{{short description|American filmmaker, writer, and actress (born 1933)}} {{Infobox person | name = Juleen Compton | birth_date = 1933 | birth_place = Phoenix, Arizona, United States | occupation = Filmmaker, writer, actress }}
'''Juleen Compton''' (born 1933, Phoenix, AZ)<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/juleen-compton-a-director-and-actor-whose-career-was-tragically-overlooked|title=Juleen Compton, a Director and Actor Whose Career Was Tragically Overlooked|last=Brody|first=Richard|magazine=The New Yorker|date=2019-06-19|access-date=2019-07-08|language=en|issn=0028-792X}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite news|last=Warren|first=Virginia Lee|title=She Throws Out All the Furniture And Moves Every Few Years|date=5 January 1970|work=The New York Times}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2017/03/09/stranded-plastic-dome-norma-jean|title=Stranded / The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean {{!}} UCLA Film & Television Archive|website=www.cinema.ucla.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-03-25}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/press_archives/4429/releases/MOMA_1970_Jan-June_0026_26.pdf|title=Cineprobe Presents a Feature Film by Juleen Compton: 'The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean'|date=January–June 1970|website=moma.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1299&dat=19700409&id=qNpHAAAAIBAJ&sjid=N4wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6370,5103469|title=The Village Voice - Google News Archive Search|last=Colaciello|first=Robert|date=April 9, 1970|website=news.google.com|access-date=2018-03-27}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news|last=Atkinson|first=Brooks|title=Theatre: Play by Anouilh: Jeannette' Makes Bow at the Maidman|date=25 March 1960|work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lortel.org/Archives/CreditableEntity/30671|title=Juleen Compton - Lortel Archives|website=www.lortel.org|language=en|access-date=2018-03-27}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.playbill.com/production/good-as-gold-belasco-theatre-vault-0000010822|title=Good as Gold Broadway @ Belasco Theatre - Tickets and Discounts {{!}} Playbill|website=Playbill|language=en|access-date=2018-03-28}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Atkinson|first=Brooks|title=Theatre: Old and New: Lysistrata' Opens on Refurbished Stage|date=20 May 1959|work=The New York Times}}</ref> The UCLA Film & Television Archive likens her work to that of the French New Wave.<ref name=":0" /> In 1974 she took part in the first Directing Workshop for Women at the American Film Institute.<ref name=":0" /> 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."<ref name=":2" />
In the 1990s Compton moved to New York City to run the Century Center for the Performing Arts, an off-Broadway theater company.<ref name=":0" /> 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).<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0174050/|title=Juleen Compton|website=IMDb|access-date=2018-03-25}}</ref> Her directing credits include ''Buckeye and Blue'' (1988).<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archives.nypl.org/the/21855#detailed|title=archives.nypl.org -- New York Shakespeare Festival Records. Series III. Scripts|website=archives.nypl.org|language=en|access-date=2018-03-28}}</ref>
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."<ref name=":2" />
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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hertz |first=Barry |date=2022-02-24 |title=Inside TIFF's top-to-bottom plan to emerge from a long, cruel winter |language=en-CA |work=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/article-inside-tiffs-top-to-bottom-plan-to-emerge-from-a-long-cruel-winter/ |access-date=2022-04-12}}</ref>
== Personal life == She was married to director and drama critic Harold Clurman from 1960 until his death in 1980, according to some reports.<ref name=":0" /> 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."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/05/06/archives/a-long-life-in-the-theater-clurman.html|title=A LONG LIFE IN THE THEATER; In his 55-year career, Harold Clurman has directed—with passion — more than 40 plays, and written some of the finest dramatic criticism of our age. Now (fittingly) a theater has been named after him.|last=Gussow|first=Mel|date=1979-05-06|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-03-28|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> According to a biography of Clurman's first wife, actress Stella Adler, Compton "never filed the papers [to divorce Clurman] and consequently inherited certain rights to his writings."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qhqXAwAAQBAJ&dq=%22juleen+compton%22+theater&pg=PT259|title=Stella! Mother of Modern Acting|last=Ochoa|first=Sheana|date=2014-04-01|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=9781480392557|language=en}}</ref>
Compton has had a number of real estate dealings: in 1961, The New York Times profiled her on the occasion of her acquiring a $250,000 building on West Thirteenth Street with plans to turn it into a complex with theatres, a drama school, and a restaurant.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Lask|first=Thomas|title=Little Woman With Big Ideas About Her New Theatre|date=30 April 1961|work=The New York Times}}</ref> The same article mentions she previously owned the East 74th Street Theater. A 1980 ''New York Times'' article on architecture mentioned that Compton owned a movie theater at 350 East 72nd Street, and that architect Philip Birnbaum was working on a project for her.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Horsley|first=Carter B.|title=Slim Designs Make Slim Spaces Work|date=23 August 1981|work=The New York Times}}</ref>
A 2019 Metrograph blog post by film critic Kristen Yoonsoo Kim stated: "Little is known about Compton now. By all accounts, she lives in the Hamptons and goes by the name Justine. Word has it that she dropped by previous Metrograph screenings of her films incognito."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://metrograph.com/edition/article/101/juleen-compton-stranded-by-film-history|title=Juleen Compton: Stranded by Film History {{!}} Metrograph|website=metrograph.com|access-date=2019-10-17}}</ref>
In December 2019, Mexico's Museo Nacional de Arte acquired a 1956 portrait of Compton by Mexican artist Diego Rivera, which was given to the museum by Compton and her husband Nicholas Wentworth.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.excelsior.com.mx/expresiones/retrato-de-juleen-compton-el-diego-rivera-donado-al-munal/1354401|title=Retrato de Juleen Compton, el Diego Rivera donado al Munal|date=2019-12-21|website=Excélsior|language=es|access-date=2020-03-09}}</ref> It is possible a second portrait of Compton by Rivera exists, according to coverage by Mexican newspaper ''Excélsior.'' The Rivera portrait, along with a bust of Compton by Jacob Epstein,<ref>{{Cite news|last=Ross|first=David|title=Epstein's Model|date=27 November 1955|work=The New York Times}}</ref> are mentioned as the two objects Compton kept across her many moves to different residences in a 1970 ''New York Times'' interview.<ref name=":3" />
== Filmography == {| class="wikitable sortable" |+ !Year !Name !Director !Writer !Producer !Actress !Role !Notes |- |1965 |''Stranded'' |{{yes}} |{{yes}} |{{yes}} |{{yes}} |Raina | |- |1966 |''The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean'' |{{yes}} |{{yes}} |{{yes}} | | | |- |1974 |''Virginia Hill'' | |{{yes}} | | | |TV movie |- |1979 |''Women at West Point'' | |{{yes|Story}} | | | |TV movie |- |1988 |''Buckeye and Blue'' |{{yes}} | | | | | |}
==References== <references />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Compton, Juleen}} Category:1933 births Category:Living people Category:American women film directors Category:American women screenwriters Category:20th-century American actresses Category:Place of birth missing (living people) Category:21st-century American women