Tony Kaye (director)

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Tony Kaye (born 1952, UK) is an advertising and film director.

In a controversy regarding his film American History X, Kaye attempted to remove his name from the credits, preferring instead to invoke the pseudonym Alan Smithee. After New Line told Kaye he couldn't use the Alan Smithee pseudonym and to pick a different name, he chose Humpty Dumpty.^[1] Kaye alleged that his reasoning for not wanting his name associated with the film was actor Edward Norton's re-editing of the film to give himself more screen time. The Directors' Guild of America ultimately denied Kaye the right to remove his name from the production, reasoning that Kaye had placed ads in Variety attacking the film, thus violating Guild rules regarding the right to invoke the pseudonym. Kaye proceeded to sue the Directors Guild and New Line Cinema, claiming they had violated his First Amendment rights.

As reported by Rolling Stone Magazine in 2002, Kaye was hired as director for an acting video produced by and starring Marlon Brando called "Lying for a Living". On the first day of class, Kaye showed up dressed as Osama bin Laden, and on the third day walked off the set and quit.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005/6 he was attached to a feature film called 'Reaper', but left the project after several months due to creative differences. Another, a self-financed documentary on the anti-abortion campaigns in the United States, Lake of Fire, opened in Toronto to widely positive reviews in September 2006. Others, including 'Paranoia' and 'Lucky Lobster' indicate that, after a period of being considered difficult to work with, his star may again be rising.

He also directed the "Dani California" video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as well as Roger Waters' video for What God Wants, along with videos for the Johnny Cash songs God's Gonna Cut You Down and Help Me.

He is also known for his grammy award winning music video Runaway Train by Soul Asylum.