Trivia

As of 2007, he is one of only eight filmmakers to be nominated for best directing, writing, and acting Oscars over the course of their lifetime. The other seven are Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, George Clooney, Roberto Benigni, John Huston and Kenneth Branagh.

Friend/actor Peter Falk said: 'Every Cassavetes film is always about the same thing. Somebody said 'Man is God in ruins,' and John saw the ruins with a clarity that you and I could not tolerate.'.

Friend/actor Peter Falk said: "Cassavetes was the most fervent man I ever met, and he didn't have a copy-cat bone in his body."

Despite many claiming that his films are improvised, they are from completed scripts that came from improvised work by the actors. Another trademark of his films is that they're shot in documentary style.

A photograph of Cassavetes, taken during the production of his film Husbands (1970), appears on one stamp of a sheet of 10 USA 37¢ commemorative postage stamps, issued 25 February 2003, celebrating American Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes. The stamp honors directing.

Actor and film director who was regarded as a pioneer of American cinema verité.

Wrote a scathing "Letter to the Editor", published in the January 23, 1970, issue of Life Magazine, which strongly criticized the magazine for publishing a now notorious photo of Charles Manson on the cover of its December 19, 1969, issue. Cassavetes had costarred in the horror movie Rosemary's Baby" (1968), directed by Roman Polanski, whose pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, had been among the unfortunate victims of the grisly cult killings.

In Ray Carney's "Cassavetes on Cassavetes" book, Cassavetes confessed to his parents that he wanted to be an actor. His father wasn't initially thrilled at the idea of his son being an actor, but told him that he had to work hard because he would be portraying human emotions truthfully.

He and close friend Peter Falk made six movies together: Machine Gun McCain (1969), Husbands (1970), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Mikey and Nicky (1976), Opening Night (1977), Big Trouble (1986), and one movie made for TV: Étude in Black (1972).

One of the screening rooms at the Thessaloniki Film Festival is named after him.

While some of his Hollywood films (such as Too Late Blues (1961)) lost money, his own movies were often hugely successful. Shadows (1958), filmed with non-professional actors on the streets of New York with a hand-held camera on 16mm black & white film, cost a mere $40,000 and recouped its cost many times over, winning the 1960 Critics Award at the Venice Film Festival. Another of his films, Faces (1968), cost $1 million and made ten times as much in profits, as well as taking out another five prizes in Venice in 1970.

Acted in films by other directors in order to finance his own projects.

Auditioned for The Actors Studio when he was starting out as an actor, but was rejected.

Adhered to the Stanislavsky School of Method Acting and taught acting classes in 1956 (in his own workshop that he started) prior to making the film Shadows (1958) .

As of 2013, he is one of six men who has directed his wife to a Best Actress Oscar nomination, and is the only one to have directed her to two such nominations (Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980)). The other five are Paul Czinner directing Elisabeth Bergner in Escape Me Never (1935), Paul Newman directing Joanne Woodward in Rachel, Rachel (1968), Richard Brooks directing Jean Simmons in The Happy Ending (1969), Blake Edwards directing Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria (1982), and Joel Coen directing Frances McDormand in Fargo (1996). Jules Dassin also directed his future wife Melina Mercouri in a Best Actress Oscar-nominated performance for Never on Sunday (1960), though they were not yet married at the time of the nomination.

He was considered for the role of Tom Hagen in The Godfather (1972) before Robert Duvall was cast.

Directed 3 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Seymour Cassel, Lynn Carlin and Gena Rowlands.

He had directed three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Shadows (1958), Faces (1968) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974). He has also appeared in two films that are in the registry: Edge of the City (1957) and Rosemary's Baby (1968).

He and Gena Rowlands made ten movies together: A Child Is Waiting (1963), Faces (1968), Machine Gun McCain (1969), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Two-Minute Warning (1976), Opening Night (1977), Gloria (1980), Tempest (1982) and Love Streams (1984).

The New Yorker magazine said in 2013 that Cassavetes "may be the most influential American director of the last half century" --this on the eve of the screening of all of the films he directed, at the BAM Theater in Brooklyn, NY throughout July 2013.

He and his good friend Ben Gazzara made 5 movies together: Husbands (1970), Capone (1975), If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969), Opening Night (1977) and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)

Educated at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.

Father of Nick Cassavetes, Xan Cassavetes and Zoe R. Cassavetes. Son of Nicholas John Cassavetes and Katherine Cassavetes.

He played the brother of his real life wife Gena Rowlands in Love Streams (1984).

His good friend, Ben Gazzara died exactly 23 years to the day after him, on February 3, 2012.

Retrospective at the 1st American Film Festival (2010) in Wroclaw, Poland.

He directed Fred Draper in five films: A Child Is Waiting (1963), Faces (1968), Husbands (1970), A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Opening Night (1977).

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 189-194. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.

He directed Val Avery in five films: Too Late Blues (1961), Faces (1968), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) and Gloria (1980).

Brother-in-law of David Rowlands.

Retrospective: Screening of all the films Cassavetes directed, plus some he acted in, at Brooklyn Academy of Music, July 6-31. (July 2013)

He never appeared in a film nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.

Son-in-law of Lady Rowlands.

Alumnus of the AADA (American Academy of Dramatic Arts), Class of 1950.

His father was a Greek businessman.