![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.rogerebert.com/uploads/blog_post/primary_image/features/paul-mazursky-1930-2014/primary_Screen_Shot_2014-07-01_at_5.22.08_PM.png)
Features
Paul Mazursky: 1930-2014
Writer, director, and producer Paul Mazursky dies at 84.
Writer, director, and producer Paul Mazursky dies at 84.
In 1954, a young New York actor named Paul Mazursky hung up his beret, combed his hair into a ducktail and went to a casting call for a movie named "The Blackboard Jungle." He got the job. He left behind a bohemian existence in Greenwich Village and set out for Hollywood and an acting career that somehow never quite got off the ground.