Paul Mazursky

Irwin Lawrence “Paul” Mazursky (April 25, 1930 – June 30, 2014) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. He made his acting debut in Stanley Kubrick’s Fear and Desire (1953), with Frank Silvera and Virginia Leith. Other notable early acting roles include Richard Brooks’s Blackboard Jungle (1955), with Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern, Margaret Hayes, John Hoyt, Richard Kiley, Emile Meyer, Basil Ruysdael, Warner Anderson, Sidney Poitier, and Vic Morrow; Death Watch (1965), with Leonard Nimoy, Michael Forest, Robert Ellenstein, and Gavin MacLeod; and an uncredited role in Hy Averback’s I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968), with Peter Sellers, Joyce Van Patten, David Arkin, Jo Van Fleet, Leigh Taylor-Young – the latter he also co-wrote the script to.

Known for his dramatic comedies that often dealt with modern social issues, he made his directorial debut with Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), with Natalie Wood, Robert Culp, Elliott Gould, and Dyan Cannon – earning his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Other early films include Alex in Wonderland (1970), with Donald Sutherland, Ellen Burstyn, Michael Leener, plus cameos by Federico Fellini and Jeanne Moreau; and Blume in Love (1973), with Segal, Susan Anspach, Kris Kristofferson, and Shelley Winters.

Other films in the 1970s include Harry and Tonto (1974), with Art Carney, Herbert Berghof, Philip Bruns, Burstyn, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Larry Hagman, Chief Dan George, Melanie Mayron, Joshua Mostel, Arthur Hunnicutt, Barbara Rhoades, Cliff DeYoung, and Avon Long – earning him a second Best Original Screenplay nomination; Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), with Lenny Baker, Winters, Ellen Greene, Lois Smith, Christopher Walken, and an uncredited Bill Murray; and An Unmarried Woman (1978), with Jill Clayburgh, Alan Bates, Michael Murphy, and Cliff Gorman – earning a third Best Original Screenplay nomination.

Films in the 1980s include Willie & Phil (1980), with Michael Ontkean, Margot Kidder, Ray Sharkey, and Laurence Fishburne; Tempest (1982), with John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Susan Sarandon, Vittorio Gassman, Raul Julia, and Molly Ringwald; Moscow on the Hudson (1984), with Robin Williams, María Conchita Alonso, Elya Baskin, Savely Kramarov, Alejandro Rey, and Cleavant Derricks; Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), with Nick Nolte, Bette Midler, Richard Dreyfuss, Little Richard, and Elizabeth Peña; Moon Over Parador (1988), with Dreyfuss, Julia, Sônia Braga, Jonathan Winters, and Fernando Rey; and Enemies, A Love Story (1989), with Ron Silver, Anjelica Huston, Lena Olin, Margaret Sophie Stein, and Alan King – earning Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture.

Later films include Scenes from a Mall (1991), with Middler and Woody Allen; The Pickle (1993), with Danny Aiello, Cannon, Clotilde Courau, Winters, Barry Miller, Jerry Stiller, Chris Penn, Ally Sheedy; Stephen Tobolowsky, and Spalding Gray; Faithful (1996), with Cher, Chazz Palminteri, and Ryan O’Neal; and the TV movies Winchell (1998), with Stanley Tucci, Glenne Headly, Paul Giamatti, Xander Berkeley, Kevin Tighe, and Christopher Plummer; and Coast to Coast (2003), with Dreyfuss, Judy Davis, Selma Blair, Fred Ward, Saul Rubinek, and Maximilian Schell.

Acting roles in the 70s and 80s include Frank Pierson’s A Star Is Born (1976), with Barbra Streisand, Kristofferson, Gary Busey, and Joanne Linville; Noel Black’s A Man, a Woman, and a Bank (1979), with Sutherland and Brooke Adams; and uncredited cameo as himself in Michael Ritchie’s An Almost Perfect Affair (1979), with Keith Carradine, Monica Vitti, Raf Vallone, Christian De Sica, Dick Anthony Williams, and Anna Maria Horsford; History of the World: Part I (1981), with Mel Brooks (who also directed), Sid Caesar, Shecky Greene, Gregory Hines, Charlie Callas, Ron Carey, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Andreas Voutsinas, and Spike Milligan; a cameo in John Landis’s Into the Night (1985), with Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Pfeiffer, Richard Farnsworth, Irene Papas, and Kathryn Harrold; David Seltzer’s Punchline (1988), with Sally Field, Tom Hanks, John Goodman, Mark Rydell, Kim Greist, Taylor Negron, and Damon Wayans; and Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989), with Jacqueline Bisset, Sharkey, Mary Woronov, Robert Beltran. Ed Begley Jr., Wallace Shawn, Arnetia Walker, Paul Bartel (who also directed), and Rebecca Schaeffer.

Acting roles in the 1990s include Bob Rafelson’s Man Trouble (1992), with Jack Nicholson, Ellen Barkin, Harry Dean Stanton, Beverly D’Angelo, Michael McKean, Rubinek, and Veronica Cartwright; Brian De Palma’s Carlito’s Way (1993); with Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller, Luis Guzman, John Leguizamo, Jorge Porcel, Joseph Siravo, and Viggo Mortensen; Love Affair (1994), with Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Katharine Hepburn, Garry Shandling, Chloe Webb, Pierce Brosnan, Kate Capshaw, and Harold Ramis; Miami Rhapsody (1995), with Sarah Jessica Parker, Gil Bellows, Antonio Banderas, Mia Farrow, Kevin Pollak, Barbara Garrick, and Carla Gugino; John Herzfeld’s 2 Days in the Valley (1996), with Aiello, Greg Cruttwell, Jeff Daniels, Teri Hatcher, Glenne Headly, Peter Horton, Mason, James Spader, Eric Stoltz, and Charlize Theron; Paul Schrader’s Touch (1997), with Walken, Richard Schiff, Bridget Fonda, Skeet Ulrich, Tom Arnold, Gina Gershon, Lolita Davidovich, Janeane Garofalo, LL Cool J; an uncredited cameo as himself in Bulworth (1998), with Beatty (who also directed), Halle Berry, Oliver Platt, Don Cheadle, Paul Sorvino, Jack Warden, and Isaiah Washington; Gregory Nava’s Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998), with Berry, Vivica A. Fox, Lela Rochon, Larenz Tate, and Lane Smith; a voice role in the animated film Antz (1998), with the voices of Allen, Sharon Stone, Jennifer Lopez, Sylvester Stallone, Walken, Dan Aykroyd, Anne Bancroft, Danny Glover, and Gene Hackman; and Cray in Alabama (1999), with Melanie Griffith, David Morse, Lucas Black, Cathy Moriarty, Meat Loaf Aday, Rod Steiger, Richard Schiff, John Beasley, and Sandra Seacat.

Acting roles in the 2000s include a voice cameo in Frank Darabont’s The Majestic (2001), with Bob Balaban, Brent Briscoe, Jeffrey DeMunn, Amanda Detmer, Allen Garfield, Hal Holbrook, Laurie Holden, Martin Landau, Ron Rifkin, David Ogden Stiers, and James Whitmore; Feng Xiaogang’s Big Shot’s Funeral (2001), with Ge You, Rosamund Kwan, and Sutherland; I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (2006), with Jeff Garlin (who also directed) Sarah Silverman, Bonnie Hunt, David Pasquesi, Mina Kolb, Richard Kind, and Elle Fanning; Cattle Call (2006), with Thomas Ian Nicholas, Jenny Mollen, Nicole Eggert, and Diedrich Bader; a voice role in Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), with the voices of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, James Hong, Jackie Chan, Gary Oldman, Michelle Yeoh, Danny McBride, Dennis Haysbert, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Victor Garber; and Orson Welles’s The Other Side of the Wind (2018), with John Huston, Oja Kodar, Peter Bogdanovich, Susan Strasberg, Norman Foster, Bob Random, Lilli Palmer, Edmond O’Brien, Mercedes McCambridge, Cameron Mitchell, Paul Stewart, Gregory Sierra, Tonio Selwart, Dan Tobin, Joseph McBride, Dennis Hopper – the latter being a posthumous release after a 48 years in development.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

Fear and Desire (1953) – directed by Stanley Kubrick – actor
Blackboard Jungle (1955) – directed by Richard Brooks – actor
Last Year at Malibu (1962) – director – short
Deathwatch (1965) – directed by Vic Morrow – actor
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968) – directed by Hy Averback – co-writer, uncredited actor
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) – director, co-writer, uncredited actor
Alex in Wonderland (1970) – director, co-writer, actor
Blume in Love (1973) – director, writer, actor
Harry and Tonto (1974) – director, co-writer, uncredited actor
Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976) – director, writer, uncredited actor
A Star Is Born (1976) – directed by Frank Pierson – actor
An Unmarried (1978) – director, writer, actor
An Almost Perfect Affair (1979) – directed by Michael Ritchie – uncredited cameo as himself
A Man, a Woman and a Bank (1979) – directed by Noel Black – actor
Willie & Phil (1980) – director, writer, uncredited narrator
History of the World: Part I (1981) – directed by Mel Brooks – actor
Tempest (1982) – director, co-writer, producer, actor
Moscow on the Hudson (1984) – director, co-writer, producer, actor
Into the Night (1985) – directed by John Landis – actor
Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986) – director, co-writer, producer, actor
Moon over Parador (1988) – director, co-writer, actor
Punchline (1988) – directed by David Seltzer – actor
Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989) – directed by Paul Bartel – actor
Enemies, A Love Story (1989) – directed by Paul Mazursky – director, co-writer, producer, actor
Scenes from a Mall (1991) – director, co-writer, producer, actor
Man Trouble (1992) – directed by Bob Rafelson – actor
The Pickle (1993) – director, writer, producer, actor
Carlito’s Way (1993) – directed by Brian De Palma – actor
Love Affair (1994) – directed by Glenn Gordon Caron – actor
Miami Rhapsody (1995) – directed by David Frankel – actor
Faithful (1996) – director, actor
2 Days in the Valley (1996) – directed by John Herzfeld – actor
Touch (1997) – directed by Paul Schrader – actor
Weapons of Mass Distraction (1997) – directed by Stephen Surjik – actor – TV movie
Bulworth (1998) – directed by Warren Beatty – uncredited cameo as himself
Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998) – directed by Gregory Nava – actor
Antz (1998)* – directed by Eric Darnell & Tim Johnson – voice
Winchell (1998) – director, actor – TV movie
Crazy in Alabama (1999) – directed by Antonio Banderas – actor
A Slight Case of Murder (1999) – directed by Steven Schachter – actor – TV movie
The Majestic (2001) – directed by Frank Darabont – voice cameo
Big Shot’s Funeral (2001) – directed by Feng Xiaogang – actor
Do It for Uncle Manny (2002) – directed by Adam Baratta – cameo
Coast to Coast (2003) – director, actor – TV movie
Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (2006) – directed by Jeff Garlin – actor
Cattle Call (2006) – directed by Martin Guigui – actor
Yippee: A Journey to Jewish Joy (2006) – director, self – documentary
Hopelessly Devoted (2010) – directed by Jeff Kanew – actor – short
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)* – directed d by Jennifer Yuh Nelson – voice
Jesus Sex Scandal (2011) – directed by Jeff Kanew – actor – short
The Other Side of the Wind (2018) – directed by Orson Welles – cameo as himself – posthumous release

Share this: