Martin Ritt was an American director and actor who worked in both film and theater, noted for his socially conscious films.
21 Facts About Martin Ritt
2.
Martin Ritt graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx.
3.
Martin Ritt originally attended and played football for Elon College in North Carolina.
4.
Martin Ritt then went to work with the Roosevelt administration's New Deal Works Progress Administration as a playwright for the Federal Theater Project, a federal government-funded theater support program.
5.
Martin Ritt moved on from the WPA to the Theater of Arts, then to the Group Theatre in New York City.
6.
Martin Ritt eventually became one of the Studio's few non-performing life members.
7.
Martin Ritt produced and directed episodes of Danger, Somerset Maugham TV Theatre, Starlight Theatre, and The Plymouth Playhouse.
8.
In 1952, Martin Ritt was caught up by the Red Scare and investigations of communist influence in Hollywood and the movie industry.
9.
Counterattack alleged that Martin Ritt had helped Communist Party-affiliated locals of the New York-based Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union stage their annual show.
10.
Martin Ritt was finally blacklisted by the television industry when a Syracuse grocer charged him with donating money to Communist China in 1951.
11.
Martin Ritt supported himself for five years by teaching at the Actors Studio.
12.
Unable to work in the television industry, Martin Ritt returned to the theater for several years.
13.
Martin Ritt made one more film with Wald, Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man.
14.
Martin Ritt traveled to Mexico and spent time speaking to local residents to study the accents.
15.
Martin Ritt directed The Spy Who Came in from the Cold with Richard Burton, then one more movie with Newman, Hombre.
16.
Pictures brought the film rights to First Blood in 1973 Martin Ritt was hired to direct from a screenplay by Walter Newman, featuring Paul Newman as John Rambo and Robert Mitchum as Sheriff Will Teasle.
17.
In 1976, Martin Ritt made one of the first dramatic feature films about the blacklist, The Front, starring Woody Allen.
18.
Martin Ritt ended the decade with Casey's Shadow and Norma Rae.
19.
Martin Ritt made Back Roads with Sally Field, and Cross Creek, the story of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of The Yearling.
20.
In 1987, Martin Ritt again used extensive flashback and nonlinear storytelling techniques in the film Nuts, based on the stage play of the same name, written by Tom Topor.
21.
Martin Ritt died of heart disease at age 76 in Santa Monica, California, on December 8,1990.