Robert Altman
Robert Altman was born in Kansas City, Missouri, United States on February 20th, 1925 and is the Director. At the age of 81, Robert Altman biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
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Robert Bernard Altman (February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer.
Altman, a five-time winner of the Academy Award for Best Director and an enduring figure from the New Hollywood period, was considered a "maverick" in filmmaking with a strong naturalistic yet stylized and satirical aesthetic, unlike most Hollywood films.
He has consistently been named as one of the top and most influential filmmakers in American cinema. His filmmaking style spanned many genres, but mainly with a "subversive" twist, in which most people were relying on satire and humor to express their personal views.
Altman's style and appearance earned him a reputation for being "anti-Hollywood" and non-conformist.
However, actors in particular loved working under his direction because he encouraged them to improvise, thus inducing their own ingenuity. He liked large ensemble casts for his films, and he invented a multitrack recording technique that resulted in overlapping dialogue from multiple actors.
This created a more natural, more dynamistic, and more difficult experience for the viewer.
He also enhanced the screen activity with a large camera system and zoom lenses.
Altman could "make film fireworks out of next to nothing," critic Pauline Kael wrote about his directing style. "The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Honored Altman's body of work with an Academy Honorary Award in 2006."
Despite seven nominations, he never won a competitive Oscar.
MASH (1970), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), and Nashville (1975) have been selected for the United States National Film Registry.
Altman is one of the few filmmakers whose films have won the Golden Bear in Berlin, the Golden Lion in Venice, and the Golden Palm at Cannes.
Early life
Bernard Clement Altman, a wealthy insurance salesman and a gambler who came from an upper-class family, was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of Helen (née Matthews), a Mayflower descendant from Nebraska. Altman's ancestry was German, English, and Irish; his paternal grandfather, Frank Altman, Sr., anglicized the word "Altmann" to "Altman"; his paternal grandfather, Frank Altman, Sr., anglicized the word "Altmann" to "Altman." Altman had a Catholic upbringing, but he did not continue to observe or practice the faith as an adult, although he has been referred to as "a sort of Catholic" and a Catholic priest. He was educated at Jesuit High School, as well as Rockhurst High School in Kansas City. In 1943, he graduated from Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri.
Altman joined the United States Army Air Forces at the age of 18. Altman, a pilot with the 307th Bomb Group in Borneo and the Dutch East Indies, carried out more than 50 bombing missions during World War II. Altman moved to California after being discharged in 1947. He worked in advertising for a company that had invented a tattooing device to identify dogs. He began filmmaking on a whim, supplying a script to RKO for the 1948 film Bodyguard, which he co-wrote with George W. George. Altman's immediate success prompted him to move to New York City, where he attempted to pursue a career as a writer. After having had little success, he returned to Kansas City in 1949, where he began to work as a director and writer of industrial films for the Calvin Company. Altman produced 65 industrial films and documentaries for the Calvin Company. Altman experimented with narrative technique and created his signature use of overlapping dialogue early in his career on industrial film. Gary Huggins discovered an early Calvin film directed by Altman, Modern Football (1951), in February 2012.
Personal life
LaVonne Elmer, Altman's first wife, was married three times: They were married from 1947 to 1949, and Christine was their daughter. Lotus Corelli was his second wife. They were married from 1950 to 1955, and had two sons, Michael and Stephen. Michael wrote the lyrics to "Suicide Is Painless," Altman's film, MASH. Stephen is a product designer who often collaborated with his father. Kathryn Reed, Altman's third wife, was also named Kathryn Reed. They were married from 1957 to 2006, from 1957 to his death in 2006. They had two sons, Robert and Matthew. When Katryn married Kathryn, the man became Konni Reed's stepfather.
Kathryn Altman, a writer who died in 2016, co-authored a book about Altman that was published in 2014. She had appeared at several retrospective screenings of her husband's films as a consultant and narrator for the 2014 documentary Altman.
Altman lived in Mandeville Canyon, California, for many years in the 1960s. He lived in Malibu throughout the 1970s, but in 1981, he sold the home and the Lion's Gate production firm. He told The New York Times, "I had no choice." "No one was answering the phone" after Popeye's demise. He and his family and company headquarters moved to New York City but then returned to Malibu, where he lived until his death.
Altman predicted that if George W. Bush were elected in November 2000, he would move to Paris, Texas, but that he had meant Paris, Texas, when it came to pass. "If he (Bush) is out of it," he said, "the state will be better off." Altman, a vocal marijuana user, served as a member of the NORML advisory board, and was a member of the board. He was also an atheist and an anti-war protester. He was one of a number of public figures, including linguist Noam Chomsky and actress Susan Sarandon, who signed the "Not in Our Name" petition condemning the 2003 invasion of Iraq. According to Julian Fellowes, Altman's anti-war and anti-Bush role cost him the Best Director Oscar for Gosford Park.: 478
Altman slammed the television series M*A*S*H, which came after his 1970 film, citing it as the antithesis of what his film was about and citing the anti-war messages as "racist." He laid out specifically the reasons for which he opposed the series in a 2001 DVD commentary for MASH.
Career
The first attempts at television directing by Altman were on the DuMont drama series Pulse of the City (1953–1954) and an episode of the 1956 western drama The Sheriff of Cochise. In 1956, he was hired by a local businessman to write and direct a film about juvenile delinquency in Kansas City. The film, entitled The Delinquents, was released in 1957 by United Artists for $150,000 and was released in 1957. This teen exploitation film, although primitive, contained the underlying themes of Altman's later work in its use of casual, naturalistic dialogue. Altman went from Kansas City to California for the final time due to its popularity. He co-directed The James Dean Story (1957), a drama rushed into theaters to capitalize on the actor's recent death and marketed to his burgeoning fanbase. Alfred Hitchcock, who recruited Altman as a producer for his CBS anthology film Alfred Hitchcock Presents, was taken by both works. Altman resigned due to differences with a designer, but this exposure helped him to have a fruitful TV career. Altman spent the next decade on television (and almost exclusively in series dramas) directing multiple episodes of Whirlybirds. The Millionaire, U.S. Marshal, The Troubleshooters, The Roaring 20s, Bonanza, Bus Stop, Kraft Mystery Theater, Combat!, as well as single episodes of many other famous series including Hawaiian Eye, Maverick (also written by Altman and starring Roger Moore), Lawman, Surfside 6, Peter Gunn, and Route 66.
Altman established himself as a television producer in the 1960s due to his ability to work quickly and affordably on a small budget. Despite being kicked frequently from television shows for refusing to adhere to network regulations, Altman was still able to land new assignments. The producers hoped to expand "Once Upon a Savage Night," one of Kraft Suspense Theatre's episodes, for release as a television film under the title Nightmare in Chicago in 1964. James Caan and Bruce Dern appeared in a 1963 episode, "The Hunt."
Altman was hired to direct Countdown, the low-budget space travel film, but he was fired within days of the project's end because he had refused to cut the film to a manageable length two years ago. He appeared with Caan once more, as the actor with Robert Duvall was on the stage. He did not produce another film until That Cold Day in the Park (1969), which was a serious and box-office tragedy.
Altman's writings began to reveal political subtexts during the decade. In particular, he expressed antiwar sentiments about the Vietnam War. Altman's career will perhaps suffer as he entered the anti-war movement.
Altman was given the script for MASH, an adaptation of a little-known Korean War-era novel satirizing life in the armed services, but more than a dozen other filmmakers had passed on it. Altman was reluctant to attend the shoot, and Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland threatened to have Altman fired because of his unconventional filming techniques. Despite this, MASH was widely distributed as a classic on its 1970 debut. At the 1970 Cannes Film Festival, it received the Palme d'Or and received five Academy Award nominations. It was Altman's highest-grossing film, which came at a time of increasing anti-war sentiment in the United States. In 2000, the Academy Film Archive conserved MASH.
Altman, a multi-tal talent with McCabe & Mrs. (1971), a Revisionist Western in which Leonard Cohen's mordant songs portrayed a gritty image of the American frontier; The Long Goodbye (1974), a gambling comedy-drama shot partially on location in Reno, Nevada; and Nashville (1975), a notable contender for the field of country music, was ranked as a seminal talent on the neo-ne The actors of the film wrote their own songs; Keith Carradine received an Academy Award for his song "I'm Easy." Despite the fact that his films were often received with skeptical notices, many of the period's most prominent film critics (including Pauline Kael, Vincent Canby, and Roger Ebert) remained faithful to his directorial style throughout the decade.
Audiences took time to appreciate his films, but he didn't want to have to impress studio representatives. Lion's Gate Films was established in 1970, following MASH's debut, and he founded Lion's Gate Films to have autonomous production rights. Altman's firm is not to be confused with the new Lionsgate, a Canada-U.S. joint venture. This is an entertainment business. Brewster McCloud, A Marriage, 3 Women, and Quintet were among his company's films.
He produced Popeye, the 1980 film. The film was directed by Robert Evans and written by Jules Feiffer, and Shelley Duvall and Robin Williams appeared in his debut film. The film was shot in Malta as a tool to boost Altman's commercial success in the late 1970s after a string of critically acclaimed but commercially ineffective low-budget films (including 3 Women, A Wedding, and Quintet). The majority of the cast and crew, including the director, were soon beleaguered by heavy opioid and alcohol use; Altman allegedly clashed with Evans, Williams (who threatened to leave the film), and singer Harry Nilsson (who died mid-way through the shoot, leaving Van Dyke Parks to finish the orchestrations) Despite the fact that the film, which was Altman's second highest-grossing film, failed to meet studio hopes and was considered a box office disappointment.
After a series of poor test and festival screenings throughout 1980, the director sold Lion's Gate to producer Jonathan Taplin after his political satire Health (shot in early 1979 for a Christmas release) was shelved by longtime distributor 20th Century Fox. Alan Laddd, Jr., a long-serving Altman partisan, also played a key role in the delay of the film's cancellation.
Altman, who was unable to secure major financing in the post-New Hollywood blockbuster era due to his celebrity and the dramatic events surrounding Popeye's production, including the critically acclaimed Secret Honor and Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, a critically antipodean interpretation of a play directed by Altman on Broadway, a critically understated theatrical debut.: 115
Altman produced The Rake's Progress at the University of Michigan, where he concurrently taught a course on his films in 1982. He returned to film Secret Honor with students just a few weeks later. The University of Michigan Library obtained Altman's archive in 2008. He co-wrote John Anderson's 1983 hit song "Black Sheep."
O.C.'s teen comedy O.C. After being shelved by MGM, Stiggs (1985), an abortive return to Hollywood filmmaking largely characterized by the British Film Institute as "probably Altman's least profitable film," received a belated limited commercial release in 1987.
The playwright-actor from Shepard's Pulitzer Prize-nominated play Fool for Love (1985), adapted by Altman and Sam Shepard, fared better than most of his films from the 1980s, grossing $900,000 in domestically on a $2 million budget and positive reviews, including Roger Ebert and Vincent Canby. Nevertheless, his burgeoning success with audiences seemed to have eluded him.
Tanner 88 (1988), a New York television mockumentary who worked with Garry Trudeau, received a Primetime Emmy Award, while his television mockumentary Tanner 88 (1988), a collaboration with Garry Trudeau, a United States presidential campaign, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award, regained a modicum of critical esteem.
Vincent & Theo, a biographical film about Vincent van Gogh that was supposed as a television miniseries for broadcast in the United Kingdom, was directed by Altman in 1990. In the United States, a dramatic version of the film was a modest success, marking a turning point in the director's critical revival.
With The Player (1992), a satire of Hollywood, he revived his career in earnest. The film was co-produced by David Brown (The Sting, Jaws, Cocoon), and three Academy Awards were given to it, including Best Director. Though he did not win the Oscar, the Cannes Film Festival, BAFTA, and the New York Film Critics Circle awarded Best Director.
Short Cuts (1993), Raymond Carver's most popular adaptation of several short stories, depicted various Los Angeles residents over the course of several days, was directed by Altman. The film's large cast and intertwining of many different storylines were similar to his 1970s big-cast films; he received the Golden Lion and another Oscar nomination for Best Director at the Venice International Film Festival.
Altman's other 1990s appearances in the Rest of the 1990s had little success. Prêt-à-Porter's 1994 debut (also known as Ready to Wear) received a lot of pre-release publicity, but it didn't get many nominations for year-end competitions, including two Golden Globe nominations and a National Board of Review award for Best Acting By An Ensemble. Altman, a Kansas City native, proclaimed his 1930s jazz by a complicated kidnapping tale in 1996. The novel received lukewarm-to-positive feedback at the box office, but it came next to nothing at the box office, as did 1998 criminal thriller The Gingerbread Man.
Cookie's Fortune, 1999's Cookie's Fortune, a strange black comedy about a wealthy dowager's suicide, was his first film in almost six years to make back its money, and received widespread praise from critics. In 1999, he was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Many commentators' lists of the ten best films of the year included Gosford Park (2001), a large-cast British country house murder mystery. It received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (Julian Fellows) as well as six others for Best Director and Best Picture, with two for Altman.
Altman's advantage over producing the kind of films he always wanted to make was working with independent studios such as the now-defunct Fine Line, Artisan (which was integrated into Lionsgate) and USA Films (now Focus Features). In June 2006, Garrison Keillor's public radio series A Prairie Home Companion was released in a film version. Up until his death, Altman was still producing new projects, including a film based on Hands on a Hard Body (1997).
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Altman with an Academy Honorary Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2006. During his acceptance address, he revealed that he had undergone a heart transplant some ten or eleven years ago. The director then suggested that perhaps the Academy had acted prematurely in recognizing the body of his art because he seemed to have four more decades of life ahead of him.