Matinee Classics - John Cassavetes Biography & Filmography

John Cassavetes ACTOR

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JOHN CASSAVETES BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

John Cassavetes was born on December 9th, 1929 in New York City, New York with the middle name Nicholas to parents Katherine and John Cassavetez. Throughout his career in the industry he became known as the pioneer of American cinema verité.

His childhood began being brought up in Greece and at the age of seven his family moved back to the United States. After attending Port Washington High School and Blair Academy in New Jersey, he went on to study at Colgate University for one year before transferring to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

In 1950 he completed his studies and began trying to pursue a career as an actor. He found work as a stage performer as well as some small roles in film and television such as the films, "Fourteen Hours" (1951), "Taxi" (1953) and the television series, "You Are There" (1953) and "Robert Montgomery Presents" (1954).

With quite a bit of acting experience now on his resume he opened his own method acting workshop in New York City and his young group of actors performed a production of, "Shadows" (1959), which he wrote as well as directed. This play was later made into a film and won the Critics Award at the Venice Film Festival.

Now he had really begun to make a name for himself and had caught the attention of Hollywood. By the mid to late 50's, he was seen in more prominent films such as, "The Night Holds Terror" (1955), "Edge of the City" (1957) and "Saddle the Wind" (1958).

In addition to working as an actor he was able to use his directing talents on two films, "Too Late Blues" (1961) and "A Child Is Waiting" (1963). Over the course of his career he added such directing credits to his resume on, "Husbands" (1970), "A Woman Under the Influence" (1974), "Opening Night" (1977), "Gloria" (1980), "Love Streams" (1984) and "Faces" (1968) which received three Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.

Cassavetes also had a very decent career in television having roles on such series as, "Crime In The Streets" (1956), "Rawhide" (1961), "Dr. Kildare" (1962), "Channing" (1963), "Breaking Point" (1963), "Alfred Hitchcock Hour" (1964), "The Legend of Jesse James" (1965), "Combat!" (1965), "The Virginian" (1966), "Off To See the Wizard" (1968) and "Columbo" (1972).

Towards the end of his career, he turned his focus to mainly films with some of his most recent appearances being on, "The Haircut" (1982), "The Incubus" (1982), "Tempest" (1982), "Marvin & Tige" (1983), "Love Streams" (1984) and "King Kong's Faust" (1985).

John married only once to actress Gena Rowlands in 1954 and they had three children and remained married until he passed away. Throughout his life, although having a successful professional and personal life, he suffered from alcohol addiction and therefore, was diagnosed at the age of fifty nine with un-curable liver damage and told he had six months to live. He took the time to write a three-act play, "Woman of Mystery" which debuted at the Court Theater.

On February 3rd, 1989 he succumbed to the disease in Los Angeles, California after suffering from cirrhosis of the liver. Found by his family was a collection of more than forty un-produced screenplays he had written. His son, Nick Cassavetes followed in his father's footsteps working as an actor and director and later took one of his father's screenplays, "She's Delovely" and turned it into the film, "She's So Lovely" (1997).