He graduated Horace Mann School and Yale University before serving as a Naval officer on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific.
There he was part of a tight group of young friends who defined the American literary movement of 1950s Paris, including Terry Southern, William Styron, John P. Marquand, and George Plimpton.
In 1953, Avakian returned to the United States and apprenticed under famed photographer Gjon Mili who got him started in documentary editing.
End Here (1960), Arthur Penn's The Miracle Worker (1962), Robert Rossen's Lilith (1964), Penn's Mickey One (1965), in which Avakian also plays the disembodied voice of Warren Beatty's tormentor, and, Francis Ford Coppola's editor on You're a Big Boy Now (1966) , Jerry Schatzberg's Honeysuckle Rose (1979) Avakian directed and edited the movie End of the Road (1970), which received an "X" rating for its graphic depiction of an abortion.
[2] LIFE magazine's November 7, 1969, issue covered the film in a spectacular 9-page article, and in-depth interviews ran in Esquire and Playboy.
Cineaste published this 1980s interview in advance of the 2012 DVD release: [1] Avakian also directed and edited Cops and Robbers (1973), One Night Stands and 11 Harrowhouse (1974).
Francis Ford Coppola and Terry Southern wrote letters about Avakian, which were read aloud, and Gerry Mulligan played his saxophone, as well as others.