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Julian Beck

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Name
  
Julian Beck

Role
  
Children
  
Isha Beck, Garrick Beck


Julian Beck The Allen Ginsberg Project Julian Beck 19251985


Born
  
May 31, 1925 (
1925-05-31
)

Occupation
  
film actor, stage actor, stage director, poet, painter

Died
  
September 14, 1985, New York City, New York, United States

Spouse
  
Judith Malina (m. 1948–1985)

Books
  
The life of the theatre, Living in Volkswagen buses, Paradise Now; Collective Creation of The Living Theatre

Movies
  
Similar People
  
Judith Malina, Will Sampson, Heather O'Rourke, Dominique Dunne, Oliver Robins

Julian beck and judith malina on the connection and the brig


Julian Beck (May 31, 1925 – September 14, 1985) was an American actor, director, poet, and painter. He is best known for co-founding and directing The Living Theatre, as well as his role as Kane, the malevolent preacher in the 1986 movie Poltergeist II: The Other Side. The Living Theatre and its founders were the subject of the 1983 documentary Signals Through The Flames.

Contents

Julian Beck Julian Beck ImgMob

Julian beck judith malina the living theatre may 17 1975


Early life

Julian Beck Julian Beck Harold Norse

Beck was born in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan in New York City, the son of Mabel Lucille (née Blum), a teacher, and Irving Beck, a businessman. He briefly attended Yale University, but dropped out to pursue writing and art. He was an Abstract Expressionist painter in the 1940s, but his career turned upon meeting his future wife. In 1943, he met Judith Malina (born 1926) and quickly came to share her passion for theatre; they founded The Living Theatre in 1947.

Career

Beck co-directed the Living Theatre until his death. The group's primary influence was Antonin Artaud, who espoused the Theatre of Cruelty, which was supposed to shock the audience out of complacency. This took different forms. In one example, from Jack Gelber's The Connection, a drama about drug addiction, actors playing junkies wandered the audience demanding money for a fix. The Living Theatre moved out of New York in 1964, after the Internal Revenue Service shut it down when Beck failed to pay $23,000 in back taxes. After a sensational trial, in which Beck and Malina represented themselves, they were found guilty by a jury.

Beck's philosophy of theatre carried over into his life. He once said, "We insisted on experimentation that was an image for a changing society. If one can experiment in theatre, one can experiment in life." He was indicted a dozen times on three continents for charges such as disorderly conduct, indecent exposure, possession of narcotics, and failing to participate in a civil defense drill.

Besides his theatre work, Beck published several volumes of poetry reflecting his anarchist beliefs, two non-fiction books: The Life of the Theatre and Theandric and had several film appearances, with small roles in Oedipus Rex (1967), Love and Anger (1969), The Cotton Club (1984), 9½ Weeks (1986), and his role in Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986). Beck also appeared in an episodes of Miami Vice.

In 1970 Beck's work was denounced alongside Eugène Ionesco and Samuel Beckett by Nëndori, the literary monthly of Albania, for supposedly being "inundated by mysticism and pornography."

Personal life

Beck and Malina were life partners in an open marriage, and Beck had a long-term relationship with Ilion Troya, a male actor in the company. Malina and Beck shared a lover in Lester Schwartz, a bisexual shipyard worker who was the third husband of Andy Warhol acolyte Dorothy Podber. Beck and Malina had "two offstage children", Garrick and Isha.

Death

Beck was diagnosed with stomach cancer in late 1983, and died two years later on September 14, 1985, at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, aged 60. He was survived by his wife, their two children, Garrick and Isha, and a brother. He was interred at Cedar Park Cemetery, in Emerson, New Jersey.

In 2003, 18 years after his death, Beck was posthumously inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Judith Malina was also inducted to the Hall of Fame that same year.

Filmography

Actor
2002
Das Jahrhundert des Theaters (TV Series)
- Die Kinder von Marx und Coca Cola (2002)
1986
Poltergeist II: The Other Side as
Kane
1986
9½ Weeks as
Dinner Guest
1985
Miami Vice (TV Series) as
J. J. Johnston
- The Prodigal Son (1985) - J. J. Johnston
1984
All Star Video (Video short)
1984
The Cotton Club as
Sol Weinstein
1982
Il fascino dell'insolito (TV Series) as
Il rabbino Aser
- La tortura della speranza (1982) - Il rabbino Aser
1969
Amore e rabbia as
Dying Man (segment "Agonia")
1969
Camera Three (TV Series)
- The Living Theatre - Part 2 (1969)
1968
Après la Passion selon Sade
1968
If Unconscious Revolts (Short)
1968
Candy as
Hippy
1967
The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man
1967
Oedipus Rex as
Tiresia
1958
Narcissus as
Narration (voice)
Director
1980
Antigone di Sofocle (TV Special) (stage director)
1964
Modernes Theater auf kleinen Bühnen (TV Series) (1 episode)
- The Living Theatre, New York: The Brig (1964)
Assistant Director
1958
Narcissus (first assistant director)
Soundtrack
1986
Poltergeist II: The Other Side (performer: "God Is in His Holy Temple" - uncredited)
Miscellaneous
1964
The Brig (original play designer)
Thanks
1988
Poltergeist III (acknowledgement - The character of Reverend Henry Kane was originally portrayed by)
Self
1983
Signals Through the Flames (Documentary)
1980
Antigone di Sofocle (TV Special) as
Kreon
1978
Notes for Jerome (Documentary) as
Self
1975
The 20th Annual Obie Awards (TV Special) as
Self - Winner
1970
Bibliothèque de poche (TV Series) as
Self
- Que lisent les créateurs artistes? (1970) - Self
1970
Paradise Now (Documentary)
1970
Apropos Film (TV Series documentary) as
Self
- Episode dated 26 June 1970 (1970) - Self
1970
Paradise Now (Documentary)
1969
Camera Three (TV Series) as
Self - Guest
- The Living Theatre - Part 1 (1969) - Self - Guest
1969
Release (TV Series documentary) as
Self
- On Tour with the Living Theatre/E.M. Forster (1969) - Self
1968
Emergency (Short) as
Self
1968
The Merv Griffin Show (TV Series) as
Self
- Tony Randall, Engelbert Humperdinck, Lillian Briggs, Arthur & Kathryn Murray, Timmie Rogers, Mickey Lolich, Julian Beck, Judith Malina (1968) - Self
1967
Les chemins perdus (Documentary) as
Self
1965
Living and Glorious (Documentary short) as
Self
Archive Footage
2016
Porn to Be Free (Documentary) as
Self (uncredited)
2008
Les années Sigma: la provocation amoureuse (TV Movie documentary) as
Self
2004
Resist!: To Be with the Living (Documentary) as
Self
1976
Visa de censure n°X (Short)(uncredited)

References

Julian Beck Wikipedia