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Paul Mazursky
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Birth name
Irwin Mazursky
Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
While other filmmakers may grab more headlines, Mazursky has built up a body of work that proves him to be one of our most gifted social observers. He caught the acting bug at a young age, and after appearing in college and offBroadway productions, he made his screen debut in Fear and Desire (1953), for a first-time director named Stanley Kubrick. Mazursky later appeared as a ju- venile delinquent in The Blackboard Jungle (1955), but to make ends meet, he worked as a waiter and a stand-up comic. Eventually he moved to L.A. where he and partner Larry Tucker wrote for "The Danny Kaye Show" and helped create the pilot for "The Monkees." Their first script, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas was filmed in 1968, with Peter Sellers as a lawyer who gets turned on to hippiedom. Mazursky made his directorial debut with Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), a look at late sixties lifestyles-L.A.-style encounter groups, wife-swapping, etc.that became a much-talked-about hit, and netted an Oscar nomination for Mazursky's and Tucker's screenplay.
Their next collaboration, Alex in Wonderland (1970) was a seriocomic selfexamination inspired by Fellini's 8 Mazursky even talked Fellini himself into making a cameo appearance in the picture. It was a box office flop, but Mazursky rebounded with a series of funny, touching comedies marked by a loose, almost European tone that eschewed formula in favor of characters and themes: Blume in Love (1973), a study of marriage and romance; Harry and Tonto (1974), with Art Carney in an Oscar-winning performance as a modern-day Lear who travels the country with his cat, visiting his grown children; and Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), an autobiographical look at Mazursky's Village days in the 1950s. An Unmarried Woman (1978), probably his best film, follows a woman picking up the pieces after her husband leaves her; it earned Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Jill Clayburgh's marvelous lead performance. Following Willie and Phil (1980, inspired by Truffaut's Jules and Jim) and Tempest (1982, a paraphrase of Shakespeare's play), Mazursky gave Robin Williams one of his best early roles in Moscow on the Hudson (1984) and resuscitated the careers of Richard Dreyfuss and Bette Midler in the enormously popular rags-to-riches story Down and Out in Beverly Hills inspired by Renoir's Boudu Saved From Drowning. Mazursky and Dreyfuss teamed up again for the silly Moon Over Parador (1988) before Mazursky brought one of his pet projects to the screen, Enemies, A Love Story (1989, Oscar-nominated for his and Roger L. Simon's screenplay), a beautiful adaptation of Isaac Bashevis Singer's novel about a Jewish man who is haunted by the Holocaust. Mazursky followed with two misfires: the meandering Scenes From a Mall (1991, which boasted the inspired casting of Woody Allen and Bette Midler as husband and wife) and the labored Hol- lywood satire The Pickle (1993). Since then, he has directed Faithful (1995). Still an actor at heart, Mazursky has appeared in many of his own films, most memorably in Alex in Wonderland (as a movie producer), Blume in Love (as George Segal's law partner), and Moon Over Parador (as, yes, Richard Dreyfuss' mother). He has also taken supporting roles in A Star Is Born (1976, as Kris Kristofferson's record producer), A Man, a Woman and a Bank (1979), Punchline (1988, as a joke salesman), Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989), Man Trouble (1992), Carlito's Way (1993, as a weary judge in the opening scene), Love Affair (1994), and Miami Rhapsody (1995). Mazursky also executive produced Taking Care of Business (1991), a comedy written by his daughter Jill. |  |
