Juleen Compton

Juleen Compton (born 1933, Phoenix, AZ) is an American independent filmmaker, writer, and actor. She is best known for '' Stranded'' (1965) and '' The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean'' (1966), which she wrote, directed, and financed. She also starred in and distributed ''Stranded''.

Career

''The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean'' won a special award at Cannes, as well as an award at the San Francisco Film Festival, and was screened at MoMA in 1970. She studied acting with Lee Strasberg, and performed in a production of Chekhov's ''The Cherry Orchard'' in 1955 and played the title role in a production of Jean Anouilh's ''Jeannette'' in 1960. She also originated the role of Fredrica in John Patrick's Broadway comedy ''Good As Gold'' in 1957, alongside Roddy McDowall and Zero Mostel, and played Myrrhina in a production of ''Lysistrata'' in 1959 that re-opened the East 74th Street Theater. The UCLA Film & Television Archive likens her work to that of the French New Wave. In 1974 she took part in the first Directing Workshop for Women at the American Film Institute. Compton also at one point began on a documentary of the history of women directors in Hollywood called ''Women in Action'', "but there's no trace of it."

In the 1990s Compton moved to New York City to run the Century Center for the Performing Arts, an off-Broadway theater company. Compton's other writing credits include the TV movies ''Virginia Hill'' (1974), which starred Dyan Cannon and Harvey Keitel, and ''Women at West Point'' (1979). Her directing credits include ''Buckeye and Blue'' (1988). A script by Compton entitled ''Two Nice Girls'' is among a New York Public Library collection of scripts "produced, co-produced, or sponsored" by the New York Shakespeare Festival between 1972 and 1992.

In an article for ''The New Yorker'' in 2019, film critic Richard Brody, discussing ''Stranded'', stated that with the film, Compton "places herself boldly in a tradition of director-stars that includes Charlie Chaplin and Erich von Stroheim, Orson Welles and Jacques Tati," as well as "Jean Seberg, Shirley MacLaine, and Judy Garland."

In February 2022, TIFF's Bell Lightbox Theater screened ''The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean'' as the first in its Midnight Madness screening series following closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Personal life

She was married to director and drama critic Harold Clurman from 1960 until his death in 1980, according to some reports. In a 1979 interview in connection with a New York Times piece on Clurman's legacy, Clurman was Compton's "director and acting teacher," and their marriage "lasted anywhere from six months to five years; according to Miss Compton, there is still some question as to the legality of the divorce." According to a biography of Clurman's first wife, actress Stella Adler