Ritt Martin

Martin Ritt was born on March 2, 1914 in New York City. In 1934, he graduated from Elon College and began studying at St. John’s Law School. During his studies he played in several student productions. Having been invited as a boxing coach by the "Group Theatre", where the play "Golden Boy" was staged, Martin Ritt soon joined the troupe and in 1937 made his debut on the stage as an actor in the plays "Golden Boy" and "Compassionate People". He studied at Elia Kazan's studio. On Broadway, he played more

Martin Ritt was born on March 2, 1914 in New York City. In 1934, he graduated from Elon College and began studying at St. John’s Law School. During his studies he played in several student productions. Having been invited as a boxing coach by the "Group Theatre", where the play "Golden Boy" was staged, Martin Ritt soon joined the troupe and in 1937 made his debut on the stage as an actor in the plays "Golden Boy" and "Compassionate People". He studied at Elia Kazan's studio. On Broadway, he played in productions such as Two on the Island and St. Mark’s Eve. During World War II, Martin Ritt served in the US Army Air Force, and in 1943 he starred in the film Winged Glory. Since 1944, having staged the play "Yellow Jack", he began to work as a theater director, and in the second half of the 1940s he came to television, where he played more than 150 roles and staged about 100 plays. In 1951, during the reign of McCarthyism, Martin Ritt, a member of the Communist Party in his youth, was blacklisted and forced to retire from television. He began teaching at Lee Strasberg's acting studio, where his students included Paul Newman and Rod Steiger. The director returned to Broadway in 1955, successfully choreographing The View from the Bridge. Soon he made his debut as a film director, releasing the social dramas On the outskirts of the city (1956) and No Matches (1957). Ritt then filmed the works of William Faulkner’s The Long Hot Summer (1958) and Noise and Fury (1959). The first major success of the director was due to the film “Hud” (1963), in which Paul Newman created a memorable image of an immoral guy in a hostile society. For the roles played in this film, Melvin Douglas and Patricia O'Neill were awarded Oscars. Critics praised the spy film The Spy Who Came from the Cold (1965), based on the novel by Le Carré, and the stylized western Hombre (1967) with Paul Newman. In the late 1960s, Martin Ritt again turned to socially relevant themes, producing Molly Maguires (1969) about Pennsylvania miners, The Great White Hope (1970) about a heavyweight boxer, Sounder (1972) about southern farmers, Conrack (1974) about a progressive white teacher, and The Frontman (1976) about the time of the witch hunt. The greatest interest of the public and critics was caused by the tragicomedy Pete and Tilly (1972) and the drama about the trade union activist Norma Ray (1979), for the performance of the title role in which Sally Field received an Oscar. In the 1980s, the director continued to shoot, among the films he staged in the latter period, the most notable were Country Roads (1981), Cross Creek (1982), Murphy's Romance (1986), mainly due to his acting work. His last film, Stanley and Iris, was directed by Martin Ritt in 1990.