Peter Bogdanovich (July 30, 1939 – January 6, 2022) was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. One of the "New Hollywood" directors, Bogdanovich started as a film journalist until he got hired to work on Roger Corman's The Wild Angels (1966). After that film's success, he directed his own film Targets (1968), which received critical acclaim. He gained widespread recognition and further acclaim for his coming-of-age drama The Last Picture Show (1971). The film received eight Academy Award nominations, including for the Best Picture, with Bogdanovich receiving nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, and Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman winning Oscars for their supporting roles. Following The Last Picture Show, he directed the screwball comedy What's Up, Doc? (1972), a major box office success, and another critical and commercial success, Paper Moon (1973), which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Director nomination. His following three films were all critical and commercial failures, including Daisy Miller (1974). He took a three-year hiatus and then returned with cult films Saint Jack (1979) and They All Laughed (1981). After his girlfriend Dorothy Stratten's murder, he took another four-year hiatus from filmmaking and wrote a memoir …
Peter Bogdanovich
Author details
- Born:
- July 30, 1939
- Died:
- Jan. 6, 2022
External links
Peter Bogdanovich (July 30, 1939 – January 6, 2022) was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. One of the "New Hollywood" directors, Bogdanovich started as a film journalist until he got hired to work on Roger Corman's The Wild Angels (1966). After that film's success, he directed his own film Targets (1968), which received critical acclaim. He gained widespread recognition and further acclaim for his coming-of-age drama The Last Picture Show (1971). The film received eight Academy Award nominations, including for the Best Picture, with Bogdanovich receiving nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, and Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman winning Oscars for their supporting roles. Following The Last Picture Show, he directed the screwball comedy What's Up, Doc? (1972), a major box office success, and another critical and commercial success, Paper Moon (1973), which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Director nomination. His following three films were all critical and commercial failures, including Daisy Miller (1974). He took a three-year hiatus and then returned with cult films Saint Jack (1979) and They All Laughed (1981). After his girlfriend Dorothy Stratten's murder, he took another four-year hiatus from filmmaking and wrote a memoir on her death titled The Killing of the Unicorn before making a comeback with Mask (1985), a critical and commercial success. He later went on to direct films such as Noises Off (1992), The Thing Called Love (1993), The Cat's Meow (2001), and She's Funny That Way (2014). As an actor, he was known for his roles in HBO series The Sopranos and Orson Welles's last film, The Other Side of the Wind (2018), which he also helped to finish. He received a Grammy Award for Best Music Film for directing the Tom Petty documentary Runnin' Down a Dream (2007). An accomplished film historian, he directed documentaries such as Directed by John Ford (1971) and The Great Buster: A Celebration (2018), and published over ten books, some of which include in-depth interviews with friends Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock. Bogdanovich's works have been cited as important influences by many major filmmakers.
