American film director
Joseph Ezekiel Strick
(July 6, 1923 ? June 1, 2010) was an American director, producer and screenwriter.
Life and career
[
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]
Born in the Pittsburgh area town of Braddock, Pennsylvania,
[1]
Strick briefly attended UCLA, then enrolled in the
U.S. Army
during
World War II
. In the Army, he served as a cameraman in the
Army Air Forces
.
[2]
In 1948, he and
Irving Lerner
produced
Muscle Beach
. For several years in the 1950s, Lerner, Strick,
Ben Maddow
, and
Sidney Meyers
worked part-time on the experimental documentary
The Savage Eye
(1959).
[3]
Strick was also a successful businessman, founding Electrosolids Corp (1956), Computron Corp. (1958), Physical Sciences Corp (1958), and Holosonics Corp. (1960). In 1977 he invented the usage of six-axis motion simulators as entertainment systems and applied it to new machines used now in Disney theme parks as "Star Tours."
[4]
In the 1960s, during his first marriage, Strick commissioned what was the only house designed by
Oscar Niemeyer
in North America. The marriage ended in divorce before construction was completed, and Strick never occupied the house, located on the edge of
Santa Monica Canyon
.
[2]
The Savage Eye
won the
BAFTA Flaherty Documentary Award
and was hailed as part of an "American New Wave" alongside the work of
Shirley Clarke
and
John Cassavetes
.
[5]
In 1970, he won an
Academy Award for Best Documentary
for his movie
Interviews with My Lai Veterans
. His better known ventures include a
film adaptation
of
James Joyce
's
Ulysses
and
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
as well as
Never Cry Wolf
(1983). He also directed
Tropic of Cancer
, based on the novel by Henry Miller.
In Britain, he directed at the
Royal Shakespeare Company
(1964) and the
National Theatre
(2003).
Joseph Strick's career led him to share his time in Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris. He died in a Paris hospital of congestive heart failure.
[2]
The moving image collection of Joseph Strick is held at the
Academy Film Archive
. The collection consists of over one hundred items, including negative and print materials.
[6]
The Academy Film Archive has preserved several of Strick's films, including
The Savage Eye
and
Muscle Beach
.
[7]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Uricchio, Marylynn (April 30, 1984).
"Film-maker abhors his industry's 'illiteracy'
"
.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
– via Google.com.
- ^
a
b
c
Dennis McLellan
"Joseph Strick dies at 86; independent filmmaker brought 'Ulysses' to big screen"
,
Los Angeles Times
, 4 June 2010
- ^
Benjamin T Jackson "The Savage Eye",
Film Quarterly
, 13:4, Summer 1960, pp. 53-57
- ^
Obituary:Joseph Strick
,
Daily Telegraph
, 8 June 2010
- ^
Sight & Sound
, URL accessed 25 November 2009
- ^
"Joseph Strick Collection"
.
Academy Film Archive
. 5 September 2014.
- ^
"Preserved Projects"
.
Academy Film Archive
.
- Margot Norris,
Ulysses
(University of Cork Press, 2004)
- Bosley Crowther,
The Great Films
(G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1967), pages 247-250
- William Wulf,
Landmark Films
(Paddington Press, 1979) pages 278-290
- Michael Webb,
A Modernist Paradise
(Rizzoli, 2004)
External links
[
edit
]
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