Martin Ritt

15 films · 1957 to 1990

Born 2 March 1914, New York City · Died 8 December 1999

Martin Ritt was an American director, producer, and actor, active in film, theatre, and television. He was known mainly as an auteur of socially conscious dramas and literary adaptations, described by Stanley Kauffmann as "one of the most underrated American directors, superbly competent and quietly imaginative." Ritt was an actor-turned-director with the Federal Theater Project and Group Theatre, becoming assistant to Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio. After a promising television directing career was cut short by the Second Red Scare, Ritt made his first film, Edge of the City (1957). His 1958 film The Long, Hot Summer, based on three works by William Faulkner, was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. This was the first of three times that the director would be nominated for the honor.

Biography adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.