|
| ||||||||
| Elliott Kastner [CFT #4963] Born: 1930 Died: 2010 |
| |||||||
| b New York, USA d London Elliott Kastner, who died of cancer aged 80, was the model of a film producer, working his way up from the mailroom at the William Morris Agency in New York to Los Angeles, where he joined another powerful talent agency, MCA, in 1959. He soon became vice-president of Universal Pictures, but after two years he risked everything to become an independent producer, a move that paid off. This achievement required a certain amount of ruthlessness, and Kastner was relentless in his pursuit of getting what he wanted. Mostly he wanted to entice well-known playwrights and novelists to write screenplays, or gain the rights to those works whose authors were no longer around to cajole. It was the macho adventure novelist Alistair MacLean with whom Kastner had the most affinity and with whom he made the most money, especially with Where Eagles Dare (1968). This big-budget second world war thriller starred Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood as an American major and a US army ranger who, dressed as German soldiers, try to free an American general held prisoner in a mountain castle. Kastner produced three further movies with screenplay by MacLean. Kastner was born in New York. After attending the University of Miami and serving in the army during the second world war, he began his progress through the ranks of show bissiness. His first film as producer, Bus Riley's Back in Town, did not bode too well, but his next, The Moving Target (1966) released in the US as Harper, was one of his greatest successes. Adapted by William Goldman from a detective novel by Ross Macdonald, it starred Paul Newman as the private eye Harper. It was the first of 11 movies which Kastner co-produced with Jerry Gershwin. Most of their films - minor mainstream productions with international casts - came in within budget and made back the investment. Kastner, who settled in London in the 70s, where he had an office at Pinewood studios, was married and divorced twice. He is survived by a son, Dillon, a daughter, Milita, and three stepchildren, Cassian, Damian and Cary. Abridged from The Guardian. Kastner co-produced The Long Goodbye directed by Robert Altman (1973); Farewell directed by Dick Richards (1975) and The Big Sleep directed by Michael Winner (1978) |
1: 1970 Dillon Kastnerc 2: 1972 Milica Kastnerc | |||||||
| 2 Children | ||||||||
To notify corrections or updates to this page, please contact the Webmaster
or return to the Index2 Index1
Thanks