Known For
Directing
Born
Aug 07, 1911
Died
Jun 16, 1979
Place of Birth
Galesville, Wisconsin, USA
Credits
48 titles
Nicholas Ray
Biography
Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle; 7 August 1911 – 16 June 1979) was an American film director best known for the films Rebel Without a Cause and Johnny Guitar. Described by the Harvard Film Archive as "Hollywood's last romantic" and "one of postwar American cinema’s supremely gifted and ultimately tragic filmmakers," Ray was considered an iconoclastic auteur director who often clashed with the Hollywood studio system of the time, but would prove highly influential to future generations of filmmakers. His best-known work is the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause, starring James Dean. He is appreciated for many narrative features produced between 1947 and 1963, including They Live By Night (1948), In A Lonely Place (1950), Johnny Guitar (1954), Bigger Than Life (1956), and King of Kings (1961), as well as an experimental work produced throughout the 1970s titled We Can't Go Home Again, which was unfinished at the time of Ray's death. During his lifetime, Ray was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Rebel Without a Cause, twice for the Golden Lion, for Bigger Than Life (1956) and Bitter Victory (1957), and a Palme d'Or for The Savage Innocents (1960). Three of his films were ranked by Cahiers du Cinéma in their Annual Top 10 Lists. Ray's compositions within the CinemaScope frame and use of color are particularly well regarded and he was an important influence on the French New Wave, with Jean-Luc Godard famously writing in a review of Bitter Victory, "... there is cinema. And the cinema is Nicholas Ray."
Known For
Filmography
Films to Die For
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Wilder Demons #2
Writer
Don't Expect Too Much
Himself
Rebel Without a Cause: Defiant Innocents
Self (uncredited)
James Dean: A Portrait
Self (archive footage)
Vanity Fair: Jeanette Starion the Pet of the Year
Lightning Over Water
Self
Nicholas Ray: Especially for Pierre
Hair
The General
Marco
Director
The American Friend
Andrew Pogash Derwatt
Johnny, weil Du Geburtstag hast
Self
Profile of Nicholas Ray
Self
James Dean: The First American Teenager
Self
I'm a Stranger Here Myself
Self
Wet Dreams
Director
The Janitor
Director
Horizons
We Can't Go Home Again
Nick Ray
Made in U.S.A
Thanks
Circus World
Story
55 Days at Peking
US Minister (uncredited)
King of Kings
Director
The Savage Innocents
Director
Party Girl
Director
Wind Across the Everglades
Director
Bitter Victory
Director
The True Story of Jesse James
Director
Bigger Than Life
Director
Hot Blood
Director
Rebel Without a Cause
Man in Last Shot (uncredited)
Run for Cover
Director
Johnny Guitar
Producer
General Electric Theater
Director
Androcles and the Lion
Co-Director
The Lusty Men
Director
Macao
Co-Director
On Dangerous Ground
Adaptation
Flying Leathernecks
Director
Born to Be Bad
Director
In a Lonely Place
Director
They Live by Night
Director
Roseanna McCoy
Co-Director
Knock on Any Door
Director
A Woman's Secret
Director
Swing Parade of 1946
Writer
Tuesday in November
Assistant Director
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Bakery Clerk (uncredited)