Martin Ritt (March 2, 1914 – December 8, 1990) was an American director, actor, and playwright who worked in both film and theater. He was born in New York City.Some of the movies he directed included The Long, Hot Summer (1958), Paris Blues (1961), Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man (1962), Hud (1963), The Outrage (1964), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), Hombre (1967), The Great White Hope (1970), Sounder (1972), Conrack (1974), Norma Rae (1983), Cross Creek (1983), and Stanley & Iris (1990).
A film can never be totally successful if it doesn't upset anyone.
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I don't need final cut. I only cut the thing once. If they're dumb enough to fool around with it, let 'em do it.
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[on Barbra Streisand] She's got the balls of a Russian infantryman.
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[on Sally Field] Sally is one of the best, perhaps the best, actress I've ever worked with. Her rushes on Norma Rae (1979) were so good that I found myself crying over some of the more dramatic scenes. She's simply astounding.
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[on Paul Newman] A cool sexuality that is unique in the American cinema -- an amused quality and a high promise of sex and danger.
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I don't have a lot of respect for talent. Talent is genetic. It's what you DO with it that counts.
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As far as a "Martin Ritt Production" is concerned, I wouldn't embarrass myself to take that credit. What about the Ravetches [Irving Ravetch, Harriet Frank Jr.]? They wrote it. What about the actors who appear in it? If ever I write one, direct it and appear in it, then you can call it a Martin Ritt Production.
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Fact
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Many of his films dealt with human relationships and social issues reflecting his own strongly-held viewpoints (particularly in regard to racism and unions).
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While blacklisted, he earned a living as an acting teacher at the Actors Studio.
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Served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II.
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Graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in Manhattan and Eton College in North Carolina. Studied law at St. John's University, where he befriended Elia Kazan whom he subsequently joined at the Group Theatre in New York.
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He began his show-business career as an apprentice actor in the last years of the celebrated Group Theater (1931-1940), the first company in America to put Konstantin Stanislavski's techniques into practice. He appeared as "Sam" and was the assistant stage manager in the 1939 debut of Clifford Odets' "Golden Boy" with John Garfield (then billed as "Julie Garfield") and two other fledgling actors who would also go on to direct films: Elia Kazan (On the Waterfront (1954)) and Michael Gordon (Pillow Talk (1959)). He also acted in one of the last Group productions, Irwin Shaw's "The Gentle People" with another novice actor new to Broadway who appeared in a small role: Karl Malden.
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Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 734-736. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
$400,000
