2000 Trixie (director, Alan Rudolph)*
* Denotes available on DVD
TELEVISION
1957–65 Writer, director, producer: various television series, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Millionaire, Bonanza, Combat!, Kraft Suspense Theatre
1982 2 by South: Rattlesnake in a Cooler and Precious Blood (producer, director, with Leo Burmester and Alfre Woodard), Hearst-ABC
1985 The Laundromat (by Marsha Norman, with Carol Burnett and Amy Madigan), HBO
1987 The Dumb Waiter (by Harold Pinter, with John Travolta and Tom Conti), ABC Television
The Room (by Harold Pinter, with Linda Hunt, Julian Sands, Annie Lennox, and Donald Pleasance), ABC Television
1988 The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (with Brad Davis, Eric Bogosian, Jeff Daniels, Peter Gallagher, and Michael Murphy), CBS Television
1988 Tanner ‘88 (written by Garry Trudeau, starring Michael Murphy), miniseries, HBO
1991 Black and Blue, Great Performances, PBS
1993 The Real McTeague (concept and creative supervision), Great Performances, PBS
1997 Robert Altman’s Jazz ‘34: Remembrances of Kansas City Swing, Great Performances, PBS
1997 Gun (producer) Anthology Series, ABC Television, episode director: “All the President’s Women”
1998–’99 Killer App (executive producer; written by Garry Trudeau), Fox Television
2004 Tanner on Tanner (written by Garry Trudeau, miniseries starring Cynthia Nixon and Michael Murphy), the Sundance Channel
THEATER AND OPERA
1981 2 by South (by Frank South, Los Angeles Actors’ Theater; St. Clement’s Theater, NYC)
1982 Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (by Ed Graczyk, with Cher, Sandy Dennis, Karen Black)
1983 The Rake’s Progress (Stravinsky, University of Michigan)
1987 The Rake’s Progress (Stravinsky, Opéra de Lille, France)
1992 McTeague (director and coauthor of libretto with composer William Bolcom, Lyric Opera of Chicago)
2004 A Wedding (director and coauthor of libretto with Arnold Weinstein; composer William Bolcom, Lyric Opera of Chicago)
2006 Resurrection Blues (director, written by Arthur Miller, Old Vic Theatre, London, England)
AWARDS AND HONORS
FILMS and TV
2004 Tanner on Tanner
DGA (Directors Guild of America) nomination for Outstanding Television Miniseries
2001 Gosford Park
Golden Globe: Best Director (Musical or Comedy)
New York Film Critics Circle Award: Best Director; Best Supporting Actress, Helen Mirren
National Society of Film Critics: Best Director; Best Supporting Actress, Helen Mirren
BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Award: Best British Film
AFI (American Film Institute) Award: Best Director
Screen Actors Guild Awards: Best Cast in a Theatrical Motion Picture; Best Supporting Actress, Helen Mirren
Seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Director, Best Film
Academy Award: Best Screenplay
1997 Robert Altman’s Jazz ‘34: Remembrances of Kansas City Swing
Twenty-first Sao Paulo International Film Festival: Prémio do Público, Best Documentary
1996 Kansas City
New York Film Critics Circle Award: Best Supporting Actor, Harry Belafonte
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award: Best Score
1994 Prêt-à-Porter (Ready to Wear)
The National Board of Review: Acting Award for Ensemble Cast
1994 Black and Blue
Emmy nomination for Best Director
1993 Short Cuts
Venice Film Festival: Grand Prix, Best Film; Grand Prix, Best Acting Award to the Ensemble
Golden Globe: Ensemble Cast
IFP Independent Spirit Award: Best Film
Swedish Film Critics Award: Best Film
Bodil Award, Denmark: Best American Film
Boston Society of Film Critics Award: Best Screenplay
Academy Award nomination for Best Director
New York Film Festival, shown opening night
1992 The Player
New York Film Critics Circle Award: Best Film, Best Director
Cannes Film Festival: Best Director; Best Actor, Tim Robbins
Golden Globe: Best Film (Musical or Comedy); Best Actor, Tim Robbins
DGA Award: Outstanding Directorial Achievement
BAFTA: Best Director
Chicago Film Critics Award: Best Director
Boston Society of Film Critics Award: Best Director
Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Award: Best Director of a Foreign Film
Bodil Award, Denmark: Best American Film
Academy Award nomination for Best Director
1988 Tanner ‘88
Emmy Award (Academy of Television Arts & Sciences): Best Director
BAFTA: Best Foreign Television Series
FIPA (International Festival of Audiovisual Programs), France: Best Foreign Series
1988 The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
Monte Carlo Television Festival: Best Director
1985 The Laundromat
ACE Award
1983 Streamers
Venice Film Festival: Grand Prix, Acting, Ensemble
1982 Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
Chicago International Film Festival: Grand Prix
1978 A Wedding
New York Film Festival, shown opening night
1977 3 Women
Cannes Film Festival: Best Actress, Shelley Duvall
New York Film Festival: Best Supporting Actress, Sissy Spacek
1976 Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson
Berlin International Film Festival: Golden Bear, Best Film
1975 Nashville
National Society of Film Critics Award: Best Film, Best Director
New York Film Critics Circle Award: Best Film, Best Director
National Board of Review: Best Film, Best Director
David di Donatello Award, Italy
AFI (Australian Film Institute) Film Awards, Australia, Best Foreign Film
Academy Award nominations for Best Film, Best Director
Academy Award: Best Song, “I’m Easy”
1972 Images
Cannes Film Festival: Best Actress, Susannah York
1970 M*A*S*H
Cannes Film Festival: Palme d’Or (Best Film)
National Society of Film Critics Award: Best Film
Academy Award nominations for Best Film, Best Director
CAREER HONORS
2006 Hamptons International Film Festival: Golden Starfish Award for Career Achievement in Directing
2005 Honorary Academy Award in recognition of a career that has repeatedly reinvented the art form and inspired filmmakers and audiences alike
2001 Women in Film: Mentor Award
2000 Independent Feature Project: Gotham Awards; Bravo Lifetime Achievement Award
1999 American Society of Cinematographers: Board of Governors Award
1998 Classically Independent Film Festival, San Francisco, California: Independent Director Honoree
1996 Venice Film Festival: Golden Lion
1996 University of Michigan: honorary doctorate of fine arts
1996 American Film Institute: honorary doctorate of fine arts
1995 American Cinema Editors (ACE): award for unique and distinguished contributions to the art and craft of the motion picture
1994 Directors Guild of America: D. W. Griffith Award for distinguished achievement in motion picture direction
1994 Film Society of Lincoln Center, Gala Tribute honoree
1994 Cinema Arts Centre Award for unique achievement in advancing the art of independent film
1992 IFP: John Cassavetes Award, for significantly extending the possibilities of film art
1992 USA
Film Festival: Great Director Award
1991 Cinema Audio Society: Lifetime Achievement Award
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
IF THIS BOOK had above-the-title credits, they would go to Bob and Kathryn Altman. Bob was an extraordinary artist and a remarkable man, and I’m honored to have known him. Kathryn amazed me with her memory, her candor, and her humor. I cherish her friendship.
All the characters in this book were generous with time and memories, and I thank them all. The words are theirs, but any errors are mine.
Marty Asher at Knopf is the editor every writer dreams of, and a mensch to boot. Zachary Wagman of Knopf is a true pal, a ready ear who provided invaluable insight and support. Kudos to Jon Karp, who godfathered this book by persuading Bob to recount his life’s work. My friend and agent, the peerless Richard Abate, got me through the door.
I’m indebted to Brodie Ransom of Wholly Cow Productions. In return for boxes of great material, all Brodie asked was that I do good work. Thanks to Tom Ruffner of the Fox Movie Channel for approving Brodie’s largesse.
Jerry Walsh, Bob’s friend, executor, and cousin by marriage, was a steady hand and a thoughtful reader. Amanda Urban of ICM found this book its home. The contributions and support of Sandcastle producers Wren Arthur and Josh Astrachan are deeply appreciated. Tim McDowell was Bob’s jack-of-all-trades, and despite his ill-placed baseball loyalties he played a similar role for this book. Charles Michener provided important early help.
Heather Schultz, Erin Prediger, and Jordan Zappala, my graduate assistants, improved this book with their suggestions and enthusiasm. My colleagues and students at Boston University provide me with a happy professional home. At Knopf, I’m grateful to Peter Mendelsund, Claire Bradley Ong, Virginia Tan, Meghan Wilson, Kathy Zuckerman, Anke Steinecke, and Amelia Zalcman.
For digging into their photo albums, I thank Reza Badiyi, Bill Bushnell, Robert Evans, Art Goodell, Melinda Sue Gordon, Barbara Altman Hodes, John Horoschak, Jr., Jean Pagliuso, William Stuckey, and Danielle Weil.
The lessons of the late Wilbur Doctor guide my work, and I miss him. Thankfully, Christopher Callahan still points true north.
Special thanks to Colleen Granahan, Dan Field, Isabelle Granahan-Field, and Eliza Granahan-Field, and Ruth, Bill, and Emily Weinstein, for their encouragement, gentle mocking, and ready laughter. All right, they can come to the party. Dick Lehr is the best partner in crime I could ask for. Jeff Feigelson goes back to the start, and he’ll be there to the end. Naftali Bendavid is that rare thing: a true friend. Brian McGrory is more than an incomparable newsman and sounding board, he’s family. Allan Zuckoff will always be the standard against which I measure myself.
My parents, Gerry and Sid Zuckoff, gave me everything that matters.
My daughters, Isabel and Eve, are the joys of my life. They share my sense of direction, which means I’ll never get lost alone.
Bob Altman’s nickname for Kathryn was Trixie, and as Michael Murphy told me, “Everyone needs a Trixie.” Suzanne Kreiter makes everything possible. She’s my Rose and my Trixie.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Robert Altman (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Robert Altman at two and a half (Barbara Altman Hodes)
Bernard (B.C.), Helen, and Robert Altman (Barbara Altman Hodes)
The wedding of Pauline Altman, with ring bearer Robert Altman (Barbara Alt-man Hodes)
Barbara, Joan, and Robert Altman, circa 1937 (Barbara Altman Hodes)
Robert Altman with his mother and sisters (Kathryn Reed Altman)
At Boy Scout camp, circa 1938 (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Dressed as a woman for Halloween at age thirteen (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Robert Altman on the Wentworth Military Academy track team (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Copilot Robert Altman (Barbara Altman Hodes)
Robert Altman with his first wife, LaVonne Elmer (Barbara Altman Hodes)
Flight Crew F8–360-AW 8, aka Dennison’s Dragons (William Stuckey, top, and John Horoschak, Jr., bottom)
Robert Altman with his parents (Barbara Altman Hodes)
Robert Altman after the war (Barbara Altman Hodes)
Robert Altman, his first wife, and their daughter, Christine (Barbara Altman Hodes)
The Calvin Company (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Robert Altman in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, starring Danny Kaye, at right (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Robert Altman directing a Calvin Company film (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Robert Altman with his second wife, Lotus (Barbara Altman Hodes)
Robert Altman playing a fallen soldier (Art Goodell)
Directing a “fifteen-minute editorial fashion show” (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Working on the script for The Delinquents (Reza Badiyi)
A scene from The Delinquents (Photofest)
Working with George W. George (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Lotus Corelli Altman with her sons, Michael and Stephen (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Robert Altman in 1958 (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Directing an episode of Whirlybirds (Barbara Altman Hodes)
Kathryn Reed Altman (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Kathryn and Robert Altman during the week they met (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Robert Altman and his stepdaughter, Konni (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Directing an episode of The Roaring Twenties (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Teen heartthrob Fabian (Photofest)
Filming a pilot for Fox in 1962 (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Vic Morrow in Combat! (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Filming Once Upon a Savage Night (Reza Badiyi)
Robert Altman in party mode (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Patricia Neal with John Wayne, filming In Harm’s Way in Hawaii (Photofest)
Robert Duvall and James Caan in Countdown (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Sandy Dennis in That Cold Day in the Park (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
A poster for M*A*S*H (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Robert Altman during the filming of M*A*S*H (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Robert Altman, Elliott Gould, and Donald Sutherland (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Sally Kellerman as “Hot Lips” Houlihan (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Editing M*A*S*H with Danford Greene (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Ring Lardner, Jr., accepting his Academy Award for M*A*S*H (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Bud Cort in Brewster McCloud (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Shelley Duvall and Bud Cort in Brewster McCloud (Photofest)
René Auberjonois in Brewster McCloud (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Robert Altman and Warren Beatty (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Robert Altman and Julie Christie (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Robert Altman and Leonard Cohen (Kathryn Reed Altman/Jean Pagliuso)
Julie Christie and Warren Beatty (Photofest)
Robert Altman directing McCabe (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Julie Christie, as Mrs. Miller, in the opium den (Photofest)
Three generations of Altman men (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Robert Altman with his daughter, Christine, grandson Dana, and Michael Murphy (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Flying a kite with son Matthew (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Hugh Millais and Susannah York in Images (Photofest)
Nina Van Pallandt and Elliott Gould in The Long Goodbye (Photofest)
Robert Altman, Elliott Gould, and Mark Rydell (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Applying movie blood to Keith Carradine’s face in Thieves Like Us (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
With Shelley Duvall and Joan Tewkesbury in Cannes (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Robert and Kathryn Reed Altman in the mid-1970s (Kathryn Reed Altman)
George Segal and Elliott Gould in California Split (Photofest)
Dinner in Las Vegas with a team of collaborators (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Henry Gibson, as Haven Hamilton
, in Nashville (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
On the set of Nashville with screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Keith Carradine, Cristina Raines, and Allan Nicholls in Nashville (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Gwen Welles as Sueleen Gay (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Ronee Blakley as doomed singer Barbara Jean (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Seeing the world through a lens (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Robert Altman scowling (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Robert Altman smiling (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Robert Altman in a hat with a flower (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Playing his signature tarot solitaire game (Kathryn Reed Altman)
With Paul Newman, as Buffalo Bill (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
At his desk during Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (Sandcastle 5 Productions/Jean Pagliuso)
Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall in 3 Women (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Robert Altman with Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek, during the 1977 Cannes Film Festival (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Carol Burnett, Paul Dooley, Mia Farrow, Dennis Christopher, and Amy Stryker in A Wedding (Photofest)
Robert Altman addresses the Equal Rights Amendment countdown party (Associated Press Photo)
Looking exhausted on the set of Quintet (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
With Lauren Bacall on the set of HealtH (Kathryn Reed Altman)
Producer Scotty Bushnell, with Robert Altman and Elliott Gould (Bill Bushnell)
Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, and Wesley Ivan Hurt in Popeye (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Producer Robert Evans with Robert Altman (Robert Evans)
Working on Robin Williams’s bulging Popeye forearms (Robert Evans)
Directing a stage production (Kathryn Reed Altman)
On the set of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (Sand-castle 5 Productions)
With Cher on the set of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Holding a .357 Magnum during Fool for Love (Kathryn Reed Altman)
With Garry Trudeau and Michael Murphy, during Tanner ‘88 (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Robert Altman in a field of sunflowers (Photofest)
Tim Robbins in The Player (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Robert Altman and Tim Robbins (Sandcastle 5 Productions)
Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis in cameo appearances in The Player (Photofest)