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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
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94% 89% The Train
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91% 87% Little Big Man
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90% 88% Bonnie and Clyde Watchlist
83% 71% Night Moves
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83% 54% The Left Handed Gun
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80% 72% The Chase
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78% 60% The Missouri Breaks
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78% 72% Four Friends
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77% 47% Dead of Winter
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Filmography

Movies

Credit
No Score Yet 77% Inside Director - 1996
No Score Yet No Score Yet Nichols and May: Take Two Self - 1996
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Portrait Director - 1993
25% 58% Penn & Teller Get Killed Director,
Producer
- 1989
77% 47% Dead of Winter Director $2.2M 1986
62% 36% Target Director $9.0M 1985
78% 72% Four Friends Director,
Producer
- 1981
78% 60% The Missouri Breaks Director - 1976
83% 71% Night Moves Director - 1975
54% 58% Visions of Eight Director - 1973
91% 87% Little Big Man Director - 1970
63% 59% Alice's Restaurant Director,
Screenwriter
- 1969
90% 88% Bonnie and Clyde Director - 1967
80% 72% The Chase Director - 1966
71% 52% Mickey One Director,
Producer
- 1965
94% 89% The Train Director - 1965
96% 88% The Miracle Worker Director - 1962
83% 54% The Left Handed Gun Director - 1958
No Score Yet No Score Yet Playhouse 90 - Charley's Aunt Director - 1957

TV

Credit
No Score Yet 83% Law & Order Executive Producer 2000-2010
No Score Yet 72% Law & Order: Criminal Intent Executive Producer 2005
No Score Yet No Score Yet Inside the Actors Studio Guest 1994
No Score Yet No Score Yet Producers' Showcase Director 1954-1955