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page from the regular page. Once you have brought up the regular page,
you may use the menus to reach all of the other pages on the site.
A chronology and list of
events in Cassavetes' early career, 1929-1956. To access a chronology
and list of events covering the last ten years of Cassavetes' life and
the seventeen years following his death, click
here.
1929
- 1956 / 1957
- 1959 / 1960
-1962 / 1963
-1968
- Nicholas
John Cassavetes (NJC), father of John, arrives in America with
his brother Arthur in 1908 from Larissa, Greece. They set in
Providence, Rhode Island.
- In
1911, NJC enters Harvard on a partial scholarship. He concentrates
in Chemistry. To support himself, he holds various jobs after
school from 6 p.m. to midnight.
- In
1915, after leaving school, NJC serves the US Army as an interpreter,
Honorary Secretary and Director of the Pan-Epirotic Union in
America.
- On
April 24 1926, NJC marries Katherine Demetri (KD), fifteen years
his junior. They have two sons: John Nicholas (JC) on December
9 1929 and Nicholas John (NC) on December 21 1927. NJC is quiet, serious, thoughtful,
very artistic, creative and original. KD is extroverted, animated,
status-conscious, strong-willed, opinioned and outspoken. She
is fluent in Greek, Italian, English, and Yiddish. She also has
a great sense of humor and a great love for life.
- During
the Depression, the family is very poor.
- In
the early '30s, the family returns to Greece for six years. JC
is two. When they return, JC doesn't know a word of English,
only Greek.
- During
the 1950s and 1960s, the family moves to Riverside Drive, Sutton
Place, on the East Side of Manhattan. KD runs a boutique on the
Upper East Side and NJC runs the Olympic Travel Agency at 203
West 42nd Street. In the early '70s they move to California to
stay close to JC.
- JC enters
his teens and becomes known as a delinquent. The family moves
to the suburbs in Sand Point, Port Washington, Long Island. In
an upper-middle-class town, which is oppressive and conformist,
JC is a white fly.
- During High
School, JC becomes known as "Cassy" and is "always
ready with a wisecrack" and voted "Class wit." After
chipping a front tooth, he develops his trademarked "smirk."
- In June 1947,
JC graduates High School and follows his brother to Mohawk College.
When Mohawk closes down, he moves to Champlain. He fails out
of Champlain at the end of his first semester.
- JC doesn't
know what to do with his life, whether to hitch-hike down Route
One or take a holiday in Florida. He decides to enroll at AADA
(American Academy of Dramatic Arts). The main reason (following
a friend's suggestion) is the "girls".
- JC enters
AADA on February 8 1949. He brings two pieces: Philip Barry's The
Youngest and The Merchant of Venice. He is described
as "dark," "short," "Latin type," a "sensitive
temperament," and a "fine intelligent boy." The
school is located at Carnegie Hall on 57th St. and Seventh Avenue.
He starts the two year program with an April class. He continues
in the senior class of September, then graduates in mid-March
of 1950. Beginning the second semester he has to pay the $500
a year tuition by himself.
- He meets Fred
Draper and Burt Lane.
- He moves to
a little apartment on 96th St., near Riverside Drive and shares
the flat with 10 people.
- After graduating
school he starts making rounds, going on daily pilgrimages to
casting directors, producers, agents, directors and writers to
ask for a job. He does this for about 4 years.
- He chains
himself to a radiator to get a part in CBS TV program You
are There in 1953.
- During this
period he does a lot of bit parts on stage: at Chapel Playhouse
in Guilford, Connecticut, in Benn Levy's Clutterbuck,
in 2 Blind Mice, in the Rhode Island regional Theater.
- To avoid being
drafted he joins Army Reserves with roommate Bill Stafford (who'll
appear in many Cassavetes' works).
- He keeps establishing
his "crazy" reputation, shouting, jumping and beating
his head on a locker to get the attention of younger AADA students
(including an embarrassed Gena Rowlands). Some think that maybe
his problems with alcohol might have started here.
- He performs
in Henry's Hathaway's 14 Hours in 1951 (his scene is
cut from the final print) and Gregory Ratoff's Taxi in
summer 1952 (as a hot-dog vendor)
- After Taxi,
he follows Ratoff as a "gofer" in a TV series called Cradle
of Stars. They become good friends. He goes to Broadway
as Assistant Stage Manager with Ratoff's Court Theater production The
Fifth Season in January 1953. Just to make a little money
- $85/week
- During a performance,
he meets Sam Shaw (news and film photographer) backstage. He
is clowning around, declaring poetry and classic, doing back
flips. Sam Shaw comes directly from a session of "actors'
freedom" at the Actor Studio. He's impressed and adopts
the boy.
- He introduces
JC to the artistic and cinematic "cream" of New York
(and later will produce many of his movies and will do most of
the photography, layout, design and writing for press packs,
ads and campaigns). Thanks to him JC discovers poetry, painting
and jazz.
- Shaw introduces
JC to Robert Rossen during pre-production of Alexander the
Great. JC doesn't get the part, but the blacklisted director
and the young actor become friends and Rossen will greatly help
him during Shadows.
- JC finally
gets an agent, Robert Lang. They stay together for less than
one year.
- He has a minor
TV role on Kraft with Richard Green in late 1953. He
plays a man in an iron mask. He asks his friends to watch and
in particular a young woman he's trying to court, Gena Rowlands
(GR). As you can imagine the relationship will be not exactly
smooth as velvet... (and we'll come back to this subject sooner
or later)
- He hires a
new agent, William McCaffrey, and finally gets a good opportunity:
the role of a bullfighter in Omnibus' episode "Paso
Doble" in January 1954. The performance is a hit. There is wide
media coverage
(superbly orchestrated by JC, his agent and Sam Shaw) to get
his name in print. Even Hedda Hopper becomes a huge supporter.
- Thanks to
Hopper, JC gets a chance to test for Michael Curtiz's The
Egyptian. This is his first taste of Hollywood. Edmund Purdon,
however, gets the part.
- In March 1954,
JC quits his job at Court Theater.
- On March 19
1954, JC marries Gena Rowlands at the Little Church Around the
Corner.
- JC acts in
more than 26 TV shows in the rest of 1954, 23 in 1955 and 12
in 1956 (working with writers like Reginald Rose, Robert Allen
Arthur, Tad Moselle, Paddy Chayefsky, David Shaw, J.P. Miller,
Horton Foote). On June 21 1955, JC and GR appear in Time
for Love, on NBC's Armstrong Circle Theater. They do it
again on October 9 on Goodyear Television Playhouse. GR is noted
by Josh Logan who is going to cast her in Paddy Chayefsky's The
Middle of the Night.
- JC hires a
new agent, Marty Baum, who spots him at the Newborne Agency.
Baum recommends JC for The Night Holds Terror. He will
be his agent up into the 1970s.
- JC's salary
rises from $500 to $25000 in 1957. JC and GR sign a long-term
contract with MGM. They move from the apartment in 36E 36th St.
to another at 162W 54th St. to a penthouse at 40E 75th St in
1956 (you can see it in many scenes from Shadows).
- Crime
in the Streets in 1955, Edge of the City and Affair
in Havana in 1956, Saddle the Wind and Virgin
Island in 1957. These film provide life-long friends,
like Don Siegel, Sal Mineo and Sidney Poitier, but were unsatisfactory
from an artistic point (except for Edge of the City).
- In 1956, Rowlands
starts acting in The Middle of the Night, JC remains
at home or hangs out in bar. He is not happy with the course
of his life and after a tour in Connecticut to play Tennessee
Williams' Twenty-Seven Wagons, he decides it's time
to do something different and meaningful with his life.
|
1929
- 1956 / 1957
- 1959 / 1960
-1962 / 1963
-1968
A chronology and list of
events in Cassavetes' early career, 1963-1968. To access a chronology
and list of events covering the last ten years of Cassavetes' life and
the seventeen years following his death, click
here.
This
is only the "To Print" page. To go to the regular page of Ray Carney's www.Cassavetes.com on which this text appears, click
here, or close this window if you accessed the "To Print"
page from the regular page. Once you have brought up the regular page,
you may use the menus to reach all of the other pages on the site.
|