Director Robert Altman Dies at 81

Robert Altman, one of Hollywood’s top directors, died last night in Los Angeles. He was born in Kansas City in 1925, went to Rockhurst High School, attended junior college at Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, piloted B-24s in WWII, and studied engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia before joining with a friend making industrial training films in KC. His first feature film, “The Delinquents,” came out in 1957. For the next several years he directed episodes of several TV shows including “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “Bonanza.” His big break came when more than 15 other directors refused to take on a movie about a Korean War military hospital unit called M*A*S*H (his son wrote the lyrics for the theme, “Suicide is Painless”). Altman detested the television series based on the movie. He also directed numerous other films and was nominated 5 times for an Oscar as best director(tying with Alfred Hitchcock, King Vidor, Clarence Brown, and Martin Scorsese for most best-director nominations without winning), for M*A*S*H, Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts, and Gosford Park. He also was nominated as a producer for Nashville. He never won but got an honorary Oscar for career achievement last spring. His last movie came out last summer–A Prairie Home Companion. With this story is an excerpt from an interview Altman did with the BBC’s Christopher Cook on April 2, 1990. For additional excerpts fromt he interview, please go to www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/altmanr1.shtml