2005 Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair, one article features a tribute to Cassavetes by three members of his stock company, Rowlands, Gazzara, and Falk.

Many of Cassavetes' films are owned by Faces Distribution, a company overseen by Gena Rowlands and Julian Schlossberg, distributed by Jumer Films (Schlossberg's own company), with additional sales and distribution by Janus Films. In September 2004, The Criterion Collection produced a Region 1 DVD box set of his five independent films: Shadows, Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and Opening Night. Also featured in the set is a documentary about the life and works of Cassavetes, A Constant Forge, a booklet featuring critical assessments of the director's work and tributes by old friends. Criterion released a Blu-ray version of the set in October 2013. In 2005, a box set of the same films was released in Region 2 by Optimum Releasing. The Optimum DVD of Shadows has a voice-over commentary by Seymour Cassel. Then, in 2014, the Faces/Jumer library became the property of Shout! Factory, which acquired the films' holding parent company, Westchester Films.

Cassavetes' son Nick followed in his father's footsteps as an actor and director, adapting the She's Delovely screenplay his father had written into the 1997 film She's So Lovely, which starred Sean Penn, as John Cassavetes had wanted. Alexandra Cassavetes directed the documentary Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession in 2004, and in 2006 served as 2nd Unit Director on her brother Nick's film, Alpha Dog. Cassavetes' younger daughter Zoe wrote and directed the 2007 film Broken English, featuring Rowlands and Parker Posey.

The New Yorker wrote that Cassavetes "may be the most influential American director of the last half century"—this in announcing that all the films he directed, plus others he acted in, were being screened in a retrospective tribute at the Brooklyn Academy of Music throughout July 2013. AllMovie called Cassavetes "an iconoclastic maverick".

The Independent Spirit Awards named one of their categories after Cassavetes, the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award. A one-person show about John Cassavetes titled Independent premiered at Essential Theatre in Atlanta in August 2017. The play was written by John D. Babcock III and starred actor Dan Triandiflou as Cassavetes. The song "What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" by the band Le Tigre is about misogynistic themes within John Cassavetes' films and whether they can still be praised after those themes are identified. The song "Cassavetes" by the band Fugazi parallels John Cassavetes' independence from the film industry with the band's own independence from the record industry. In concert, singer Guy Picciotto introduced it as "a song about making your own road."

Filmography

<gallery mode="packed" heights="160px">

Faces (1968 poster - retouched).jpg|Faces (1968)

A Woman Under the Influence (1974 poster - retouched).jpg|A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie Starring Ben Gazzara (1976 poster - Style A).jpg|The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)

Opening Night (1977 poster).jpg|Opening Night (1977)

</gallery>

As director

{| class="wikitable"

|- style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"

! Year

! Title

! Distributor

|-

| 1959

| Shadows

| British Lion Films

|-

| 1961

| Too Late Blues

| Paramount Pictures

|-

| 1963

| A Child Is Waiting

| United Artists

|-

| 1968

| Faces

| Continental Distributing

|-

| 1970

| Husbands

| Columbia Pictures

|-

| 1971

| Minnie and Moskowitz

| Universal Pictures

|-

| 1974

| A Woman Under the Influence

| rowspan=3|Faces Distribution

|-

| 1976

| The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

|-

| 1977

| Opening Night

|-

| 1980

| Gloria

| Columbia Pictures

|-

| 1984

| Love Streams

| Cannon Films

|-

| 1986

| Big Trouble

| Columbia Pictures

|}

Awards and nominations

As a filmmaker, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Faces (1968) and the Academy Award for Best Director for A Woman Under the Influence (1974). The Independent Spirit Awards named the John Cassavetes Award in his honor.

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Year

! Award

! Category

! Nominated work

! Result

! Ref.

|-

|1960 || Venice International Film Festival || Pasinetti Award || rowspan=3|Shadows || || rowspan=23|

|-

|rowspan=2|1960 || rowspan=2|British Academy Film Awards || Best Film ||

|-

|Un Award ||

|-

|1967 || Academy Awards || Best Supporting Actor || rowspan=2|The Dirty Dozen ||

|-

|1968 || Golden Globes || Best Supporting Actor ||

|-

|1968 || Academy Awards || Best Original Screenplay || rowspan=6|Faces ||

|-

|rowspan=2|1968 || rowspan=2|Venice International Film Festival || Pasinetti Award ||

|-

|Golden Lion ||

|-

|1969 || Writers Guild of America || Best Original Screenplay ||

|-

|1969 || National Society of Film Critics || Best Screenplay ||

|-

|1969 || New York Film Critics Circle || Best Director ||

|-

|1973 || Writers Guild of America || Best Original Screenplay || Minnie and Moskowitz ||

|-

|1974 || Academy Awards || Best Director || rowspan=4|A Woman Under the Influence ||

|-

|rowspan=2|1974 || rowspan=2|Golden Globe Awards || Best Director ||

|-

|Best Screenplay ||

|-

|1975 || Writers Guild of America || Best Original Screenplay ||

|-

|1978 || Berlin International Film Festival || Golden Bear || Opening Night ||

|-

|rowspan=2|1980 || rowspan=2|Venice Film Festival || Golden Lion || rowspan=2|Gloria ||

|-

|Honorable Mention ||

|-

|1980 || Primetime Emmy Award || Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie || Flesh & Blood ||

|-

|rowspan=2|1984 || rowspan=2|Berlin International Film Festival || Golden Bear || rowspan=2|Love Streams ||

|-

|FIPRESCI Award ||

|-

|1986 || Los Angeles Film Critics Association || Lifetime Achievement Award || John Cassavetes ||

|}

{|class="wikitable"

|+Accolades for Cassavetes' film features

|-

!rowspan="2"|Year

!rowspan="2"|Feature

!colspan="2"|Academy Awards

!colspan="2"|BAFTAs

!colspan="2"|Golden Globes

|-

!Nominations

!Wins

!Nominations

!Wins

!Nominations

!Wins

|-

|1959

|Shadows

|

|

|align=center|4

|

|

|

|-

|1968

|Faces

|align=center|3

|

|

|

|

|

|-

|1970

|Husbands

|

|

|

|

|align=center|1

|

|-

|1974

|A Woman Under the Influence

|align=center|2

|

|

|

|align=center|4

|align=center|1

|-

|1977

|Opening Night

|

|

|

|

|align=center|2

|

|-

|1980

|Gloria

|align=center|1

|

|

|

|align=center|1

|

|-

!colspan="2"|Total

!6

!

!4

!

!8

!1

|}

Directed Academy Award performances<br />Under Cassavetes' direction, these actors have received Academy Award nominations for their performances in their respective roles.

{| class="wikitable"

|+

!Year

!Performer

!Film

!Result

|-

! colspan="4" |Academy Award for Best Actress

|-

|1974

|rowspan="2" |Gena Rowlands

|A Woman Under the Influence

|

|-

|1980

|Gloria

|

|-

! colspan="4" |Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor

|-

|1968

|Seymour Cassel

|Faces

|

|-

! colspan="4" |Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

|-

|1968

|Lynn Carlin

|Faces

|

|}

Notes

References

Further reading

  • Carney, Raymond; Francis, Junior, American Dreaming: The Films of John Cassavetes and the American Experience, Berkeley, CA / Los Angeles / London: University of California Press, 1985.
  • Carney, Raymond; Francis, Junior, The Films of John Cassavetes: Pragmatism, Modernism, and the Movies, Cambridge University Press, 1994.
  • Carney, Raymond; Francis, Junior, (Editor), Cassavetes on Cassavetes, Faber and Faber and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2001).
  • Warren, Charles, "Cavell, Altman and Cassavetes" in the Stanley Cavell special issue: Crouse, Jeffrey (ed.) Film International, Issue 22, Vol. 4, No. 4, 2006, pp.&nbsp;14–20.
  • The Criterion Collection
  • Playboy Magazine interview (07/1971)
  • Literature on John Cassavetes