Aram Avakian
Aram A. Avakian ( born April 23, 1926 in New York City, New York, USA, † January 17, 1987 ) was an American film director, screenwriter and editor. Avakian staged several movies including films like jazz on a summer evening, My Best Friend, The Way into the abyss or meeting point of Central Park.
Life and career
Aram " Al " Avakian was born in 1926 in New York City. He was the son of Armenian parents from Persia. Avakian graduated from the Horace Mann School and Yale University, after which he served as a naval officer on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. After the war he went to France, where he studied at the Sorbonne. There he was part of a tight group of young friends, one American literary movement of 1950 in Paris, including Terry Southern, William Styron, John P. Marquand, Jr. and George Plimpton.
1953 Avakian returned back to the United States and began a photographer - teaching under the guidance of Gjon Mili, who aroused his enthusiasm for the documentary. In his spare time Avakian lived as a photographer then the legendary jazz sessions at his brother, the jazz producer George Avakian. From 1955 to 1958 Avakian was the editor of the Edward R. Murrow program See It Now.
In the late 1950s Avakian was soon in demand as a feature film editor and director. Arthur Penn brought him in the 1960s for his two Dramas light in the darkness, with Anne Bancroft (1962) and Mickey One ( 1965) with Warren Beatty. In 1964 he worked with Robert Rossens Drama Lilith.
In 1970, Avakian staged the drama The Way into the abyss in the cast Stacy Keach, Harris Yulin, James Earl Jones and his wife Dorothy Tristan. The film received in the U.S., an "X " rating for the graphical representation of an abortion. For the way into the abyss Avakian received the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno International Film Festival. George Avakian, jazz producer and brother of Aram supervised the music. Avakian old friend, the writer Terry Southern has the film co-produced and wrote the screenplay with Avakian and Dennis McGuire.
The crime movie satire meeting place Central Park Avakian filmed in 1973 with Cliff Gorman and Joseph Bologna in the lead roles, the book Cops and Robbers by novelist Donald E. Westlake, who also wrote the screenplay for the film. The music meeting place Central Park contributed film composer and jazz legend Michel Legrand. A year later, Avakian has directed the British crime comedy diamonds and cockroaches. His last movie as a director was waiting in 1974 with a very well-known cast: Charles Grodin, Candice Bergen, James Mason, Trevor Howard and John Gielgud.
From 1983 to 1986 was chairman of the Department of Film Avakian at the State University of New York at Purchase.
By 1972, Avakian was married to the actress and screenwriter Dorothy Tristan, but in the last two years of his life he was associated with the former ballerina Allegra Kent.
Daughter Alexandra Avakian is a writer, the son is the guitarist Tristan Avakian.
Aram Avakian worked in his career as an editor of a dozen films by renowned directors such as Arthur Penn, Robert Rossen, Richard C. Sarafian, Jerry Schatzberg and Francis Ford Coppola and directed himself led several times.
On January 17, 1987 Avakian died in New York City, New York in the USA.