Joseph Ezekiel Strick (July 6, 1923 – June 1, 2010, aged 86) was an American director, producer and screenwriter.

Life and career

Born in the Pittsburgh area town of Braddock, Pennsylvania, Strick briefly attended UCLA, then enrolled in the U.S. Army during World War II. In the Army, he served as a cameraman in the Army Air Forces.Dennis McLella
"Joseph Strick dies at 86; independent filmmaker brought 'Ulysses' to big screen"
''Los Angeles Times'', 4 June 2010 In 1948, he and Irving Lerner produced ''

Muscle Beach Muscle Beach is the birthplace of the United States physical fitness boom, which started in 1934 with predominantly gymnastics activities on the south side of the Santa Monica Pier. Muscle Beach Venice is the contemporary title of the outdoor we ...

''. For several years in the 1950s, Lerner, Strick,

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, and

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worked part-time on the experimental documentary '' The Savage Eye'' (1959).Benjamin T Jackson "The Savage Eye", ''Film Quarterly'', 13:4, Summer 1960, pp. 53-57 Strick was also a successful businessman, founding Electrosolids Corp (1956), Computron Corp. (1958), Physical Sciences Corp (1958), and Holosonics Corp. (1960). In 1977 he invented the usage of six-axis motion simulators as entertainment systems and applied it to new machines used now in Disney theme parks as "Star Tours." In the 1960s, during his first marriage, Strick commissioned what was the only house designed by

Oscar Niemeyer Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...

in North America. The marriage ended in divorce before construction was completed, and Strick never occupied the house, located on the edge of Santa Monica Canyon. ''The Savage Eye'' won the BAFTA Flaherty Documentary Award and was hailed as part of an "American New Wave" alongside the work of

Shirley Clarke Shirley Clarke (née Brimberg; October 2, 1919 – September 23, 1997) was an American filmmaker. Life Born Shirley Brimberg in New York City, she was the daughter of a Polish-immigrant father who made his fortune in manufacturing. Her mother w ...

and

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. In 1970, he won an

Academy Award for Best Documentary The Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film is an award for documentary films. In 1941, the first awards for feature-length documentaries were bestowed as Special Awards to '' Kukan'' and ''Target for Tonight''. They have since been best ...

for his movie '' Interviews with My Lai Veterans''. His better known ventures include a film adaptation of

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

's '' Ulysses'' and ''

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' is the first novel of Irish writer James Joyce. A ''Künstlerroman'' written in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, Joyce's fictional al ...

'' as well as '' Never Cry Wolf'' (1983). He also directed ''

Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, which is also referred to as the Northern Tropic, is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted tow ...

'', based on the novel by Henry Miller. In Britain, he directed at the Royal Shakespeare Company (1964) and the National Theatre (2003). Joseph Strick's career led him to share his time in Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris. He died in a Paris hospital of congestive heart failure. The moving image collection of Joseph Strick is held at the

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

. The collection consists of over one hundred items, including negative and print materials. The Academy Film Archive has preserved several of Strick's films, including ''The Savage Eye'' and ''Muscle Beach''.

References

*Margot Norris, ''Ulysses'' (University of Cork Press, 2004) *Bosley Crowther, ''The Great Films'' (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1967), pages 247-250 *William Wulf, ''Landmark Films'' (Paddington Press, 1979) pages 278-290 *Michael Webb, ''A Modernist Paradise'' (Rizzoli, 2004)

External links

*
'Portrait of Joe as a Young Director'
documentary of Joe talking about 'Ulysses' and 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'
The Hecklers
1966, BBC Documentary on British elections and 'heckling' with introduction by Strick. {{DEFAULTSORT:Strick, Joseph 1923 births 2010 deaths American documentary filmmakers American male screenwriters People from Braddock, Pennsylvania United States Air Force airmen Film directors from Pennsylvania Screenwriters from Pennsylvania United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II Deaths from congestive heart failure