15 Facts About Arthur Penn

1.

Arthur Hiller Penn was an American director and producer of film, television and theater.

2.

Closely associated with the American New Wave, Penn directed critically acclaimed films throughout the 1960s such as the drama The Chase, the biographical crime film Bonnie and Clyde and the comedy Alice's Restaurant.

3.

Arthur Penn received attention for his acclaimed revisionist Western Little Big Man.

4.

Arthur Penn was the recipient of several honorary accolades, including an Honorary Golden Bear, a Tony Award, and an Akira Kurosawa Award from the San Francisco International Film Festival.

5.

Arthur Penn was the younger brother of Irving Penn, the fashion, portrait and still life photographer.

6.

Arthur Penn started to direct and take part in shows being put on for the soldiers around England at the time.

7.

Arthur Penn later attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina, and was a featured commentator in the documentary Fully Awake about the college.

8.

Arthur Penn had won a Tony Award for directing the stage production, written by William Gibson, starring Bancroft and Duke, and he had directed Bancroft's Broadway debut in playwright Gibson's first Broadway production, Two for the Seesaw.

9.

Arthur Penn reunited with Warren Beatty for the gangster film Bonnie and Clyde.

10.

At the time he had completed Bonnie and Clyde, Arthur Penn was residing in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, when he heard a story of a large-scale littering incident that had happened in the town two years prior.

11.

Arthur Penn contacted Arlo Guthrie, received permission to adapt his song "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" into a film, and secured Guthrie's participation as well as several other Stockbridge town residents while filming in many of the same locations where the events took place.

12.

In 1973 Arthur Penn provided a segment for a promotional film for the Olympics titled Visions of Eight along with several other major directors such as John Schlesinger and Milos Forman.

13.

Arthur Penn maintained an affiliation with Yale University, occasionally teaching classes there.

14.

In July 2010, Arthur Penn reflected on his life and career, including his relationship with Alger Hiss:.

15.

Arthur Penn died in Manhattan, on September 28,2010, a day after his 88th birthday from congestive heart failure.