Film and Stage Director, Author. He is recognized as one of the greatest directors in American theatre and films, receiving three Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for his directorial work. Besides being a director, he was a producer, author and actor. Born Elia Kazanjoglous in what was then Constantinople, Turkey, he arrived in New York with his family at age 4 and was educated in public schools in New York City. After graduating from New Rochelle High School, he attended Williams College in Massachusetts, graduating in 1930. From 1930 to 1932, he studied drama at Yale University. In the mid-1930s, he joined New York's experimental Group Theatre, where he practiced the "method" style of acting. Although he appeared in numerous stage roles, he is credited with couple film roles. After the Group Theatre disbanded in 1941, he shifted his career from acting to directing. While critics considered him an "actor's director", five of the plays staged by Kazan received Pulitzer Prizes for their authors: Thornton Wilder's "The Skin of Our Teeth," Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire," and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" and the Archibald MacLeish-David Amram musical "J.B." In 1958 he received a Tony Award as director for the musical "J.B." Kazan also found success as a film director in Hollywood in the 1940s. His first major movie project was "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" in 1945, which he followed with several films that took on social issues, including "Gentleman's Agreement" in 1947 and "Pinky" in 1949. In 1947, he co-founded the Actors Studio in New York. Besides his 1958 Tony Award, he received two Tony Awards for best director in "All My Sons" in 1947 and the other for "Death of a Salesman" in 1949. He also directed "A Streetcar Named Desire," which made a major star of Marlon Brando in 1947. A few years later, Kazan went to Hollywood to direct the film version of "A Streetcar Named Desire" with Brando again playing the lead role alongside Vivien Leigh. Kazan also directed Brando in "Viva Zapata!" in 1952, a biopic of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata. Kazan's career was interrupted by his interactions with the House Un-American Activities Committee, a federal committee that was investigating Americans' ties to Communism at the time. Under pressure and under oath from the HUAC, he confessed his two-year membership in an American cell of the Communist Party when he had been part of the Group Theatre in the 1930s. He also named eight fellow Group Theatre members, who had joined the Communist Party. As a result, others were blacklisted from their professions in Hollywood. This cooperation with the HUAC finished many of his long-time personal friendships as well as relationships with colleagues. However, Kazan made a professional comeback in 1954 with "On The Waterfront" starring Brando, who were both awarded Oscars for their work in this film. In 1953, he directed James Dean in "East of Eden". Kazan had several additional film successes in the early 1960s. One was "Wild River" and another was "Splendor in the Grass" featuring Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty. Of the three films, which he received credit as a producer, "Wild River is the most notable. "America, America", a 1963 film based on Kazan's own family background, earned him his final Oscar nomination for best director. In all, seven of his films received a total of 20 Academy Awards. He wrote several novels in the 1960s and 1970s, and in 1988, he published a biography titled "Elia Kazan: A Life." In 1982, President Ronald Reagan presented him with the Kennedy Center honors award for lifetime achievement in the arts, and even though some in Hollywood had not forgiven him for his actions during the days of McCarthyism, he was awarded an honorary Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 1999. In addition to these awards, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. He married three times and was a widower twice.