Martin Ritt: Movies, Awards & Box Office

Martin Ritt (March 2, 1914 – December 8, 1990) was an American director, producer, and actor, active in film, theatre and television. An auteur of socially-conscious dramas and literary adaptations, he was deemed by Stanley Kauffmann as 'one of the most underrated American directors, superbly competent and quietly imaginative'. Ritt started his career with the Federal Theater Project, Group Theatre and was an assistant to Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio. Despite a promising television directing career being cut short by the Second Red Scare, Ritt made his first film Edge of the City (1957). His film 'The Long, Hot Summer' (1958), based on Faulkner’s works, was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the first of his three nominations.

His film 'Hud' (1963) got him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director, and his 1965 adaptation 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film. His films, 'Sounder' (1972) and 'Norma Rae' (1979), were both nominated for Best Picture Oscars. He directed many notable actors towards Academy Award wins or nominations, such as Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal, Richard Burton, James Earl Jones, Jane Alexander, Sally Field, and Alfre Woodard among others. Four of his films: 'Edge of the City', 'Hud', 'Sounder', 'Norma Rae' have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being 'culturally, historically or aesthetically' significant. Beyond his Hollywood career, Ritt was also an active supporter of human rights, working with a theater group and he continued throughout his life to challenge the status quo and shine a spotlight on inequality and injustice.