Word: kazan
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...changed everything. Before ELIA KAZAN, movie and stage acting occupied a realm of easy glamour. Actors prized articulation; even street-bred stars like Cagney and Stanwyck spoke with a cutting efficiency. But with A Streetcar Named Desire, the Tennessee Williams play Kazan directed on Broadway in 1947 and filmed in 1951, pop culture was yanked into real life...
...Kazan rose from the class he later re-created with such acuity. He was born Elia Kazanjoglou to Greek parents who immigrated to America. He acted in the Group Theatre, then shone as the director of plays by Williams, Thornton Wilder and Arthur Miller. In 1947 Kazan co-founded the Actors Studio, which spawned several generations of serious stars. His direction of Brando in On the Waterfront and James Dean in East of Eden defined and sanctified the image of the beautiful, battered outsider...
Died. Elia Kazan, 94, director of pioneering stage productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and Death of a Salesman and the movies On the Waterfront and East of Eden; in New York City. Kazan's films earned a total of 21 Academy Awards, including for best director for Gentleman's Agreement and On the Waterfront. In 1947, Kazan co-founded the Actors Studio, which spawned several generations of famous stage and screen stars. He also gave Marlon Brando, James Dean and Warren Beatty their first major roles. Kazan made numerous industry enemies by cooperating with the House Un-American Activities...
...which have also taken recent hits. What is more disturbing, however, is that evidence suggests the number of recent claimants who are actually ill is on the decline; in other words, the number of healthy claimants is climbing. "The bulk of these people have no impairment," says Steven Kazan, a lawyer who represents only patients sick with asbestos-related diseases. In 1999, 12% of the Manville Trust's 31,700 claimants were sick with asbestos-related ills. Last year the number of claimants soared to 91,000, only 6% of them sick...
...litigious boom may deplete both the goodwill and the financial resources to deal with serious future victims of asbestos poisoning. "Asbestos has a long incubation period, and we're still seeing cases where the exposure took place in World War II," says Kazan. "How will cancer victims 40 years from now be compensated?" Adding to the problem: thousands of healthy plaintiffs, worried they may be left out, file claims to protect themselves lest a firm go bankrupt before they show any symptoms...