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Arthur Penn

Highest Rated: 96% The Miracle Worker (1962)

Lowest Rated: 25% Penn & Teller Get Killed (1989)

Birthday: Sep 27, 1922

Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Arthur Penn proved himself a true triple threat during his career, achieving extraordinary success as a director of live television dramas, Broadway plays and feature films. Like Sidney Lumet and John Frankenheimer, he owed a huge debt to the crucible of television's Golden Age, but it was director Elia Kazan he resembled most in his sympathy for actors, the flights of fancy he allowed, and the incredible range of expression he elicited in films like "The Miracle Worker" (1962), "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) and "Little Big Man" (1970). Penn understood the poetry of close-up camera work, acknowledging that words were to the theater what actions were for film. His use of lighting and sound were stylistically and intellectually sophisticated, but ultimately it was his themes which propelled his pictures. No other director during the volatile 1960s had his finger so securely on America's pulse, and audiences responded enthusiastically to his exploration of the relationship between outsiders and mainstream society, even though his sympathies always seemed to lie invariably with the outcasts.

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Highest-Rated Movies

96% 88% The Miracle Worker Watchlist 94% 89% The Train Watchlist 91% 87% Little Big Man Watchlist 91% 88% Bonnie and Clyde Watchlist 83% 54% The Left Handed Gun Watchlist 78% 72% Night Moves Watchlist 78% 72% Four Friends Watchlist 77% 48% Dead of Winter Watchlist 77% 59% The Missouri Breaks Watchlist 73% 72% The Chase Watchlist
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Arthur Penn

Arthur Penn BONNIE AND CLYDE, Director Arthur Penn, on set, 1967 THE CHASE, Producer Sam Spiegel, Director Arthur Penn on the set, 1966 PENN & TELLER GET KILLED, director Arthur Penn on set, 1989, © Warner Brothers VISIONS OF EIGHT, Arthur Penn, codirector of documentary of 1972 Olympics in Munich, 1973 View more photos

Filmography

Movies TV Shows
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Inside 77% 1996 Director Nichols and May: Take Two 1996 Self The Portrait 1993 Director Penn & Teller Get Killed 25% 58% 1989 Director, Producer Dead of Winter 77% 48% 1986 Director Target 62% 37% 1985 Director Four Friends 78% 72% 1981 Director, Producer The Missouri Breaks 77% 59% 1976 Director Night Moves 78% 72% 1975 Director Visions of Eight 57% 60% 1973 Director Little Big Man 91% 87% 1970 Director Alice's Restaurant 63% 59% 1969 Director, Screenwriter Bonnie and Clyde 91% 88% 1967 Director The Chase 73% 72% 1966 Director Mickey One 71% 51% 1965 Director, Producer The Train 94% 89% 1965 Director The Miracle Worker 96% 88% 1962 Director The Left Handed Gun 83% 54% 1958 Director Playhouse 90 - Charley's Aunt 1957 Director
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