Martin Ritt
| Martin Ritt | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
March 2, 1914 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | December 8, 1990 (aged 76) Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Heart disease |
| Years active | 1950-1990 |
| Spouse(s) | Adele Ritt (?-1990) (his death) |
| Children | Martina Ritt Werner Michael Ritt |
Martin Ritt (March 2, 1914 – December 8, 1990) was an American director and actor who worked in both film and theater. He was born in New York City.
Some of the movies he directed include The Long, Hot Summer (1958), Paris Blues (1961), Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man (1962), Hud (1963), The Outrage (1964), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), Hombre (1967), The Great White Hope (1970), Sounder (1972), Conrack (1974), Norma Rae (1979), Cross Creek (1983), Murphy's Romance (1985), Nuts (1987) and Stanley & Iris (1990).
Born to a Jewish family in Manhattan, the son of immigrant parents. He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. Ritt originally attended and played football for Elon College in North Carolina. The stark contrasts of the depression-era South, against his New York City upbringing, instilled in him a passion for expressing the struggles of inequality, which is apparent in the films he directed. After leaving St. John's University, Ritt found work with a theater group, and began acting in plays. His first performance was as Crown in Porgy and Bess. After his performance drew favorable reviews, Ritt concluded that he could "only be happy in the theater." 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.
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