Peter Bogdanovich
Encyclopedia
Peter Bogdanovich is an American film historian, director, writer, actor, producer, and critic
. He was part of the wave of "New Hollywood
" directors, which included William Friedkin
, Brian De Palma
, George Lucas
, Martin Scorsese
, Michael Cimino
, and Francis Ford Coppola
. His most critically acclaimed film is The Last Picture Show
(1971).
- his father, Borislav Bogdanovich, was a Serbian painter and pianist and his mother, Herma Bogdanovich, was descended from an Austria
n Jewish family - Bogdanovich was conceived in Europe but born in America. He was an actor
in the 1950s, studying his craft with acting teacher Stella Adler
(he was only 16 but lied about his age and said he was 18 to qualify), and appeared on television and in summer stock. In the early 1960s, Bogdanovich was known as a film programmer at the Museum of Modern Art
in New York City
. An obsessive cinema
-goer, seeing up to 400 movies a year in his youth, Bogdanovich showcased the work of American directors such as Orson Welles
and John Ford
, whom he later wrote a book about based on the notes he had produced for the MoMA retrospective of the director, and Howard Hawks
. Bogdanovich also brought attention to such forgotten pioneers of American cinema as Allan Dwan
.
Bogdanovich was influenced by the French
critics of the 1950s who wrote for Cahiers du Cinéma
, especially critic-turned-director François Truffaut
. Before becoming a director himself, he built his reputation as a film writer with articles in Esquire
. These articles were collected in Pieces of Time (1973). In 1968, following the example of Cahiers du Cinéma
critics Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard
, Claude Chabrol
, and Éric Rohmer
who had created the Nouvelle Vague ("New Wave") by making their own films, Bogdanovich decided to become a director. With his wife Polly Platt
, he headed for Los Angeles
, skipping out on the rent in the process. Intent on breaking into the industry, Bogdanovich would ask publicists for movie premiere and industry party invitations. At one screening, Bogdanovich was viewing a film and director Roger Corman
was sitting behind him. The two struck up a conversation when Corman mentioned he liked a cinema piece Bogdanovich wrote for Esquire. Corman offered him a directing job which Bogdanovich accepted immediately. He worked with Corman on Targets
, which starred Boris Karloff
, and Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women
, under the pseudonym Derek Thomas. Bogdanovich later said of the Corman school of filmmaking, "I went from getting the laundry to directing the picture in three weeks. Altogether, I worked 22 weeks – preproduction, shooting, second unit, cutting, dubbing – I haven't learned as much since."
Returning to journalism, Bogdanovich struck up a lifelong friendship with Orson Welles
while interviewing him on the set of Mike Nichols
's Catch-22
(1970). Bogdanovich played a major role in elucidating Welles and his career with his writings on the actor-director, most notably his book This Is Orson Welles
(1992). In the early 1970s, when Welles was having financial problems, Bogdanovich let him stay at his Bel Air mansion for a couple of years.
In 1970, Bogdanovich was commissioned by the American Film Institute
to direct a documentary about John Ford
for their tribute, Directed by John Ford
(1971). The resulting film included candid interviews with the likes of John Wayne
, James Stewart
, Henry Fonda
, and was narrated by Orson Welles. Out of circulation for years due to licensing issues, Bogdanovich and TCM
released it in 2006, featuring newer, pristine film clips, and additional interviews with Clint Eastwood
, Walter Hill, Harry Carey, Jr.
, Martin Scorsese
, Steven Spielberg
, and others.
. In an interview with Robert K. Elder
, author of The Film That Changed My Life
, Bogdanovich explains his appreciation of Orson Welles' work:
The 32-year-old Bogdanovich was hailed by a critics as a "Wellesian" wunderkind when his best-received film, The Last Picture Show
, was released in 1971. The film gained eight Academy Awards
nominations, including Best Director, and won two statues, for Cloris Leachman
and Ben Johnson
in the supporting acting categories. Bogdanovich co-wrote the screenplay with Larry McMurtry
, and it won the 1971 BAFTA
award for Best Screenplay. Bogdanovich cast the 21-year-old model Cybill Shepherd
in a major role in the film and fell in love with her, an affair that eventually led to his divorce from Polly Platt, his longtime artistic collaborator and the mother of his two daughters. The affair was referenced, tongue-in-cheek, in an episode of Moonlighting
where Bogdanovich, being interviewed as himself, claims to have had an affair with Maddie Hayes, Shepherd's character.
Bogdanovich followed up The Last Picture Show with the popular hit comedy What's Up, Doc?
(1972), starring Barbra Streisand
and Ryan O'Neal
, a screwball comedy
indebted to Hawks's Bringing Up Baby
(1938) and His Girl Friday
(1940). Despite his reliance on homage to bygone cinema, Bogdanovich solidified his status as one of a new breed of A-list directors that included Academy Award winners Francis Ford Coppola
and William Friedkin
, with whom he formed The Directors Company. The Directors Company was a generous production deal with Paramount Pictures that essentially gave the directors carte blanche if they kept within budget limitations. It was through this entity that Bogdanovich's Paper Moon
(1973) was produced.
Paper Moon, a Depression
-era comedy starring Ryan O'Neal that won his 10-year-old daughter Tatum O'Neal
an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress, proved the high-water mark of Bogdanovich's career. Forced to share the profits with his fellow directors, Bogdanovich became dissatisfied with the arrangement. The Directors Company subsequently produced only two more pictures, Coppola's The Conversation
(1974), which was nominated for Best Picture in 1974 alongside The Godfather, Part II, and Bogdanovich's Daisy Miller
, which had a lackluster critical reception.
's murder was published in The Village Voice
and won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize
, and while Bogdanovich did not criticize Carpenter's article in his book, she had lambasted both Bogdanovich and Playboy
mogul Hugh Hefner
, claiming that Stratten was a victim of them as much as of her husband, Paul Snider, who killed her and himself. Carpenter also criticized Bogdanovich for his "puerile preference for ingenues". Carpenter's article served as the basis of Bob Fosse
's film Star 80
(1983), in which Bogdanovich, for legal reasons, was portrayed as the fictional director "Aram Nicholas," a sympathetic but possibly misguided and naive character.
On December 30, 1988, the 49-year-old Bogdanovich married 20-year-old Louise Stratten
, Dorothy's younger sister, whom he had begun dating a few years after Dorothy's death. The couple divorced in 2001.
Though he achieved success with Mask
in 1985, Bogdanovich's 1990 sequel to The Last Picture Show, called Texasville
was a critical and box-office disappointment. Both films occasioned major disputes between Bogdanovich, who still demanded a measure of control over his films, and the studios, which controlled the financing and final cut of both films. Mask was released with a song score by Bob Seger against Bogdanovich's wishes (he favored Bruce Springsteen
), and Bogdanovich has often complained that the version of Texasville that was released was not the film he had intended. A director's cut of Mask, slightly longer and with Springsteen's songs, was belatedly released on DVD in 2006. A director's cut of Texasville was released on laserdisc
, though it has never been released on DVD. Around the time of the release of Texasville, Bogdanovich also revisited his earliest success, The Last Picture Show, and produced a slightly modified director's cut. Since that time, his recut has been the only available version of the film.
Bogdanovich directed two more theatrical films in 1992 and 1993, but their failure kept him off the big screen for several years. One, Noises Off...
, based on the Michael Frayn
play, has subsequently developed a strong cult following, while the other, The Thing Called Love
, is better known as one of River Phoenix
's last roles before his untimely drug-related death.
Bogdanovich, drawing from his encyclopedic knowledge of film history, authored several critically lauded books, including Peter Bogdanovich's Movie of the Week, which offered the lifelong cinephile's commentary on 52 of his favorite films, and Who The Devil Made It: Conversations with Legendary Film Directors and Who the Hell's in It: Conversations with Hollywood's Legendary Actors, both based on interviews with directors and actors.
In 2001, Bogdanovich resurfaced with The Cat's Meow
. Returning once again to a reworking of the past, this time the supposed murder of director Thomas Ince
by Orson Welles's bête noire William Randolph Hearst
, The Cat's Meow was a modest critical success but made little money at the box office. Bogdanovich says he was told the story of the alleged Ince murder by Welles, who in turn said he heard it from writer Charles Lederer
.
In addition to directing some television work, Bogdanovich has returned to acting with a recurring guest role on the cable television series The Sopranos
, playing Dr. Melfi
's psychotherapist. Bogdanovich directed a fifth-season episode of the series. In an homage to his Sopranos character, he also voiced the analyst of Bart Simpson's therapist in an episode
of The Simpsons
, and appeared as himself in the Robots Versus Wrestlers
episode of How I Met Your Mother
along with Arianna Huffington
, and Will Shortz
. Quentin Tarantino
also cast Bogdanovich as a disc jockey in Kill Bill Volume 1 and Kill Bill Volume 2
. "Quentin knows, because he's such a movie buff, that when you hear a disc jockey's voice in my pictures, it's always me, sometimes doing different voices," said Bogdanovich. "So he called me and he said, 'I stole your voice from The Last Picture Show for the rough cut, but I need you to come down and do that voice again for my picture...'"
Bogdanovich hosted The Essentials on Turner Classic Movies
, but was replaced in May 2006 by TCM host Robert Osborne
and film critic Molly Haskell
. Bogdanovich is also frequently featured in introductions to movies on Criterion Collection DVDs, and has had a supporting role as a fictional version of himself in the Showtime comedy series Out of Order. He will next appear in The Dream Factory.
In 2006, Bogdanovich joined forces with ClickStar, where he hosts a classic film channel, Peter Bogdanovich's Golden Age of Movies. Bodganovich also writes a blog for the site. In 2003 he appeared in the BBC documentary, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
and in 2006 he appeared in the documentary Wanderlust.
In 2007, Bogdanovich was presented with an award for outstanding contribution to film preservation by The International Federation of Film Archives
(FIAF) at the Toronto International Film Festival
. The same year, Bogdanovich was sued by Iaroslav Jivov, a Canadian businessman, for breach of contract. Jivov's suit alleged that Bogdanovich took $100,000 as a fee for allowing Jivov's son to work as an assistant on Bogdanovich's next film but failed to live up to his side of the deal.
In 1998, the National Film Preservation Board
of the Library of Congress
named The Last Picture Show
to the National Film Registry
, an honor awarded only to culturally significant films.
In 2010, Bogdanovich joined the directing faculty at the School of Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. On April 17, 2010, he was awarded the Master of Cinema Award at the 12th Annual RiverRun International Film Festival.
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
. He was part of the wave of "New Hollywood
New Hollywood
New Hollywood or post-classical Hollywood, sometimes referred to as the "American New Wave", refers to the time from roughly the late-1960s to the early 1980s when a new generation of young filmmakers came to prominence in America, influencing the types of films produced, their production and...
" directors, which included William Friedkin
William Friedkin
William Friedkin is an American film director, producer and screenwriter best known for directing The French Connection in 1971 and The Exorcist in 1973; for the former, he won the Academy Award for Best Director...
, Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
, George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
, Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
, Michael Cimino
Michael Cimino
Michael Cimino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and author. He is best known for writing and directing Academy Award-winning The Deer Hunter and the infamous Heaven's Gate. His films are characterized by their striking visual style and controversial subject...
, and Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
. His most critically acclaimed film is The Last Picture Show
The Last Picture Show
The Last Picture Show is a 1971 American drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, adapted from a semi-autobiographical 1966 novel of the same name by Larry McMurtry....
(1971).
Early life
The son of immigrants fleeing the NazisNazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
- his father, Borislav Bogdanovich, was a Serbian painter and pianist and his mother, Herma Bogdanovich, was descended from an Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n Jewish family - Bogdanovich was conceived in Europe but born in America. He was an actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
in the 1950s, studying his craft with acting teacher Stella Adler
Stella Adler
Stella Adler was an American actress and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and the The Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles with long-time protege Joanne Linville, who continues to teach and furthers Adler's legacy...
(he was only 16 but lied about his age and said he was 18 to qualify), and appeared on television and in summer stock. In the early 1960s, Bogdanovich was known as a film programmer at the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. An obsessive cinema
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
-goer, seeing up to 400 movies a year in his youth, Bogdanovich showcased the work of American directors such as Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
and John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
, whom he later wrote a book about based on the notes he had produced for the MoMA retrospective of the director, and Howard Hawks
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era...
. Bogdanovich also brought attention to such forgotten pioneers of American cinema as Allan Dwan
Allan Dwan
Allan Dwan was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer and screenwriter.-Early life:...
.
Bogdanovich was influenced by the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
critics of the 1950s who wrote for Cahiers du Cinéma
Cahiers du cinéma
Cahiers du Cinéma is an influential French film magazine founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. It developed from the earlier magazine Revue du Cinéma involving members of two Paris film clubs — Objectif 49 and...
, especially critic-turned-director François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
. Before becoming a director himself, he built his reputation as a film writer with articles in Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
. These articles were collected in Pieces of Time (1973). In 1968, following the example of Cahiers du Cinéma
Cahiers du cinéma
Cahiers du Cinéma is an influential French film magazine founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. It developed from the earlier magazine Revue du Cinéma involving members of two Paris film clubs — Objectif 49 and...
critics Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
, Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol was a French film director, a member of the French New Wave group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s...
, and Éric Rohmer
Éric Rohmer
Éric Rohmer was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter and teacher. A figure in the post-war New Wave cinema, he was a former editor of Cahiers du cinéma....
who had created the Nouvelle Vague ("New Wave") by making their own films, Bogdanovich decided to become a director. With his wife Polly Platt
Polly Platt
Mary Marr "Polly" Platt was an American film producer, production designer and screenwriter.-Early life:Platt was born Mary Marr Platt in Fort Sheridan, Illinois on January 29, 1939, later using the name Polly. Her father John was a colonel in the army while her mother Vivian worked in...
, he headed for Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, skipping out on the rent in the process. Intent on breaking into the industry, Bogdanovich would ask publicists for movie premiere and industry party invitations. At one screening, Bogdanovich was viewing a film and director Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
was sitting behind him. The two struck up a conversation when Corman mentioned he liked a cinema piece Bogdanovich wrote for Esquire. Corman offered him a directing job which Bogdanovich accepted immediately. He worked with Corman on Targets
Targets
Targets is a thriller film written, produced and directed by Peter Bogdanovich.-Plot summary:The story concerns a quiet insurance agent / Vietnam veteran, played by Tim O'Kelly, who murders his young wife, his mother and a grocery delivery boy at home and then initiates an afternoon shooting...
, which starred Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
, and Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women
Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women
Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women is a science fiction film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The film is an adapted version of Curtis Harrington's Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, which in turn is adapted from the Russian 1962 feature Planeta Bur by Pavel Klushantsev...
, under the pseudonym Derek Thomas. Bogdanovich later said of the Corman school of filmmaking, "I went from getting the laundry to directing the picture in three weeks. Altogether, I worked 22 weeks – preproduction, shooting, second unit, cutting, dubbing – I haven't learned as much since."
Returning to journalism, Bogdanovich struck up a lifelong friendship with Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
while interviewing him on the set of Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...
's Catch-22
Catch-22 (film)
Catch-22 is a 1970 satirical war film adapted from the book of the same name by Joseph Heller. Considered a black comedy revolving around the "lunatic characters" of Heller's satirical anti-war novel, it was the work of a talented production team which included director Mike Nichols and...
(1970). Bogdanovich played a major role in elucidating Welles and his career with his writings on the actor-director, most notably his book This Is Orson Welles
This Is Orson Welles
This Is Orson Welles is a 1992 book by Peter Bogdanovich and Orson Welles, two major film directors, one the legendary creator of Citizen Kane, the other a former journalist-turned-popular-moviemaker of The Last Picture Show fame...
(1992). In the early 1970s, when Welles was having financial problems, Bogdanovich let him stay at his Bel Air mansion for a couple of years.
In 1970, Bogdanovich was commissioned by the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
to direct a documentary about John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
for their tribute, Directed by John Ford
Directed by John Ford
Directed by John Ford is a documentary film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Originally released in 1971, it covers the life and career of film director John Ford.-Production:...
(1971). The resulting film included candid interviews with the likes of John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
, James Stewart
James Stewart (actor)
James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
, Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
, and was narrated by Orson Welles. Out of circulation for years due to licensing issues, Bogdanovich and TCM
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
released it in 2006, featuring newer, pristine film clips, and additional interviews with Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
, Walter Hill, Harry Carey, Jr.
Harry Carey, Jr.
Harry Carey, Jr. is an American film actor. He appeared in over 90 films. He is mostly remembered for appearing in Western films — notably those by his friend John Ford — and in television programs.-Early life:...
, Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
, Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
, and others.
Emergence as a director
Much of the inspiration which led Bogdanovich to his cinematic creations came from early viewings of the film Citizen KaneCitizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
. In an interview with Robert K. Elder
Robert K. Elder
Robert K. Elder is an American journalist, author and film columnist.- Early life and education :A Montana native, Elder interviewed Ken Kesey for his high school newspaper. The author encouraged Elder to attend his alma mater, the University of Oregon, which Elder did two years later...
, author of The Film That Changed My Life
The Film That Changed My Life
The Film That Changed My Life is a non-fiction collection of interviews compiled by American journalist, author and film columnist Robert K. Elder...
, Bogdanovich explains his appreciation of Orson Welles' work:
It’s just not like any other movie you know. It’s the first modern film: fragmented, not told straight ahead, jumping around. It anticipates everything that’s being done now, and which is thought to be so modern. It’s all become really decadent now, but it was certainly fresh then.
The 32-year-old Bogdanovich was hailed by a critics as a "Wellesian" wunderkind when his best-received film, The Last Picture Show
The Last Picture Show
The Last Picture Show is a 1971 American drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, adapted from a semi-autobiographical 1966 novel of the same name by Larry McMurtry....
, was released in 1971. The film gained eight Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
nominations, including Best Director, and won two statues, for Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...
and Ben Johnson
Ben Johnson (actor)
Ben "Son" Johnson, Jr. was an American motion picture actor who was mainly cast in Westerns. He was also a rodeo cowboy, stuntman, and rancher.-Personal life:...
in the supporting acting categories. Bogdanovich co-wrote the screenplay with Larry McMurtry
Larry McMurtry
Larry Jeff McMurtry is an American novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter whose work is predominantly set in either the old West or in contemporary Texas...
, and it won the 1971 BAFTA
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
award for Best Screenplay. Bogdanovich cast the 21-year-old model Cybill Shepherd
Cybill Shepherd
Cybill Lynne Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her best known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show, as Betsy in Taxi Driver, as Madeleine Spencer in Psych, as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting, as Cybill Sheridan on Cybill, and as Phyllis Kroll on The L...
in a major role in the film and fell in love with her, an affair that eventually led to his divorce from Polly Platt, his longtime artistic collaborator and the mother of his two daughters. The affair was referenced, tongue-in-cheek, in an episode of Moonlighting
Moonlighting
Moonlighting is the practice of holding a second job . It may also refer to:* Moonlighting , a 1982 drama film by Jerzy Skolimowski* Moonlighting , broadcast in 1985–1989 and starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd...
where Bogdanovich, being interviewed as himself, claims to have had an affair with Maddie Hayes, Shepherd's character.
Bogdanovich followed up The Last Picture Show with the popular hit comedy What's Up, Doc?
What's Up, Doc? (1972 film)
What's Up, Doc? is a 1972 screwball comedy film released by Warner Bros., directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, and Madeline Kahn...
(1972), starring Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
and Ryan O'Neal
Ryan O'Neal
Charles Patrick Ryan O'Neal , better known as Ryan O'Neal, is an American actor best known for his appearances in the ABC nighttime soap opera Peyton Place and for his roles in such films as Paper Moon , Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon , A Bridge Too Far , and Love Story , for which he received...
, a screwball comedy
Screwball Comedy
Screwball Comedy is an album by the Japanese band Soul Flower Union. The album found the band going into a simpler, harder-rocking direction, after several heavily world-music influenced albums.-Track listing:...
indebted to Hawks's Bringing Up Baby
Bringing up Baby
Bringing Up Baby is an American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, and released by RKO Radio Pictures....
(1938) and His Girl Friday
His Girl Friday
His Girl Friday is a 1940 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, an adaptation by Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur of the play The Front Page by Hecht and MacArthur...
(1940). Despite his reliance on homage to bygone cinema, Bogdanovich solidified his status as one of a new breed of A-list directors that included Academy Award winners Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
and William Friedkin
William Friedkin
William Friedkin is an American film director, producer and screenwriter best known for directing The French Connection in 1971 and The Exorcist in 1973; for the former, he won the Academy Award for Best Director...
, with whom he formed The Directors Company. The Directors Company was a generous production deal with Paramount Pictures that essentially gave the directors carte blanche if they kept within budget limitations. It was through this entity that Bogdanovich's Paper Moon
Paper Moon (film)
Paper Moon is a 1973 American comedy film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was adapted from the novel Addie Pray by Joe David Brown, and the film was shot in black-and-white. The film is set during the Great Depression in the U.S. states of Kansas and...
(1973) was produced.
Paper Moon, a Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
-era comedy starring Ryan O'Neal that won his 10-year-old daughter Tatum O'Neal
Tatum O'Neal
Tatum Beatrice O'Neal is an American actress best known for her film work as a child actress in the 1970s. She is the youngest to win a competitive Academy Award, at the age of 10, which she won for her performance as Addie Loggins in Paper Moon opposite her father Ryan O'Neal...
an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress, proved the high-water mark of Bogdanovich's career. Forced to share the profits with his fellow directors, Bogdanovich became dissatisfied with the arrangement. The Directors Company subsequently produced only two more pictures, Coppola's The Conversation
The Conversation
The Conversation is a 1974 American psychological thriller film written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman...
(1974), which was nominated for Best Picture in 1974 alongside The Godfather, Part II, and Bogdanovich's Daisy Miller
Daisy Miller (1974 film)
Daisy Miller is a 1974 American drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The screenplay by Frederic Raphael is based on the 1878 novella of the same title by Henry James.-Plot synopsis:...
, which had a lackluster critical reception.
Later years
Bogdanovich turned back to writing as his directorial career sagged, beginning with The Killing of the Unicorn: Dorothy Stratten (1960–1980), a memoir published in 1984. Teresa Carpenter's "Death of a Playmate" article about Dorothy StrattenDorothy Stratten
Dorothy Stratten was a Canadian model and actress. Stratten was the Playboy Playmate of the Month for August 1979, Playmate of the Year in 1980 and was the second Playmate born in the 1960s. Stratten appeared in three comedy films and at least two episodes of shows broadcast on US network...
's murder was published in The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
and won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
, and while Bogdanovich did not criticize Carpenter's article in his book, she had lambasted both Bogdanovich and Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
mogul Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston "Hef" Hefner is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.-Early life:...
, claiming that Stratten was a victim of them as much as of her husband, Paul Snider, who killed her and himself. Carpenter also criticized Bogdanovich for his "puerile preference for ingenues". Carpenter's article served as the basis of Bob Fosse
Bob Fosse
Robert Louis “Bob” Fosse was an American actor, dancer, musical theater choreographer, director, screenwriter, film editor and film director. He won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction...
's film Star 80
Star 80
Star 80 is a 1983 American film about the true story of Playboy Playmate of the Year Dorothy Stratten, who was murdered by her estranged husband Paul Snider in 1980...
(1983), in which Bogdanovich, for legal reasons, was portrayed as the fictional director "Aram Nicholas," a sympathetic but possibly misguided and naive character.
On December 30, 1988, the 49-year-old Bogdanovich married 20-year-old Louise Stratten
Louise Stratten
Louise Beatrice Stratten, also known as " L.B." , is the younger sister of the murdered actress Dorothy Stratten, who was dating director Peter Bogdanovich at the time of her death....
, Dorothy's younger sister, whom he had begun dating a few years after Dorothy's death. The couple divorced in 2001.
Though he achieved success with Mask
Mask (film)
Mask is a 1985 American biographical drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, starring Cher, Sam Elliott, and Eric Stoltz. Dennis Burkley and Laura Dern are featured in supporting roles. Cher received the 1985 Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actress....
in 1985, Bogdanovich's 1990 sequel to The Last Picture Show, called Texasville
Texasville
Texasville is a 1990 American drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. It is a sequel to The Last Picture Show, and based on the novel Texasville by Larry McMurtry....
was a critical and box-office disappointment. Both films occasioned major disputes between Bogdanovich, who still demanded a measure of control over his films, and the studios, which controlled the financing and final cut of both films. Mask was released with a song score by Bob Seger against Bogdanovich's wishes (he favored Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
), and Bogdanovich has often complained that the version of Texasville that was released was not the film he had intended. A director's cut of Mask, slightly longer and with Springsteen's songs, was belatedly released on DVD in 2006. A director's cut of Texasville was released on laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
, though it has never been released on DVD. Around the time of the release of Texasville, Bogdanovich also revisited his earliest success, The Last Picture Show, and produced a slightly modified director's cut. Since that time, his recut has been the only available version of the film.
Bogdanovich directed two more theatrical films in 1992 and 1993, but their failure kept him off the big screen for several years. One, Noises Off...
Noises Off...
Noises Off is a 1992 American comedy film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The screenplay by Marty Kaplan is based on the 1982 play of the same name by Michael Frayn...
, based on the Michael Frayn
Michael Frayn
Michael J. Frayn is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy...
play, has subsequently developed a strong cult following, while the other, The Thing Called Love
The Thing Called Love
The Thing Called Love is an American comedy-drama film released in 1993. It was directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The film's tagline is: "Stand by your dream."...
, is better known as one of River Phoenix
River Phoenix
River Jude Phoenix was an American film actor, musician, and teen icon. He was the oldest brother of fellow actors Rain, Joaquin, Liberty, and Summer Phoenix.Phoenix began acting at age 10 in television commercials...
's last roles before his untimely drug-related death.
Bogdanovich, drawing from his encyclopedic knowledge of film history, authored several critically lauded books, including Peter Bogdanovich's Movie of the Week, which offered the lifelong cinephile's commentary on 52 of his favorite films, and Who The Devil Made It: Conversations with Legendary Film Directors and Who the Hell's in It: Conversations with Hollywood's Legendary Actors, both based on interviews with directors and actors.
In 2001, Bogdanovich resurfaced with The Cat's Meow
The Cat's Meow
The Cat's Meow is a 2001 drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and starring Kirsten Dunst, Eddie Izzard, Edward Herrmann, Cary Elwes, Joanna Lumley, and Jennifer Tilly. The screenplay by Steven Peros is based on his play of the same title, which was inspired by the mysterious death of film...
. Returning once again to a reworking of the past, this time the supposed murder of director Thomas Ince
Thomas H. Ince
Thomas Harper Ince was an American silent film actor, director, screenwriter and producer of more than 100 films and pioneering studio mogul. Known as the "Father of the Western", he invented many mechanisms of professional movie production, introducing early Hollywood to the "assembly line"...
by Orson Welles's bête noire William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
, The Cat's Meow was a modest critical success but made little money at the box office. Bogdanovich says he was told the story of the alleged Ince murder by Welles, who in turn said he heard it from writer Charles Lederer
Charles Lederer
Charles Lederer was a prolific and well-connected American film writer and director of the 30s to the 60s, from a prominent theatrical family with close ties to the Hearst dynasty.-Early life:...
.
In addition to directing some television work, Bogdanovich has returned to acting with a recurring guest role on the cable television series The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
, playing Dr. Melfi
Jennifer Melfi
Jennifer Melfi, M.D., is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. She is the psychiatrist of Mafia boss Tony Soprano. She is portrayed by Lorraine Bracco.-Character description:...
's psychotherapist. Bogdanovich directed a fifth-season episode of the series. In an homage to his Sopranos character, he also voiced the analyst of Bart Simpson's therapist in an episode
Yokel Chords
"Yokel Chords" is the fourteenth episode of the eighteenth season of The Simpsons, which was originally broadcast on March 4, 2007. It was written by Michael Price, and directed by Susie Dietter. Guest starring Meg Ryan as Dr. Swanson, Peter Bogdanovich as a psychiatrist and Andy Dick, James...
of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, and appeared as himself in the Robots Versus Wrestlers
Robots Versus Wrestlers
"Robots Versus Wrestlers " is the 22nd episode of the fifth season of the CBS situation comedy How I Met Your Mother and 110th episode overall. It aired on May 10, 2010.- Plot :...
episode of How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays.As a framing device, the main character, Ted Mosby with narration by Bob Saget, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting...
along with Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington is a Greek American author and syndicated columnist. She is best known as co-founder of the news website The Huffington Post. A popular conservative commentator in the mid-1990s, she adopted more liberal political beliefs in the late 1990s...
, and Will Shortz
Will Shortz
Will Shortz is an American puzzle creator and editor, and currently the crossword puzzle editor for The New York Times.-Early life and education:...
. Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
also cast Bogdanovich as a disc jockey in Kill Bill Volume 1 and Kill Bill Volume 2
Kill Bill Volume 2
Kill Bill Volume 2 is a 2004 action thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the second of two volumes that were theatrically released several months apart. Kill Bill was originally scheduled for a single theatrical release, but with a running time of over four hours, it was...
. "Quentin knows, because he's such a movie buff, that when you hear a disc jockey's voice in my pictures, it's always me, sometimes doing different voices," said Bogdanovich. "So he called me and he said, 'I stole your voice from The Last Picture Show for the rough cut, but I need you to come down and do that voice again for my picture...'"
Bogdanovich hosted The Essentials on Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
, but was replaced in May 2006 by TCM host Robert Osborne
Robert Osborne
Robert Jolin Osborne is an American actor and film historian best known as the primary host for Turner Classic Movies, and previously a host of The Movie Channel.-Life and career:...
and film critic Molly Haskell
Molly Haskell
Molly Haskell is an American feminist film critic and author. Her most influential book is From Reverence to Rape: the Treatment of Women in the Movies...
. Bogdanovich is also frequently featured in introductions to movies on Criterion Collection DVDs, and has had a supporting role as a fictional version of himself in the Showtime comedy series Out of Order. He will next appear in The Dream Factory.
In 2006, Bogdanovich joined forces with ClickStar, where he hosts a classic film channel, Peter Bogdanovich's Golden Age of Movies. Bodganovich also writes a blog for the site. In 2003 he appeared in the BBC documentary, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood is a book written by Peter Biskind and published by Simon and Schuster in 1998...
and in 2006 he appeared in the documentary Wanderlust.
In 2007, Bogdanovich was presented with an award for outstanding contribution to film preservation by The International Federation of Film Archives
The International Federation of Film Archives
The International Federation of Film Archives was founded in Paris in 1938 by the British Film Institute, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Cinémathèque Française and the Reichsfilmarchiv in Berlin....
(FIAF) at the Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
. The same year, Bogdanovich was sued by Iaroslav Jivov, a Canadian businessman, for breach of contract. Jivov's suit alleged that Bogdanovich took $100,000 as a fee for allowing Jivov's son to work as an assistant on Bogdanovich's next film but failed to live up to his side of the deal.
In 1998, the National Film Preservation Board
National Film Preservation Board
The United States National Film Preservation Board is the board selecting films for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. It was established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988...
of the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
named The Last Picture Show
The Last Picture Show
The Last Picture Show is a 1971 American drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, adapted from a semi-autobiographical 1966 novel of the same name by Larry McMurtry....
to the National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
, an honor awarded only to culturally significant films.
In 2010, Bogdanovich joined the directing faculty at the School of Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. On April 17, 2010, he was awarded the Master of Cinema Award at the 12th Annual RiverRun International Film Festival.
Directing Credits
- TargetsTargetsTargets is a thriller film written, produced and directed by Peter Bogdanovich.-Plot summary:The story concerns a quiet insurance agent / Vietnam veteran, played by Tim O'Kelly, who murders his young wife, his mother and a grocery delivery boy at home and then initiates an afternoon shooting...
(aka Before I Die) (1968) (Also Writer/Producer/Editor) - Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric WomenVoyage to the Planet of Prehistoric WomenVoyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women is a science fiction film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The film is an adapted version of Curtis Harrington's Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, which in turn is adapted from the Russian 1962 feature Planeta Bur by Pavel Klushantsev...
(aka The Gill Women of Venus and The Gill Women) (1968) - The Last Picture ShowThe Last Picture ShowThe Last Picture Show is a 1971 American drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, adapted from a semi-autobiographical 1966 novel of the same name by Larry McMurtry....
(1971) (Also Co-Writer, with Larry McMurtryLarry McMurtryLarry Jeff McMurtry is an American novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter whose work is predominantly set in either the old West or in contemporary Texas...
) - Directed by John FordDirected by John FordDirected by John Ford is a documentary film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Originally released in 1971, it covers the life and career of film director John Ford.-Production:...
(1971) (Documentary) - What's Up, Doc?What's Up, Doc? (1972 film)What's Up, Doc? is a 1972 screwball comedy film released by Warner Bros., directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, and Madeline Kahn...
(1972) (Also Co-Writer, with Buck HenryBuck HenryHenry Zuckerman, better known as Buck Henry , is an American actor, writer, film director, and television director.-Early life:...
, David NewmanDavid NewmanDavid Newman may refer to:*David Newman of Loughborough since 2009*David Newman , aka David "Fathead" Newman, American jazz saxophonist*David Newman , American composer...
and Robert BentonRobert BentonRobert Douglas Benton is an American screenwriter and film director.Benton was born in Waxahachie, Texas, the son of Dorothy and Ellery Douglass Benton, a telephone company employee. He attended the University of Texas and Columbia University. Benton has won numerous awards for both writing and...
/Producer) - Paper MoonPaper Moon (film)Paper Moon is a 1973 American comedy film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was adapted from the novel Addie Pray by Joe David Brown, and the film was shot in black-and-white. The film is set during the Great Depression in the U.S. states of Kansas and...
(1973) (Also Producer) - Daisy MillerDaisy Miller (1974 film)Daisy Miller is a 1974 American drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The screenplay by Frederic Raphael is based on the 1878 novella of the same title by Henry James.-Plot synopsis:...
(1974) (Also Producer) - At Long Last LoveAt Long Last LoveAt Long Last Love is an American motion picture musical that was released in 1975. It was written, produced and directed by Peter Bogdanovich and stars Burt Reynolds and Cybill Shepherd....
(1975) (Also Writer/Producer) - Nickelodeon (1976) (Also Co-Writer, with W.D. Richter)
- Saint JackSaint JackSaint Jack is a 1973 novel by Paul Theroux and a 1979 film of the same name. It tells the life of Jack Flowers, a pimp in Singapore. Feeling hopeless and undervalued, Jack tries to make money by setting up his own bordello, and clashes with Chinese triad members in the process.Ben Gazzara stars as...
(1979) (Also Co-Writer, with Howard SacklerHoward SacklerHoward Oliver Sackler , was an American screenwriter and playwright who is best known for writing The Great White Hope . The Great White Hope enjoyed both a successful run on Broadway and, as a film adaptation, in movie theaters...
and Paul TherouxPaul TherouxPaul Edward Theroux is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work of travel writing is perhaps The Great Railway Bazaar . He has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his...
) - They All LaughedThey All LaughedFor the 1937 song by George and Ira Gershwin see They All Laughed They All Laughed is a 1981 film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. It is based on a screenplay by Bogdanovich and Blaine Novak.-Plot:...
(1981) (Also Writer) - MaskMask (film)Mask is a 1985 American biographical drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, starring Cher, Sam Elliott, and Eric Stoltz. Dennis Burkley and Laura Dern are featured in supporting roles. Cher received the 1985 Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actress....
(1985) - Illegally YoursIllegally YoursIllegally Yours is a 1988 comedy film set in St. Augustine, Florida where a series of comic mishaps take place involving a blackmailer, a corpse, an incriminating audiotape, an innocent woman who accidentally picks up the tape, and a pair of teenage blackmail victims...
(1988) (Also Producer) - TexasvilleTexasvilleTexasville is a 1990 American drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. It is a sequel to The Last Picture Show, and based on the novel Texasville by Larry McMurtry....
(1990) (Also Writer/Producer) - Noises Off (1992) (Also Executive Producer)
- The Thing Called LoveThe Thing Called LoveThe Thing Called Love is an American comedy-drama film released in 1993. It was directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The film's tagline is: "Stand by your dream."...
(1993) - To Sir, with Love IITo Sir, with Love IITo Sir, with Love II is an American television movie, a sequel to the 1967 British film, To Sir, with Love.Like its first part, it deals with social issues in an inner city school.-Plot summary:...
(1996) (TV) - A Saintly SwitchA Saintly SwitchA Saintly Switch is a made for TV comedy film directed by film director, Peter Bogdanovich and produced in 1999 in by Walt Disney Animations, first exhibited on The Wonderful World of Disney. The plot revolves around an aging NFL quarterback and his stay-at-home wife switching bodies...
(1999) (TV) - The Cat's MeowThe Cat's MeowThe Cat's Meow is a 2001 drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and starring Kirsten Dunst, Eddie Izzard, Edward Herrmann, Cary Elwes, Joanna Lumley, and Jennifer Tilly. The screenplay by Steven Peros is based on his play of the same title, which was inspired by the mysterious death of film...
(2001) - Hustle (2004) (TV)
- Runnin' Down A DreamRunnin' Down a Dream (film)Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin' Down A Dream is a 2007 documentary about Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The 4-hour documentary chronicles the history of the band, from its inception as Mudcrutch, right up to the 30th anniversary concert in Petty's home town...
(2007) (Documentary) - Squirrel to the Nuts (2011)
Acting Credits
- TargetsTargetsTargets is a thriller film written, produced and directed by Peter Bogdanovich.-Plot summary:The story concerns a quiet insurance agent / Vietnam veteran, played by Tim O'Kelly, who murders his young wife, his mother and a grocery delivery boy at home and then initiates an afternoon shooting...
(aka Before I Die) (1968)... - Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric WomenVoyage to the Planet of Prehistoric WomenVoyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women is a science fiction film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The film is an adapted version of Curtis Harrington's Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, which in turn is adapted from the Russian 1962 feature Planeta Bur by Pavel Klushantsev...
(aka The Gill Women of Venus and The Gill Women) (1968)... Narrator (Voice Only) - The Last Picture ShowThe Last Picture ShowThe Last Picture Show is a 1971 American drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, adapted from a semi-autobiographical 1966 novel of the same name by Larry McMurtry....
(1971)... Disc Jockey (Voice Only) - The Other Side of the WindThe Other Side of the WindThe Other Side of the Wind is an unfinished film directed by Orson Welles, shot between 1969 and 1976, and starring John Huston, Bob Random, Peter Bogdanovich, Susan Strasberg and Oja Kodar.-Summary:...
(1972)... Brookes Otterlake (Never Released) - Saint JackSaint JackSaint Jack is a 1973 novel by Paul Theroux and a 1979 film of the same name. It tells the life of Jack Flowers, a pimp in Singapore. Feeling hopeless and undervalued, Jack tries to make money by setting up his own bordello, and clashes with Chinese triad members in the process.Ben Gazzara stars as...
(1979)... Eddie Schuman - They All LaughedThey All LaughedFor the 1937 song by George and Ira Gershwin see They All Laughed They All Laughed is a 1981 film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. It is based on a screenplay by Bogdanovich and Blaine Novak.-Plot:...
(1981)... Disc Jockey (Uncredited) - MoonlightingMoonlighting (TV series)Moonlighting is an American television series that aired on ABC from March 3, 1985, to May 14, 1989. The network aired a total of 66 episodes...
(1986) [Himself] - Northern ExposureNorthern ExposureNorthern Exposure is an American television series that ran on CBS from 1990 to 1995, with a total of 110 episodes.-Overview:The series was given a pair of consecutive Peabody Awards: in 1991–92 for the show's "depict[ion] in a comedic and often poetic way, [of] the cultural clash between a...
(1993, TV)... Himself (1 Episode) - CybillCybillCybill is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre, which aired on CBS from January 2, 1995 to July 13, 1998. Starring Cybill Shepherd, the series revolves around Cybill Sheridan, a twice-divorced single mother of two and struggling actress in her 40s, who has never gotten her show...
(1995, TV)... Himself (1 Episode) (Uncredited) - HighballHighball (film)Highball is a 1997 film directed by Noah Baumbach, co-written by Baumbach, Carlos Jacott, and Christopher Reed. The film is credited as having been directed by "Ernie Fusco" and written by "Jesse Carter".-Plot:...
(1997)... Frank - Mr. JealousyMr. JealousyMr. Jealousy is a 1997 romantic comedy film written and directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Eric Stoltz and Annabella Sciorra.-Plot:Aspiring writer Lester Grimm starts going out with Ramona Ray after being introduced by Lester's friend Vince and Vince's fiancee Lucretia...
(1998)... Dr. Howard Poke - 5454 (film)54 is a 1998 drama film written and directed by Mark Christopher, starring Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek, and Neve Campbell...
(1998)... Elaine's Patron - Lick the StarLick the StarLick the Star is a 14 minute long black & white 16mm film. It was the first film written and directed by Sofia Coppola, daughter of Francis Ford Coppola....
(1998, Short Film)... The Principal - Coming Soon... Bartholomew
- The SopranosThe SopranosThe Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
(2000–2007, TV)... Dr. Elliot Kupferberg (15 Episodes) - Rated XRated X (film)Rated X is a 2000 film starring brothers Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez, with the latter also directing. It is based on the nonfiction book X-Rated by David McCumber which chronicles the story of the Mitchell brothers, Jim and Artie Mitchell, who were pioneers in the pornography and strip club...
(2000, TV)... Film Professor - Festival in CannesFestival in CannesFestival in Cannes is a 2001 film directed by Henry Jaglom.The plot is an entertainment industry farce about filmmakers trying to make deals during the Cannes Film Festival....
(2001)... Milo - Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003)... Disc Jockey (Voice Only, Credited with "Special Thanks")
- Kill Bill Volume 2Kill Bill Volume 2Kill Bill Volume 2 is a 2004 action thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the second of two volumes that were theatrically released several months apart. Kill Bill was originally scheduled for a single theatrical release, but with a running time of over four hours, it was...
(2004)... Disc Jockey (Voice Only, Credited with "Special Thanks") - 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter (2004, TV)... Dr. Lohr (1 Episode)
- Law and Order: Criminal Intent (2005–2007, TV)... George Merritt (2 Episodes)
- InfamousInfamous (film)Infamous is a 2006 American drama film, based on the 1997 book by George Plimpton, Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career....
(2006)... Bennett Cerf - The SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
(2007, TV)... Psychologist (Voice Only) (1 Episode) - DedicationDedication (film)Dedication is a 2007 American romantic comedy film starring Billy Crudup and Mandy Moore. Written by David Bromberg, this film is actor Justin Theroux's directorial debut. The film premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. It was produced by Plum Pictures.-Plot:Henry Roth is an...
(2007)... Roger Spade - The DukesThe Dukes (film)The Dukes is a 2007 comedy-drama film about a group of has-been musicians who attempt a bank heist. The film was directed by Robert Davi, and stars Chazz Palminteri, Robert Davi, Peter Bogdanovich and Elya Baskin.-External links:*...
(2007)... Lou - The Fifth PatientThe Fifth PatientThe Fifth Patient is a 2007 American thriller film written and directed by Amir Mann. The film stars Nick Chinlund as John Reilly, an American national who finds himself in an African hospital where, he learns, he has spent the last two years due to a head injury. He remembers nothing of his past...
(2007)... Edward Birani - Broken EnglishBroken English (2007 film)-Plot:Nora Wilder , a single, career woman works at a Manhattan boutique hotel where her excellent skills in guest relations lack in the romantic department. If it is not her loving and dominant mother attempting to set her up that consistently fail, she has her friend’s disastrous blind dates to...
(2007)... Iriving Mann - Humboldt CountyHumboldt County (film)Humboldt County is a 2008 comedy/drama film by Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs. It stars Jeremy Strong, Fairuza Balk, Frances Conroy, Madison Davenport, Brad Dourif, Chris Messina and Peter Bogdanovich. The film made its debut at SXSW on March 7, 2008...
(2008)... Professor Hadley - AbandonedAbandoned (2010 film)Abandoned is a thriller film directed by Michael Feifer and starring Brittany Murphy, Dean Cain, and Mimi Rogers.-Synopsis:Mary Walsh delivers her boyfriend, Kevin Peterson , to a hospital for routine outpatient surgery. A nurse tells her the surgery will be exactly one hour. When she returns to...
(2010)... Dr. Markus Bensley - How I Met Your MotherHow I Met Your MotherHow I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays.As a framing device, the main character, Ted Mosby with narration by Bob Saget, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting...
(2010, TV)... Himself (1 episodeRobots Versus Wrestlers"Robots Versus Wrestlers " is the 22nd episode of the fifth season of the CBS situation comedy How I Met Your Mother and 110th episode overall. It aired on May 10, 2010.- Plot :...
)
Books
- Peter Bogdanovich "The Cinema of Orson Welles" (1961)
- Peter Bogdanovich "The Cinema of Howard Hawks" (1962)
- Peter Bogdanovich "The Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock" (1963)
- Peter Bogdanovich "John Ford" (1967; expanded 1978)
- Peter Bogdanovich "Fritz Lang in America" (1969)
- Peter Bogdanovich "Allan Dwan: The Last Pioneer" (1970)
- Peter Bogdanovich "Pieces of Time" (1973; expanded 1985)
- Peter Bogdanovich The Killing Of The Unicorn - Dorothy Stratten 1960-1980. William Morrow and Company 1984. ISBN 0-688-01611-1.
- Peter Bogdanovich This Is Orson WellesThis Is Orson WellesThis Is Orson Welles is a 1992 book by Peter Bogdanovich and Orson Welles, two major film directors, one the legendary creator of Citizen Kane, the other a former journalist-turned-popular-moviemaker of The Last Picture Show fame...
. HarperPerennial 1992. ISBN 0-06-092439-X. - Peter Bogdanovich A Moment with Miss Gish. Santa Barbara : Santa Teresa Press, 1995. WorldCat.
- Peter Bogdanovich Who The Devil Made It: Conversations with Legendary Film Directors. Alfred A. Knopf, 1997. ISBN 0-679-44706-7.
- Peter Bogdanovich Peter Bogdanovich's Movie of the Week. 1999.
- Peter Bogdanovich Who the Hell's in It: Conversations with Hollywood's Legendary Actors. Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. ISBN 0-375-40010-9.
Director's Commentaries
- Targets
- The Last Picture Show (one solo commentary, and one with actors Cybill Shepherd, Randy QuaidRandy QuaidRandall Rudy "Randy" Quaid is an American actor perhaps best known for his role as Cousin Eddie in the National Lampoon's Vacation movies, as well as his numerous supporting roles in films, including his Oscar nominated performance in The Last Detail, Independence Day, Kingpin and Brokeback Mountain...
, Cloris Leachman, and Frank Marshall) - What's Up, Doc?
- Paper Moon
- Daisy Miller
- Nickelodeon
- Saint Jack
- They All Laughed
- Mask
- The Thing Called Love
- The Cat's Meow
Scholarly Commentaries
- Bringing Up BabyBringing up BabyBringing Up Baby is an American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, and released by RKO Radio Pictures....
- Citizen KaneCitizen KaneCitizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
- Clash by NightClash by NightClash by Night is a black-and-white drama with some film noir aspects, directed by Fritz Lang and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Marilyn Monroe and Robert Ryan. The movie was based on the play by Clifford Odets, adapted by writer Alfred Hayes...
, with audio interview excerpts of director Fritz LangFritz LangFriedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute... - El Dorado
- FuryFuryFury is a form of anger.Fury may also refer to:In fiction:* Bryan Fury, a video game character from the Tekken series* Fury , two superheroine characters...
, with audio interview excerpts of director Fritz Lang - The Lady from ShanghaiThe Lady from ShanghaiThe Lady from Shanghai is a 1947 film noir directed by Orson Welles and starring Welles, his estranged wife Rita Hayworth and Everett Sloane. It is based on the novel If I Die Before I Wake by Sherwood King.-Plot:...
- Land of the PharaohsLand of the PharaohsLand of the Pharaohs is a 1955 CinemaScope epic film made by the Continental Company, Ltd and presented by Warner Bros. It was directed and produced by Howard Hawks from a screenplay by Harold Jack Bloom, Harry Kurnitz, and the novelist William Faulkner...
, with audio interview excepts of director Howard HawksHoward HawksHoward Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era... - MM (1931 film)M is a 1931 German drama-thriller directed by Fritz Lang and written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou. It was Lang's first sound film, although he had directed more than a dozen films previously....
, with digital transfer supervisor Torsten Kaiser and restoration supervisor Martin Koerber, plus audio interview excerpts of director Fritz Lang - OthelloOthello (1952 film)Othello is a 1952 drama film based on the Shakespearean play, made by Mercury Productions Inc. and Les Films Marceau and distributed by United Artists . It was directed and produced by Orson Welles, who also played the title role . The screenplay was adapted by Welles and an uncredited Jean Sacha...
, with Orson WellesOrson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
scholar Myron Meisel - The Rules of the GameThe Rules of the GameThe Rules of the Game is a 1939 French film directed by Jean Renoir about upper-class French society just before the start of World War II...
, reading commentary written by film scholar Alexander Sesonske - The SearchersThe Searchers (film)The Searchers is a 1956 American Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, and set during the Texas–Indian Wars...
- Strangers on a TrainStrangers on a Train (film)Strangers on a Train is an American psychological thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and based on the 1950 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. It was shot in the autumn of 1950 and released by Warner Bros. on June 30, 1951. The film stars Farley Granger, Ruth Roman,...
, with Psycho screenwriter Joseph StefanoJoseph StefanoJoseph Stefano was an American screenwriter, known to genre fans for writing the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and for being the producer and co-writer of the Outer Limits TV series.-Early years:As a teenager, Stefano was so keen to become an actor that he dropped out of high school two...
, Patricia HighsmithPatricia HighsmithPatricia Highsmith was an American novelist and short-story writer most widely known for her psychological thrillers, which led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times, notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951...
biographer Andrew Wilson, and other participants - To Catch a ThiefTo Catch a ThiefTo Catch a Thief is a 1952 thriller novel by David Dodge. John Robie is a retired American jewel thief, formerly known as Le Chat , who now spends his time tending to the rose garden in his villa on the Côte d'Azur. Following a series of recent jewel robberies on the Riviera that resemble his...
, with film historian Laurent Bouzereau - The Third ManThe Third ManThe Third Man is a 1949 British film noir, directed by Carol Reed and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Many critics rank it as a masterpiece, particularly remembered for its atmospheric cinematography, performances, and unique musical score...
, on the Criterion Edition of the film - "Make Way for TomorrowMake Way for TomorrowMake Way for Tomorrow is a 1937 American drama film directed by Leo McCarey. The plot concerns an elderly couple who are forced to separate when they lose their house and none of their five children will take both parents in....
", on the Criterion Edition of the film