Paul Mazursky obit

Paul Mazursky obituary

He was not on the list.

As a director and screenwriter, Paul Mazursky, who has died aged 84, was middle America's most successful interpreter of the lifestyle changes inspired by the swinging 60s, and his films served as a barometer for the "me decade" of the 1970s. Over a career that spanned 60 years, including acting and standup comedy, and during which he earned four Oscar nominations for screenplays and one for best picture, Mazursky brought a degree of comic affection to his characters and stories, which sometimes led critics to label his films as soft-centred. This perhaps reflected his unique background among the explosive generation of young American directors who came to prominence at the same time.

Although Mazursky did not star in his own films, he bears comparison with Woody Allen, another writer-director with roots in New York Jewish comedy. Both were influenced heavily by the great European directors whose films made such an impact in the US in the late 50s. But where Allen often seemed to be exploring the dilemma of people caught in the godless universe of Ingmar Bergman, and could be harsh with them, Mazursky's best work reflects the impossibility of satisfying the peculiar American requirement to be "happy", particularly, as any Jewish comedian of the era would tell you, when that happiness was linked to love and sex.

He was born Irwin Mazursky in Brooklyn, New York. His father, David, was a labourer, and his mother, Jean (nee Gerson), played the piano at a dance school. She encouraged his early love of movies, sometimes allowing him to skip school and going with him to see two double-features. He began acting at Brooklyn College, and changed his name to Paul when he was cast in Stanley Kubrick's first feature film, Fear and Desire (1953).

He studied under Lee Strasberg and worked as a jobbing actor in New York theatre and live television, as well as playing a juvenile delinquent in The Blackboard Jungle (1955). He directed an off-Broadway theatre production of Madwoman of Chaillot, and partnered the comedian Herb Hartig in a standup duo called Igor and H, before moving to Los Angeles in 1959, where he began studying film at the University of Southern California and formed another comedy partnership at the Second City company with Larry Tucker. In 1962 he directed his first short film, Last Year at Malibu, a parody of Last Year at Marienbad. Although he and Tucker landed a job writing for The Danny Kaye Show, Mazursky continued to act, most notably on TV in The Twilight Zone, and playing one of the leads in Vic Morrow's low-budget film of Jean Genet's Deathwatch (1966). Then he and Tucker wrote the pilot episode for the Monkees, whose imitation Beatles became a hit. Mazursky played a cameo part in the pilot, something he would do in most of his films.

Off that success, he and Tucker wrote I Love You, Alice B Toklas! (1967), in which Peter Sellers copes with falling in love with a hippy. Mazursky had been promised the chance to direct, but that did not come until Warners rejected his and Tucker's next screenplay, which was then sold to Columbia with his directing attached. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) was about two couples experimenting with free love. The idea came after Mazursky and his wife, Betsy, attended sessions to help them "find themselves". The film earned four Oscar nominations, including for its screenplay, and for its supporting actors Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon, establishing Mazursky's reputation as an actors' director.

The lead character in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice was a screenwriter, and Mazursky's next film, Alex In Wonderland (1970), concerned a director trying to follow up his smash first movie. It was a flop, and Mazursky moved to Italy. When he returned, he broke up the partnership with Tucker, and between 1973 and 1978 made the four films that defined him, reflecting the new uncertainties of dealing with life's basic problems.

They progress from Blume In Love (1973) where a divorce lawyer tries to regain the wife who divorces him, to An Unmarried Woman (1978), starring Jill Clayburgh in the title role as Erica, whose husband leaves her for a younger woman. Clayburgh was nominated for a best actress Oscar. For Harry and Tonto (1974), Art Carney won an Oscar playing Harry, an ageing man forced out of his condemned apartment building, who winds up crossing America with his cat; its version of a road movie has been much imitated since. Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976) was autobiographical, about struggling young actors in New York.

But Willie and Phil (1980) was an unsuccessful homage to Jules et Jim, shot by Bergman's regular cameraman Sven Nykvist. After Tempest (1982), Mazursky made three uneven comedies, Moscow on the Hudson (1984) and Moon Over Parador (1988) sandwiched around his biggest commercial success, Down and Out In Beverly Hills (1986), an adaptation of Jean Renoir's classic Boudu Saved From Drowning, which starred Nick Nolte and Bette Midler; funny as it was, it lacked Renoir's sharp edge.

Perhaps his best film was Enemies: A Love Story (1989), adapted with the crime writer Roger Simon from an Isaac Bashevis Singer story. Ron Silver plays Herman Broder, married to the Polish woman who saved him from the Holocaust, and having an affair with another Holocaust survivor. The movie received three Oscar nominations, for best screenplay and for both Angelica Huston and Lena Olin as best supporting actress.

Mazursky and Simon's follow-up, Scenes From a Mall (1991), brought Allen and Midler together, in an ill-thought-out version of Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage, while The Pickle (1993) saw Danny Aiello revisiting Alex in Wonderland. The best of Mazursky's later work was Winchell (1998) made for HBO television, starring Stanley Tucci as the columnist Walter Winchell. His final film, Yippee (2006), was a documentary chronicling the pilgrimage of 25,000 Hasidic Jews to the Ukrainian town where their sect's founder is buried.

Mazursky's acting outside his own films included roles in A Star Is Born (1976), Carlito's Way (1993) and Miami Rhapsody (1995). In recent years he appeared on television in the Sopranos, and had recurring roles in Curb Your Enthusiasm and Once and Again, which could be seen as a reworking of Mazursky's 70s films for a new generation. He provided voiceovers for films including Antz, and, in his final role, for a bunny in Kung Fu Panda 2.

Mazursky is survived by Betsy, whom he married in 1953, and his daughter Jill, both of whom played bit parts in his films. His other daughter, Meg, who had a larger role in Alex In Wonderland, died in 2009.

Filmography

As writer and director

Year       Film       Notes

1969      Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice            Feature film

Co-written with Larry Tucker

Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay

National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay

New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay

Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay

Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay

1970      Alex in Wonderland         Feature film

Co-written with Larry Tucker

Nominated - New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor

1973      Blume in Love    Feature film

Written by Mazursky

Nominated - Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay

1974      Harry and Tonto               Feature film

Co-written with Josh Greenfeld

Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay

Nominated - Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay

1976      Next Stop, Greenwich Village      Feature film

Written by Mazursky

Nominated - Palme d'Or

Nominated - Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay

1978      An Unmarried Woman   Feature film

Written by Mazursky

National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay

New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay

Nominated - Academy Award for Best Picture

Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay

Nominated - Palme d'Or

Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Director

Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay

Nominated - Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing - Feature Film

Nominated - Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay

1980      Willie & Phil        Feature film

Written by Mazursky

1982      Tempest              Feature film

Co-written with Leon Capetanos

Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award

Nominated - Golden Lion

1984      Moscow on the Hudson                 Feature film

Co-written with Leon Capetanos

1986      Down and Out in Beverly Hills     Feature film

Co-written with Leon Capetanos

Nominated - Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

1988      Moon over Parador         Feature film

Co-written with Leon Capetanos

1989      Enemies, A Love Story    Feature film

Co-written with Roger L. Simon

New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director

Nominated- Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

1991      Scenes from a Mall          Feature film

Co-written with Roger L. Simon

1993      The Pickle            Feature film

Written by Mazursky

As writer only

Year       Film       Notes

1966      The Monkees    TV pilot

Co-written with Larry Tucker

1968      I Love You, Alice B. Toklas             Feature film

Co-written with Larry Tucker

Nominated - Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay

As director only

Year       Film       Notes

1996      Faithful                 Feature film

Written by Chazz Palminteri

Nominated- Golden Bear

1998      Winchell              Television film

Written by Scott Abbott

2003      Coast to Coast   Television film

Written by Frederic Raphael

2006      Yippee Documentary

Selected acting credits

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1953      Fear and Desire                 Pvt. Sidney         

1955      Blackboard Jungle            Emmanuel Stoker            

1965      Deathwatch        Maurice              

1968      I Love You, Alice B. Toklas             Hippie on Sidewalk          Uncredited

1969      Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice            Man Screaming at the Institute Uncredited

1970      Alex in Wonderland         Hal Stern             

1972      The Other Side of the Wind          Paul       Unfinished film

1973      Blume in Love    Kurt Hellman     

1974      Harry and Tonto               Prostitute            Uncredited

1976      Next Stop, Greenwich Village      Casting Director                Uncredited

1976      A Star Is Born     Brian Wexler     

1978      An Unmarried Woman   Hal        

1979      A Man, a Woman, and a Bank     Norman Barrie  

1981      History of the World: Part I          Roman Officer   (The Roman Empire)

1982      Tempest              Terry Bloomfield               Producer

1984      Moscow on the Hudson                 Dave     

1985      Into the Night    Bud Herman      

1986      Down and Out in Beverly Hills     Sidney Waxman               

1988      Moon over Parador         Momma               Credited as Carlotta Gerson

1988      Punchline            Arnold

1989      Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills     Sidney  

1989      Enemies, a Love Story     Leon Tortshiner               

1991      Scenes from a Mall          Dr. Hans Clava  

1992      Man Trouble      Lee MacGreevy

1993      The Pickle            Butch Levine     

1993      Carlito's Way      Judge Feinstein

1994      Love Affair           Herb Stillman    

1995      Miami Rhapsody               Vic Marcus         

1996      Faithful                 Mr. Susskind     

1996      2 Days in the Valley         Teddy Peppers

1996      Frasier Vinnie, calling in to show looking for pinky ring   Voice, Episode: "The Last Time I Saw Maris"

1997      Touch    Artie     

1998      Bulworth              Himself                 Uncredited

1998      Why Do Fools Fall in Love             Morris Levy        

1998      Antz       Psychologist       Voice

1999      Crazy in Alabama              Walter Schwegmann     

1999-2002          Once and Again                 Phil Brooks          TV Series

6 episodes

2000-2001          The Sopranos     Sunshine              TV Series

2 episodes

2001      The Majestic      Studio Executive               Voice

2001      Big Shot's Funeral            Studio Boss        

2002      Do It for Uncle Manny    Famous Movie Director

2003      Coast to Coast   Stanley Tarto      TV movie

2004-2009          Curb Your Enthusiasm    Norm     TV Series

5 episodes

2006      I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With        Charlie Perlman               

2006      Cattle Call            Judge Mandel   

2011      Kung Fu Panda 2               Musician Bunny                Voice

2018      The Other Side of the Wind          Himself                 (final film role)