Editing Joseph Losey (section)

== Early life and career ==
[[File:LoseyArch.JPG|thumb|Losey Memorial Arch (1901) was erected by the city of La Crosse, Wisconsin, in tribute to Losey's grandfather, a prominent attorney and civic leader<ref name="La Crosse Library"/>]]
Joseph Walton Losey III was born on January 14, 1909, in [[La Crosse, Wisconsin]], where he and [[Nicholas Ray]] were high-school classmates at [[La Crosse Central High School]].<ref name="La Crosse Library">{{cite web |url=http://archives.lacrosselibrary.org/blog/filmfreaks-nicholas-ray-and-joseph-losey/ |title=FilmFreaks: Nicholas Ray & Joseph Losey |last=Brouwer |first=Scott |publisher=La Crosse Public Library Archives |access-date=2016-09-22}}</ref><ref name=nytobit>{{cite news | last=Apple | first=R.W. Jr. |title=Joseph Losey, Film Director Blacklisted in 1950s, Dies at 75 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/23/obituaries/joseph-losey-film-director-blacklisted-in-1950-s-dies-at-75.html |access-date=April 3, 2013 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 23, 1984}}</ref><ref name=brody>{{cite magazine |last=Brody |first=Richard |title=DVD of the Week: Joseph Losey's "Mr. Klein" |url=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2012/11/dvd-of-the-week-mr-klein.html |access-date=April 4, 2013 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=November 8, 2012}}</ref> He attended [[Dartmouth College]] and [[Harvard University]], beginning as a student of medicine and ending in drama.<ref name=archer>{{cite news |last=Archer |first=Eugene |title=Expatriate Retraces his Steps |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1964/03/15/106946450.pdf |access-date=April 3, 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 15, 1964}}</ref><ref>Palmer and Riley, 1993 p. 20</ref>

Losey became a major figure in New York City political theatre, first directing the controversial failure ''Little Old Boy'' in 1933.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-show/little-ol-boy-5475 |title=''Little Ol' Boy'' |website=IBDB.com |publisher=[[Internet Broadway Database]] }}</ref> He declined to direct a staged version of ''[[Dodsworth (novel)|Dodsworth]]'' by [[Sinclair Lewis]], which led Lewis to offer him his first work written for the stage, ''Jayhawker''. Losey directed the show, which had a brief run.<ref name=archer/> [[Bosley Crowther]] in ''[[The New York Times]]'' noted that "The play, being increasingly wordy, presents staging problems that Joe Losey's direction does not always solve. It is hard to tell who is responsible for the obscure parts in the story."<ref>{{cite news |last=Crowther |first=Bosley |title=Fred Stone as a Civil War Senator... |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/11/06/93650228.pdf |access-date=April 3, 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 6, 1934}}</ref>

He visited the [[Soviet Union]] for several months in 1935, to study the Russian stage. In Moscow he participated in a seminar on film taught by [[Sergei Eisenstein]].<ref>See Michel Ciment: ''Conversations with Losey''. London New York: Methuen, 1985, p. 37.</ref> He also met [[Bertolt Brecht]] and the composer [[Hanns Eisler]], who were visiting Moscow at the time.<ref>See Robert Cohen: "Bertolt Brecht, Joseph Losey, and Brechtian Cinema", in ''"Escape to Life": German Intellectuals in New York: A Compendium on Exile after 1933''. Eckart Goebel and Sigrid Weigel (eds.). De Gruyter, 2012. 142–161, here p. 144 ff.</ref>

In 1936, he directed ''[[Triple-A Plowed Under]]'' on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]], a production of the [[Works Progress Administration]]'s [[Federal Theatre Project]].<ref name=ray>{{cite book |last=McGilligan |first=Patrick |title=Nicholas Ray: The Glorious Failure of an American Director |year=2011 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |location=New York |pages=64–65 |isbn=9780062092342 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s-0g_LtOTbUC&pg=PA65}}</ref> He then directed the second [[Living Newspaper]] presentation, ''Injunction Granted''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Atkinson |first=Brooks |date=July 25, 1936 |title=The Play: WPA Journalism |newspaper=The New York Times }}</ref>

Losey served in the [[United States Armed Forces|U.S. military]] during [[World War II]] and was discharged in 1945.<ref name="UPI">[https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/06/22/Joseph-Losey-American-movie-director-dies/5875456724800/ Joseph Losey, American movie director, dies] [[United Press International]]. Retrieved October 27, 2021.</ref> From 1946 to 1947, Losey worked with Bertolt Brecht—who was living in exile in Los Angeles—and [[Charles Laughton]] on the preparations for the staging of Brecht's play ''Galileo'' (''[[Life of Galileo]]'') which he and Brecht eventually co-directed with Laughton in the title role, and with music by Eisler. The play premiered on July 30, 1947, at the Coronet Theatre in [[Beverly Hills]].<ref name="Cohen_149">See Cohen, "Bertolt Brecht, Joseph Losey", p. 149.</ref> On October 30, 1947, Losey accompanied Brecht to Washington D.C. for Brecht's appearance before the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] (HUAC).<ref name="Cohen_149"/> Brecht left the US the following day. Losey went on to stage ''Galileo'', again with Laughton in the title role, in New York City where it opened on December 7, 1947, at the [[Maxine Elliott Theatre]]. More than 25 years later Losey, in exile in England, would direct a film version of Brecht's play ''[[Galileo (1975 film)|Galileo]]'' (1975).

Losey's first feature film was a political allegory titled ''[[The Boy with Green Hair]]'' (1947), starring a young [[Dean Stockwell]] as Peter, a war orphan who is subject to ridicule after he awakens one morning to find his hair mysteriously turned green.

Seymour Nebenzal, the producer of [[Fritz Lang]]'s classic ''[[M (1931 film)|M]]'' (1931), hired Losey to direct [[M (1951 film)|a remake]] set in Los Angeles rather than Berlin. In the new version, released in 1951, the killer's name was changed from Hans Beckert to Martin W. Harrow. Nebenzal's son Harold was associate producer of this version.