Biography for
John Cassavetes (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

9 December 1929, New York City, New York, USA

Date of Death

3 February 1989, Los Angeles, California, USA (cirrhosis of the liver)

Birth Name

John Nicholas Cassavetes

Height

5' 7" (1.70 m)

Mini Biography

Actor and film director who was regarded as a pioneer of American cinema verité.

IMDb Mini Biography By: After EB

Spouse

Gena Rowlands

(9 April 1954 - 3 February 1989) (his death) 3 children

Trade Mark

Extreme close-ups, with the image going in and out of focus

Realistic, documentary-like films

Trivia

Father of Nick Cassavetes, Xan Cassavetes and Zoe R. Cassavetes. Son of Katherine Cassavetes.

Friend/actor Peter Falk said: "Cassavetes was the most fervent man I ever met, and he didn't have a copy-cat bone in his body."

A photograph of Cassavetes, taken during the production of his film Husbands (1970), appears on one stamp of a sheet of 10 USA 37¢ commemorative postage stamps, issued 25 February 2003, celebrating American Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes. The stamp honors directing.

Educated at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 189-194. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.

Friend/actor Peter Falk said: "Every Cassavetes film is always about the same thing. Somebody said 'Man is God in ruins,' and John saw the ruins with a clarity that you and I could not tolerate."

In Ray Carney's "Cassavetes on Cassavetes" book, Cassavetes confessed to his parents that he wanted to be an actor. His father wasn't initially thrilled at the idea of his son being an actor, but told him that he had to work hard because he would be portraying human emotions truthfully.

He was fully Greek in heritage.

Auditioned for The Actors Studio when he was starting out as an actor, but was rejected.

Despite many claiming that his films are improvised, it's actually a completed script that comes from improvised work by the actors. Another trademark of his films is that they're shot documentary-style.

He and Gena Rowlands made 10 movies together: A Child Is Waiting (1963), Faces (1968/I) , Gloria (1980), Love Streams (1984), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), Opening Night (1977), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Machine Gun McCain (1969), Two-Minute Warning (1976) and Tempest (1982)

Directed 3 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Seymour Cassel, Lynn Carlin and Gena Rowlands.

He and his good friend Ben Gazzara made 5 movies together: Husbands (1970), Capone (1975), If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969), Opening Night (1977) and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)

He and his good friend Peter Falk made 6 movies together: Husbands (1970), Machine Gun McCain (1969), Mikey and Nicky (1976), Opening Night (1977), Big Trouble (1986), A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and one movie made for TV: "Columbo: Étude in Black (#2.1)" (1972)

Born to Nicholas John Cassavetes and Katherine Cassavetes.

As of 2007, he is one of only 8 filmmakers to be nominated for Best Directing, Writing, and Acting Oscars over the course of his lifetime. The other 6 are Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, George Clooney, Roberto Benigni, John Huston and Kenneth Branagh.

Son-in-law of Lady Rowlands.

Brother-in-law of David Rowlands.

As of 2007, he is one of six directors who has directed his wife to a Best Actress Oscar nomination and is the only one to have directed her to two nominations (Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence (1974) & Gloria (1980)). The other five are Joel Coen directing Frances McDormand in Fargo (1996), Paul Newman directing Joanne Woodward in Rachel, Rachel (1968), Blake Edwards directing Julie Andrews in Victor Victoria (1982), Paul Czinner directing Elisabeth Bergner in Escape Me Never (1935) and Richard Brooks directing Jean Simmons in The Happy Ending (1969). Jules Dassin also directed his future wife Melina Mercouri in an Oscar-nominated performance (Never on Sunday (1960)), but they weren't married yet at the time of the nomination.

One of the screening rooms at the Thessaloniki Film Festival is named after him.

Dropped out of university to become a sports announcer.

Adhered to the Stanislavsky school of Method acting and taught acting classes in 1956, prior to making the film 'Shadows'.

Acted in films by other directors in order to finance his own projects.

While some of his Hollywood films (such as Too Late Blues (1961)) lost money, his own movies were often hugely successful. Shadows (1959), filmed with non-professional actors on the streets of New York with a hand-held camera on 16mm black & white film, cost a mere $40,000 and recouped its cost many times over, winning the 1960 Critics Award at the Venice Film Festival. Another of his films, Faces (1968/I), cost $1 million and made ten times as much in profits, as well as taking out another five prizes in Venice in 1970.

Personal Quotes

I'm sort of my own Mafia, you know, breaking my own knees.

There's a difference between ad-libbing and improvising. And there's a difference between not knowing what to do and just saying something. Or making choices as an actor. As a writer also, as a person who's making a film, as a cameraman, everything is a choice. And it seems to me I don't really have to direct anyone or write down that somebody's getting drunk; all I have to do is say that there's a bottle there and put a bottle there and then they're going to get drunk. I don't want to tell them how they're going to get drunk. I don't want to tell them how they're going to get drunk, or what they would do, and I don't want to restrict them in being able to carry out a beat, to fulfill an action. You can't say somebody's drunk, or in love.

"Ricardo Montalban is to improvisational acting what Mount Rushmore is to animation".

As an artist, I feel that we must try many things - but above all we must dare to fail.

People have forgotten how to relate or respond; what I'm trying to do with my movies is build something audiences can respond to.

When I started making films, I wanted to make Frank Capra pictures. But I've never been able to make anything but these crazy, tough pictures. You are what you are.

Say what you are. Not what you would like to be. Not what you have to be. Just say what you are. And what you are is good enough.

Everyone has made a love, religion, god. Time magazine had the audacity to kill God and those people are floundering and walking around the world with nothing in their lives, simply because they are not led by anybody with responsibility.

In the last couple of decades or so, something has happened to the American dream. I don't quite know what it is, and it's still not very clear in my mind. Confusion has replaced patriotism. The intellect has replaced love. If something doesn't make money, no one is interested. Everything is for sale. Emotions are sold. Sex is sold. Everything is sex. Cars, women, clothes, your face, your hands, your shoes! Look at the ads, at television. My emotions aren't for sale. My thoughts can't be bought. They're mine. I don't want movies that sell me something. I don't want to be told how to feel.

[on Gena Rowlands] She and I have friction in terms of lifestyle and taste. We agree in taste on nothing. She thinks so totally opposite to anything I would ever conceive!