Person biography:
Cy Endfield, born Cyril Raker Endfield, was a British-American film director, screenwriter, and magician. He was the son of a struggling businessman and worked hard to be admitted to Yale University in 1933. At Yale, he became enamored with progressive theatre and appeared in a New Haven production of a minor Russian play in 1934. He was also influenced by friends such as writer Paul Jarrico, who advocated liberal and leftist views.
Endfield worked as a director and choreographer with avant-garde theatre companies in and around New York and Montreal. He led his own repertory company of amateur players in performances of musicals and satirical revues at resorts in the Catskills.
In addition to his work in theatre, Endfield was a skilled magician, particularly in card tricks. This led him to Hollywood in 1940, where he met Orson Welles and was hired as a "general factotum" for the Mercury Theatre. Endfield's expertise in magic allowed him to sit in on the making of several films, including "Journey Into Fear" (1943) and "The Magnificent Ambersons" (1942).
Endfield wrote several scripts for radio and television, and directed a number of short documentaries for MGM in 1946. He made his motion picture debut with "Gentleman Joe Palooka" (1946),based on a popular comic strip character. He also directed several B-movies, including "The Argyle Secrets" (1948) and "Tarzan's Savage Fury" (1952).
Endfield's most notable films include "The Sound of Fury" (1950),a scathing attack on mob rule, and "The Underworld Story" (1950),a stylish and moody film noir. He also directed "Zulu" (1964),an epic story of the Battle of Rorke's Drift in 1879, which was a visual and commercial success.
After losing interest in filmmaking, Endfield devoted himself to his "technical period," manufacturing a gold-and-silver chess set and inventing the first pocket word processing system, the "MicroWriter." He continued to perform magic and wrote a book on card magic, "Cy Endfield's Entertaining Card Magic," which was well-received by amateur and professional magicians.
