Arthur Penn, Director of ‘Bonnie and Clyde,’ Is Dead

[swag]

Source: New York Times

Arthur Penn, the stage, television and motion picture director whose revolutionary treatment of sex and violence in the 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde” transformed the American film industry, died Tuesday night, the day after he turned 88.

A pioneering director of live television drama in the 1950s and a Broadway powerhouse in the 1960s, Mr. Penn developed an intimate, spontaneous and physically oriented method of directing actors that allowed their work to register across a range of mediums.

In 1957, he directed Walter Gibson’s television play “The Miracle Worker” for the CBS series “Playhouse 90” and earned Emmy nominations for himself, his writer and his star, Teresa Wright. In 1959, he restaged “The Miracle Worker” for Broadway and won Tony Awards for himself, his writer and his star, Anne Bancroft. And in 1962, he directed the film version of Gibson’s text, which won the best actress Oscar for Bancroft and the best supporting actress Oscar for her co-star, Patty Duke, as well as earning nominations for writing and directing.

Mr. Penn’s direction may also have changed the course of American history. He advised Senator John F. Kennedy during his watershed television debates with Richard M. Nixon in 1960 (and directed the broadcast of the third debate). Mr. Penn’s instructions to Kennedy — to look directly into the lens of the camera and keep his responses brief and pithy — helped give the candidate an aura of confidence and calm that created a vivid contrast to his more experienced but less telegenic Republican rival.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/movies/30penn.html?_r=1

[joeybee12]

1. RIP, Mr. Penn...a great talent, and I didn't know he had advised JFK prior to the debates

with Tricky Dick.

[xchrom]

2. peace be with his family and friends.

it's a very strange feeling when someone who's work you've watched you whole life
crosses over.

[edbermac]

3. Little Big Man was another great film of his.

RIP

[Mnemosyne]

4. 'Alice's Restaurant' - Rest in Peace, Mr. Penn. n/t

[SteveM]

5. RIP. He really de-natured the motor bandits.

[mitchum]

6. Penn and editor Dede Allen kicked off the real golden age of American film...

with Bonnie and Clyde

[masmdu]

7. Loved ... Little Big Man...RIP

[swag]

8. Arthur Penn's "Mickey One"

One of Penn's lesser known films, "Mickey One" has never been available on videotape or DVD (though I did manage to get a copy on Laserdisc, and transfered it to tape). It's a dark, surreal flick about a stand-up comedian on the run from mobsters.

This morning I found that you can watch the whole thing on-line here:

http://www.crackle.com/c/Mickey_One

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

9. RIP you have us many wonderful moments

[Terry in Austin]

10. *William* Gibson, Arthur Penn and Anne Bancroft.

William Gibson (not "Walter") was the playwright who wrote both the TV and stage versions of "The Miracle Worker." I actually knew him, sort of -- he and his wife Margaret Brenman had an indoor swimming pool/greenhouse I used to help take care of when I lived in Massachusetts.

Arthur Penn lived just down the road, and Margaret and Anne Bancroft were chums. One of the plants in the greenhouse was an avocado that Margaret called "the Anne Bancroft tree." Seems that when Ms. Bancroft had been trying in vain to get pregnant, Margaret suggested she plant the avocado seed left over from their brunch together, as a kind of fertility charm. She did, and very soon after, well, she did. She later donated the tree to Margaret's indoor jungle, not having much of a green thumb herself.