Oscar-winning director Elia Kazan dies at 94

NEW YORK -- Elia Kazan, the giant of stage and cinema who was hailed for "On the Waterfront" and "A Streetcar Named Desire" but shunned for naming names during the McCarthy era, has died. He was 94.\n"A genius left us," Kazan's lawyer, Floria Lasky, said after the director died at his Manhattan home Sunday. She did not give a cause of death.\nKazan won Oscars for "Gentleman's Agreement" and "On the Waterfront" and staged five Pulitzer Prize-winning plays: "The Skin of Our Teeth," "Death of a Salesman," "A Streetcar Named Desire," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "J.B.," for which Kazan won his first of three a Tony Awards for directing.\nHe was also one of the most prominent entertainment figures to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, set up shortly after World War II to rid the United States of any communist influences.\nIn his testimony, given in January 1952, Kazan identified eight people he said had been members of the Communist Party with him in the mid-1930s. All were eventually blacklisted.\nMost left the country or simply never worked in theater or film again; a few were lucky enough to keep their jobs using pseudonyms. Kazan defended his decision by saying that all were already known to the committee, a stance disputed by others.\nYears later, Kazan insisted he carried no guilt for what many of his colleagues saw as a betrayal during the reign of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. "There's a normal sadness about hurting people, but I'd rather hurt them a little than hurt myself a lot," he said.\nKazan received a special Oscar in 1999 for his life's work. The decision reopened wounds and touched off a painful controversy. At the ceremony, there was only a smattering of applause. Some audience members showed their disapproval with silence.\n"No one can forget the known negative marks of his political stance, but also no one can deny his reputation of being a great director," said Evangelos Venizelos, culture minister of Greece, home of Kazan's ancestors.\nCarroll Baker, who played the Lolita-like character in "Baby Doll," said Kazan was especially important in launching the careers of young actors at the Actors Studio, where she met him.\n"You got in on your talent and you didn't have to pay anything," she said. "Kazan was a real actor's director. He discovered a lot of people and he knew how to use you to get the best performance out of you." \nBesides his two Oscar-winning efforts, Kazan directed "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," the film version of "Streetcar," "East of Eden," "Splendor in the Grass," "A Face in the Crowd" and "The Last Tycoon." \n"I lost a dear friend. We were as close as an actor and director could be," actor Karl Malden said. "I idolize him. I think he was one of the best directors I've ever worked with in theater and films"