Yikes, the Grim Reaper takes more this week. Not only pioneering tennis player Althea Gibson died yesterday, but influential and ultimately HUAC name-naming film director Elia Kazan passed away as well. The amazing breadth of his work, contrasted with his unfortunate personal decisions that affected others, makes people wonder what is he to be judged on, his incomparable work alone (like On The Waterfront) or his overall professionalism. (Recently deceased filmmaker of Nazi propaganda Leni Riefinstahl is another, though more extreme, example of this life versus art debate.)
Roger Ebert's obituary of Elia Kazan.
