John Cassavetes filmography

John Cassavetes began his career in film in 1953 and ended it in 1986, between which times he was involved in every aspect of the film, television, and stage arts, including acting, directing, scoring, shooting, editing, producing, and marketing.

John Cassavetes as Johnny Staccato, 1959

Cassavetes became known for directing a string of critically acclaimed independent films including Shadows (1959), Faces (1968), Husbands (1970), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Opening Night (1977), Gloria (1980), and Love Streams (1984). Cassavetes also had leading roles in both Opening Night and Love Streams opposite his wife Gena Rowlands.

He is also known for acting in films such as Martin Ritt's film noir Edge of the City (1957), and Roman Polanski's horror film Rosemary's Baby (1968), Giuliano Montaldo's Italian crime film Machine Gun McCain (1969), and Elaine May's crime drama Mikey and Nicky (1976). He earned an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance in the war film The Dirty Dozen (1967).

As director

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
1959	Shadows	Yes	Yes	No	Co-written with Robert Alan Aurthur
1961	Too Late Blues	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-written with Richard Carr
1963	A Child Is Waiting	Yes	No	No
1968	Faces	Yes	Yes	Uncredited	Also uncredited editor
1970	Husbands	Yes	Yes	Yes	Also uncredited editor and actor
1971	Minnie and Moskowitz	Yes	Yes	No	Uncredited as actor
1974	A Woman Under the Influence	Yes	Yes	No
1976	The Killing of a Chinese Bookie	Yes	Yes	No
1977	Opening Night	Yes	Yes	No	Also actor
1980	Gloria	Yes	Yes	No
1984	Love Streams	Yes	Yes	No	Co-written with Ted Allan, also actor
1986	Big Trouble	Yes	No	No

As actor

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1951	Fourteen Hours	Bit Role	Uncredited
1953	Taxi	Bit Role	Uncredited
1955	The Night Holds Terror	Robert Batsford
1956	Crime in the Streets	Frankie Dane
1957	Edge of the City	Axel Nordmann
	Affair in Havana	Nick
1958	Saddle the Wind	Tony Sinclair
	Virgin Island	Evan	US: Our Virgin Island
1959	Shadows	Pedestrian	Uncredited
1961	Too Late Blues	Narrator	Uncredited
1962	The Webster Boy	Vance Miller
1963	A Child Is Waiting	Mentally-challenged Adult Who Walks Toward Camera	Uncredited
1964	The Killers	Johnny North
1967	Devil's Angels	Cody
	The Dirty Dozen	Victor Franko
1968	Rosemary's Baby	Guy Woodhouse
	Rome Like Chicago (Bandits in Rome)	Mario Corda
1969	Machine Gun McCain	Hank McCain
	If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium	Steve
1970	Husbands	Gus Demetri
1971	Minnie and Moskowitz	Jim	Uncredited
1975	Capone	Frankie Yale
1976	Two-Minute Warning	Sgt. Button
	Mikey and Nicky	Nicky Godalin
1977	Heroes	VA Doctor	Uncredited
	Opening Night	Maurice Aarons
1978	The Fury	Ben Childress
	Brass Target	Maj. Joe De Lucca
1981	Whose Life Is It Anyway?	Dr. Michael Emerson
1982	The Incubus	Sam Cordell
	Tempest	Phillip Dimitrius
	The Haircut	Music Industry Executive	Short film
1983	Marvin & Tige	Marvin Stewart
1984	Love Streams	Robert Harmon
1984	Fräulein Berlin	Himself

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1953	You Are There	Plato	Episode: "The Death of Socrates (399 B.C.)"
1954	Robert Montgomery Presents	Un­known	Episode: "Diary"
1954–1955	Danger	Various	3 episodes
1955	Kraft Television Theatre	Un­known	Episode: "Judge Contain's Hotel"
	The Elgin Hour	Private Tommy Fitch / Frankie Dane	2 episodes
	Armstrong Circle Theatre	Arthur / Clay Cochran	3 episodes
	Pond's Theater	Un­known	Episode: "Coquette"
	Goodyear Television Playhouse	Paul Davis	Episode: "The Expendable House"
1956	The United States Steel Hour	Johnny	Episode: "Bring Me a Dream"
	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Sam Cobbett	Season 1 Episode 16: "You Got to Have Luck"
	Appointment with Adventure	Un­known	Episode: "All Through the Night"
	The 20th Century Fox Hour	Max Markheim	Episode: "The Last Patriarch"
	Climax!	Abel Wintery / McCloud	2 episodes
1957	O. Henry Playhouse	Un­known	Episode: "Two Renegades"
	Playhouse 90	Dexter Green	Episode: "Winter Dreams"
1958	Westinghouse Studio One	Private Paul Greco	Episode: "Kurishiki Incident"
	Alcoa Theatre	Tony Benedetti	Episode: "The First Star"
	Pursuit	Sam Caldwell	Episode: "Calculated Risk"
1959	General Electric Theater	Johnny	Episode: "Train for Tecumseh"
	Lux Video Theatre	Christo Sierra	Episode: "The Dreamer"
	Decoy	Carl Walton	Episode: "Across the World"
1959–1960	Johnny Staccato	Johnny Staccato / The Killer	27 episodes
1961	Rawhide	Cal Fletcher	S3:E19, "Incident Near Gloomy River"
1962	The Lloyd Bridges Show	Castigo	Episode: "El Medico"
	Dr. Kildare	Makin Saund	Episode: "The Visitors"
1963	Channing	Lloyd Sullivan	Episode: "Message from the Tin Room"
	Breaking Point	Evan Price	Episode: "There Are the Hip, and There Are the Square"
1964	The Alfred Hitchcock Hour	Lee Griffin	Season 2 Episode 19: "Murder Case"
	The Alfred Hitchcock Hour	Rusty Connors	Season 3 Episode 3: "Water's Edge"
1964–1965	Burke's Law	Alfred Algeron / Various	4 episodes
1965	Profiles in Courage	Parsons	Episode: "John Peter Altgeld"
	Kraft Suspense Theatre	Peter Chandler	Episode: "Won't It Ever Be Morning?"
	Combat!	Kalb	Episode: "S.I.W."
	The Legend of Jesse James	Blackie Dolan	Episode: "The Quest"
	Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea	Everett Lang	Episode: "The Peacemaker"
1965–1967	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Various	3 episodes
1966	The Virginian	Jonah MacIntosh	Episode: "Long Ride to Wind River"
	The Long, Hot Summer	Tim Demming	Episode: "The Intruders"
1968	Off to See the Wizard	General Karonos	Episode: "Alexander the Great"
1972	Columbo	Alex Benedict	Episode: "Étude in Black"
1973	Nightside	Carmine Kelly	Television film
1979	Flesh and Blood	Gus Caputo	Television film
1985	King Kongs Faust	Berlin Film Fest Footage	Uncredited
1989	I'm Almost Not Crazy: John Cassavetes, the Man and His Work	Himself	Filmed in 1984

Further reading

• Carney, Raymond Francis, Junior, “American Dreaming: The Films of John Cassavetes and the American Experience,” (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California and London: University of California Press, 1985).