Paul mazursky

Born in the New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, on April 25, 1930, Irwin Mazursky –his real name– was the son of a pianist and a government official. The family, of Jewish origin, came from Ukraine.

After graduating from Brooklyn College, as Paul Mazursky he began his journey in the cinema as an actor, directed by Stanley Kubrick in Fear and Desire , where the legendary director also made his debut. Later he was a juvenile delinquent in Seed of Evil , by Richard Brooks .

Since he had not quite succeeded as an interpreter, he turned towards screenwriting. After several television shows she wrote for the big screen I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! , comedy starring Peter Sellers .

In 1979 he directed his debut feature, Bob, Ted and Alice. In total he delivered 17 films, all of them with his own script. Highlights include Harry and Fool –a road movie about an old man who travels the country with his cat–, Next Stop, Greenwich Village , Tempest , A Russian in New York , Enemies, a Love Story , A Madman Loose in Hollywood and above all, A Woman Unmarried , with Jill Clayburgh as a woman abandoned by her husband, seduced by a younger woman.

“It seems that I tend naturally towards humor and make people laugh,” Mazursky commented in the Chicago Tribune newspaper, “but I think there is a duality in me. I also like to make people cry. The perfect movie, for me, It would be tragicomic, like life”.

In the 90s he continued to be very active with titles such as Scenes in a Gallery , with Woody Allen as a husband who confesses to his wife, Bette Midler , that he has been unfaithful, and the disappointing The Gherkin , about the filming of a science film. B-series fiction.

He never abandoned his facet as an actor. For example, he played a card player associated with Junior Soprano in two episodes of The Sopranos . He married actress Betsy Mazursky, with whom he had two daughters, Jill and Meg.