john cassavetes worked first as an actor. his first starring film role was in edge of the city (1957), opposite sidney poitier; he played the title role in the nbc series johnny staccato (1959–60), and later acted in the dirty dozen (1967), for which he was nominated for the best supporting actor academy award, roman polanski's rosemary's baby (1968) and elaine may's mikey and nicky (1976).
in 1956 he co-founded an acting workshop in new york with burt lane, and an improvisation exercise there led to his first feature, shadows (1959), which he shot in new york. he raised the money from friends, family and listeners to jean shepherd's late-night radio show. unable to find american distribution, he saw the film win the critics award at the venice film festival, and european distributors released it in the united states as an import.
he financed his own features. faces (1968) was shot in 1965, largely in cassavetes's own los angeles home, and released in 1968; it earned three academy award nominations, and he formed the company faces international to distribute his films. for a woman under the influence (1974), starring gena rowlands and peter falk, he mortgaged his house and borrowed from friends, and falk invested $500,000. it grossed about $6 million and financed his next two pictures.
later features include the killing of a chinese bookie (1976) with ben gazzara and opening night (1977) with rowlands and gazzara, for which rowlands won the silver bear at berlin. his regular collaborators included rowlands, falk, gazzara, seymour cassel and the producer-cinematographer al ruban.
related profiles; American New Wave, Francis Ford Coppola, French New Wave
sources; wikipedia: john cassavetes, wikipedia: shadows (1959), wikipedia: faces (1968), wikipedia: a woman under the influence
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