Robert Altman filmography

Robert Altman in 1983

Robert Altman was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is considered an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era. His films are known for having satirical themes, unexpected quirks, with overlapping and improvised dialogue. He has deconstructed classic film genres like Westerns, crime dramas, musicals and classic whodunits. He has worked with frequent collaborators such as actors Shelley Duvall, Elliott Gould, René Auberjonois, Henry Gibson and Lily Tomlin. Over his career he received five Oscar nominations winning the Honorary Academy Award in 2005.

Altman made his directorial film debut with The Delinquents (1957) and gained his career breakthrough with war comedy M*A*S*H (1970) for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. Robert then earned critical acclaim for western drama McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), the musical film Nashville (1975), and the psychological thriller 3 Women (1977). During this time he also directed a string of counter cultural genre films such as the black comedy Brewster McCloud (1970), the neo-noir The Long Goodbye (1973), the comedy-drama California Split (1974), the crime film Thieves Like Us (1974), the revisionist western Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976), and the satirical comedy-drama A Wedding (1978).

He then directed the musical comedy Popeye (1980) which was a financial success but received a mixed reception. The films which followed become more sporadic with a career fluctuations. Roger Ebert stated of Altman's career that he "insisted on expressing a distinct personal vision that made him the hottest director of the 1970s but not the 1980s". ^[1] During this time he directed the comedy-drama Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982), the play adaptation Streamers (1983), and the historical drama Secret Honor (1984). He received a career resurgence earning Academy Award for Best Director nominations for the Hollywood mystery The Player (1992), the dark comedy Short Cuts (1993), and the murder mystery Gosford Park (2001). He also directed Vincent & Theo (1990), Prêt-à-Porter (1994), The Company (2003), and A Prairie Home Companion (2006).

Film

Features

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer
1948	Bodyguard	No	Story	No
1957	The James Dean Story [a]	Yes	Yes	Yes
	The Delinquents	Yes	Yes	Yes
1968	Countdown	Yes	No	No
1969	That Cold Day in the Park	Yes	No	No
1970	M*A*S*H	Yes	No	No
	Brewster McCloud	Yes	No	No
1971	McCabe & Mrs. Miller	Yes	Yes	No
1972	Images	Yes	Yes	No
1973	The Long Goodbye	Yes	No	No
1974	Thieves Like Us	Yes	Yes	No
	California Split	Yes	No	Yes
1975	Nashville	Yes	No	Yes
1976	Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson	Yes	Yes	Yes
1977	3 Women	Yes	Yes	Yes
1978	A Wedding	Yes	Yes	Yes
1979	Quintet	Yes	Yes	Yes
	A Perfect Couple	Yes	Yes	Yes
1980	HealtH	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Popeye	Yes	Yes	No
1982	Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean	Yes	No	No
1983	Streamers	Yes	No	Yes
1984	Secret Honor	Yes	No	Yes
1985	Fool for Love	Yes	No	No
1987	Beyond Therapy	Yes	Yes	No
	O.C. and Stiggs	Yes	No	Yes
1990	Vincent & Theo	Yes	No	No
1992	The Player	Yes	No	No
1993	Short Cuts	Yes	Yes	No
1994	Prêt-à-Porter	Yes	Yes	Yes
1996	Kansas City	Yes	Yes	Yes
1998	The Gingerbread Man	Yes	No	No
1999	Cookie's Fortune	Yes	No	Yes
2000	Dr. T & the Women	Yes	No	Yes
2001	Gosford Park	Yes	Idea	Yes
2003	The Company	Yes	No	Yes
2006	A Prairie Home Companion	Yes	No	Yes

1. Also credited as editor

Producer only

• Welcome to L.A. (1976)
• The Late Show (1977)
• Remember My Name (1978)
• Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994)
• Afterglow (1997)
• Trixie (2000)

Executive producer

• Rich Kids (1979)
• Roads and Bridges (2001)

Acting roles

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1947	The Secret Life of Walter Mitty	Man Drinking	Uncredited
1948	Bodyguard
1970	Events	Bob
1973	The Long Goodbye	Ambulance Driver	Uncredited
1981	Endless Love	Hotel Manager

Short film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Editor	Notes
1950	Honeymoon for Harriet	No	Yes	Yes
1952	The Sound of Bells	Yes	Yes	No
	King Basketball	Yes	Yes	No
1954	The Dirty Look	Yes	Yes	No
1955	The Perfect Crime	Yes	Yes	No
	Corn's-A-Poppin	No	Yes	No
1956	The Magic Bond	Yes	Yes	No
1964	The Party	Yes	No	No
1965	The Katherine Reed Story	Yes	No	No
1967	Pot au feu	Yes	No	No	Acting role: Player
1987	Les Boréades	Yes	Yes	Yes	Segment of Aria

Producer

• Liv (1993)

Documentary short

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Editor
1951	Modern Football	Yes	Yes	Yes
1953	The Last Mile	Yes	Yes	No
	How To Run a Filling Station	Yes	Yes	No
	Modern Baseball	No	No	Yes
1954	Better Football	Yes	Yes	No
	The Builders	Yes	Yes	No

Television

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
1953	Pulse of the City	Yes	Yes	No	Episode "The Case of Capt. Denning"
1957–58	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Yes	No	No	Episodes "The Young One" and "Together"
1958	M Squad	Yes	No	No	Episode "Lover's Lane Killing"
1959	Hawaiian Eye	Yes	No	No	Episode "Three Tickets to Lani"
1958–59	The Millionaire	Yes	Yes	No	13 episodes
	Whirlybirds	Yes	No	No	20 episodes
1959–60	Sugarfoot	Yes	No	No	2 episodes
1959–60	Troubleshooters	Yes	Yes	No	14 episodes
	U.S. Marshal	Yes	No	No	15 episodes
1960	The Gale Storm Show	Yes	No	No	Episode "It's Magic"
	Bronco	Yes	No	No	Episode "The Mustangers"
	Maverick	Yes	Yes	No	Episode "Bolt from the Blue"
1960–61	The Roaring 20's	Yes	No	No	9 episodes
	Bonanza	Yes	No	No	8 episodes
1961	Lawman	Yes	No	No	Episode "The Robbery"
	Surfside 6	Yes	No	No	Episode "Thieves Among Honor"
	Peter Gunn	Yes	No	No	Episode "The Murder Bond"
	Route 66	Yes	No	No	Episode "Some of the People, Some of the Time"
1961–62	Bus Stop	Yes	Yes	No	8 episodes
1962	Cain's Hundred	Yes	No	No	Episode "The Left Side of Canada"
	Kraft Television Theatre	Yes	No	No	3 episodes
	The Gallant Men	Yes	No	No	Episode "Pilot"
1962–63	Combat!	Yes	Yes	Yes	10 episodes
1963–64	Kraft Suspense Theatre	Yes	Yes	Yes	3 episodes
1965	The Long, Hot Summer	Yes	No	No	Episode "The Long, Hot Summer"
1968	Premiere	Yes	Yes	Yes	Episode "Walk in the Sky"
1977	Saturday Night Live	Yes	No	No	Episode "Sissy Spacek/Richard Baskin" (Segment "Sissy's Role")
1988	Tanner '88	Yes	No	Executive	Miniseries
1993, 1997	Great Performances	Yes	Yes	Yes	Episodes "Black and Blue", "The Real McTeague: A Synthesis of Form", and "Jazz '34"
1993	Gun	Yes	No	Executive	Episode "All the President's Women"
1998	Killer App	Yes	No	No	Unaired pilot
2004	Tanner on Tanner	Yes	No	Executive	Miniseries

Television films

Year	Title	Director	Producer
1964	Nightmare in Chicago	Yes	Yes
1982	Rattlesnake in a Cooler	Yes	Executive
	Precious Blood	Yes	Executive
1985	The Laundromat	Yes	No
1987	Basements: The Room / The Dumb Waiter	Yes	Yes
1988	The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial	Yes	Yes

Theatre

Year	Title	Author	Venue	Ref.
1952	Hope Is the Thing with Feathers	Richard Harrity	Resident Theatre, Kansas City
1981	2 By South: Rattlesnake in a Cooler and Precious Blood	Frank South	Los Angeles Actors' Theater
			St. Clement's Theater, New York City
1982	Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean	Ed Graczyk	Martin Beck Theater, Broadway	[2]
1983	The Rake's Progress	Igor Stravinsky	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
1987			Opéra de Lille, Lille
1992	McTeague	William Bolcom	Lyric Opera of Chicago, World premiere
2004	A Wedding
2006	Resurrection Blues	Arthur Miller	Old Vic Theatre, London

Music video

Year	Title	Artist
1966	"Girl Talk"	Bobby Troup
	"The Party"	Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
	"Speak Low"	Lili St. Cyr
	"Ebb Tide"

Unrealized projects

Year	Title and description	Ref.
1960s	Death, Where is Thy Sting-a-ling-ling? , retitled from The Chicken and the Hawk	[3] [4] [5]
1970s	The Extra, a film about Hollywood bit players starring Lily Tomlin	[6]
	92 in the Shade	[7]
	North Dallas Forty	[8]
	A film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's novel Breakfast of Champions written by Alan Rudolph starring Burt Lancaster	[9]
	Ragtime	[9] [10] [11]
	The Y.I.G. Epoxy, a film adaptation of Robert Grossbach's novel Easy and Hard Ways Out written by Alan Rudolph starring Peter Falk, Sterling Hayden and Henry Gibson	[12] [11]
1980s	Vicksburg, a drama set during the American Civil War	[13]
	A film adaptation of James McLure's one-act play Lone Star starring Sigourney Weaver and Powers Boothe	[14] [15] [16]
	The Smith County Widow, a "serious" comedy-mystery-farce starring Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen	[15]
	A film adaptation of Marsha Norman's play The Holdup	[17]
	A film adaptation of Jim Leonard, Jr.'s two-act play The Diviners starring William Hurt	[17] [18]
	A film adaptation of Thomas Berger's novel The Feud written by Jim Leonard, Jr.	[19]
	Biarritz, a film set in a European hotel for wealthy vacationers written by Robert Harders starring Jon Voight	[20] [21] [7]
	A film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's novel Across the River and Into the Trees written by Robert Harders starring Roy Scheider and Julie Christie	[21] [22] [7]
	Heat	[23] [7]
	Nashville 12, a sequel to Nashville written by Robert Harders set twelve years later	[22] [7]
	Rossini! Rossini!	[24]
1990s	A film adaptation of Tony Kushner's two-part play Angels in America	[25] [26]
	Cork, a film written by Harry Belafonte about subject of blackface and minstrel shows set in the era of Amos 'n' Andy	[27] [28] [29]
	Mata Hari, a biopic written by David Williamson based on the life of Danish entertainer Mata Hari	[26]
	The Singing Detective starring Dustin Hoffman	[30]
	Stamp and Deliver, a "modern-day postal Western"	[31]
	More Short Cuts, a sequel to Short Cuts written by Anne Rapp	[32]
2000s	A film adaptation of Artie Shaw's unpublished autobiography The Education of Albie Snow starring Johnny Depp	[33] [34]
	Voltage, a film adaptation of Robert Grossbach's novel A Shortage of Engineers starring Liv Tyler, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Steve Buscemi, Joaquin Phoenix, William H. Macy, Tony Shalhoub, Harry Belafonte, Elliott Gould and Taye Diggs	[35] [36] [37]
	Gambit	[38]
	The Widow Claire, a "period romance" set during World War II starring Winona Rider, Jake Gyllenhaal and Matthew McConaughey	[39]
	Paint, a film set in the New York art gallery scene starring Salma Hayek, James Franco and Glenn Close	[40] [41]
	An Unfinished Life	[42]
	A film adaptation of Aesop's fable "The Tortoise and the Hare" written by Andrew Davies	[41]
	It's Always Now, a sequel to The Long Goodbye based on an unpublished Raymond Chandler story	[43]
	A fictionalized film version based on S. R. Bindler's 1997 documentary Hands on a Hardbody written by Stephen Harrigan starring Hilary Swank, Meryl Streep, Billy Bob Thornton, Jack Black, Jack White, Chris Rock, Dwayne Johnson, Lily Tomlin and Tommy Lee Jones	[44] [45] [29]

References

1. "Siskel and Ebert on Robert Altman". Youtube. Retrieved August 31, 2024.
2. "Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982, Broadway)". Playbill. Retrieved August 31, 2024.
3. Total Film (June 1, 2004). "The Total Film Interview - Robert Altman". GamesRadar+ . Retrieved January 22, 2024.
4. Lincoln, Kevin (November 12, 2015). "The BFG Author Roald Dahl Also Wrote the James Bond Movie You Only Live Twice, and Hated It". Vulture . Retrieved January 22, 2024.
5. "'They get hold of it and do what they like': Why Roald Dahl often felt chewed up and spit out by Hollywood". Vancouver Sun . August 5, 2016.
6. "Unproduced and Unfinished Films A Through K: An Ongoing Film Comment Project". Film Comment . No. May–June 2012.
7. McGilligan, Patrick (1989). Robert Altman: Jumping Off the Cliff: A Biography of the Great American Director . St. Martin's Press. p.  545-546. ISBN   978-0312304676.
8. "AFI|Catalog - North Dallas Forty". AFI Catalog of Feature Films .
9. Gussow, Mel (February 24, 1976). "Altman Goes by the Book— His Way". The New York Times . Retrieved January 12, 2024.
10. Higham, Charles (September 26, 1976). "How 'Ragtime Led to Discord". The New York Times . Retrieved January 12, 2024.
11. Arnold, Gary (May 8, 1977). "Filmmaker Robert Altman - Back in the Swim". The Washington Post . Retrieved January 12, 2024.
12. "Unproduced and Unfinished Films L Through Z: An Ongoing Film Comment Project". Film Comment . No. May–June 2012.
13. Dawson, Nick (2009). Being Hal Ashby: The Life of a Hollywood Rebel . University Press of Kentucky. p.  225-226. ISBN   978-0813139197.
14. "At The Movies; by Chris Chase; For Sigourney Weaver, heady taste of success". The New York Times . February 27, 1981.
15. Duchovnay, Gerald, ed. (2004) [March 28, 1981]. Film Voices: Interviews from Post Script. SUNY Press. p. 24–25. ISBN   9780791484753.
16. Harmetz, Aljean (July 11, 1981). "ROBERT ALTMAN SELLS STUDIO FOR $2.3 MILLION". The New York Times . Retrieved January 12, 2024.
17. Kent, Leticia (October 11, 1981). "ROBERT ALTMAN TURNS TO THE STAGE". The New York Times . Retrieved January 21, 2024.
18. Shoger, Scott (June 13, 2012). "Jim Leonard talks 'The Diviners' and beyond". NUVO . Retrieved January 21, 2024.
19. "AFI|Catalog - The Feud". AFI Catalog of Feature Films .
20. Tremblay, Anne (January 20, 1985). "ALTMAN MAKES A CABLE FILM ABROAD". The New York Times . Retrieved January 21, 2024.
21. Maslin, Janet (June 14, 1985). "AT THE MOVIES". The New York Times . Retrieved January 21, 2024.
22. Gabler, Neal (June 5, 2015). "Why Robert Altman's brilliant 'Nashville' never had a sequel". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved January 21, 2024.
23. Ryan, Desmond (March 16, 1986). "RON HOWARD DISCOVERS THE PRICE OF VERISIMILITUDE". The Philadelphia Inquirer .
24. Klady, Leonard (February 26, 1989). "Rossini Rocks". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved January 21, 2024.
25. Lahr, John (November 15, 1992). "Beyond Nelly". The New Yorker . Retrieved January 22, 2024.
26. Frook, John Evan (December 5, 1993). "RKO, Altman pact on new 'Mata Hari'". Variety . Retrieved January 12, 2024.
27. Lee, Felicia R. (October 4, 1993). "SPEAKING HIS PIECE: BELAFONTE REFLECTS ON RACIAL ISSUES". News & Record . Retrieved January 22, 2024.
28. Gates, Henry Jr. (August 18, 1996). "Belafonte's Balancing Act". The New Yorker . Retrieved January 22, 2024.
29. Goldstein, Gregg (February 21, 2007). "Altman memorial tribute is a hit". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved January 22, 2024.
30. James, Caryn (October 26, 2003). "FILM; Singing Off-Key for Hollywood". The New York Times . Retrieved January 21, 2024.
31. Craughwell, Kathleen (May 26, 1996). "Maybe There's a Role for Johnny Carson". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved January 12, 2024.
32. Blue, Mary (April 11, 1998). "The Art of Making the Impossible Look Easy". The New York Times . Retrieved January 21, 2024.
33. Teachout, Terry (May 21, 2000). "MUSIC; A Jazz Icon Who Spent Half a Life in Jazz". The New York Times . Retrieved January 13, 2024.
34. Teachout, Terry (May 27, 2000). "Artie Shaw still looms large at 90". Deseret News . Retrieved January 13, 2024.
35. Green, Willow (January 16, 2002). "Robert Altman Shocker". Empire . Retrieved January 12, 2024.
36. Archerd, Army (January 22, 2002). "Altman focusing on 'Voltage,' not Oscars". Variety . Retrieved January 12, 2024.
37. Dunkley, Cathy (February 22, 2002). "'Voltage' may be on the fritz". Variety . Retrieved January 12, 2024.
38. Fleming, Mike Jr. (May 5, 2011). "A 14-Year 'Gambit' Finally Provides a Big Payoff for Producer Mike Lobell". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved December 1, 2023.
39. Susman, Gary (July 8, 2003). "Winona Ryder will costar with Sean Connery". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved January 12, 2024.
40. Friedman, Roger (November 4, 2003). "Salma Hayek Will Paint the Town With Altman". Fox News . Retrieved January 12, 2024.
41. Green, Willow (October 13, 2005). "Altman Races Tortoise And Hare". Empire . Retrieved January 12, 2024.
42. Holleran, Scott (April 11, 2006). "Close-Up: Lasse Hallstrom on 'An Unfinished Life'". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved January 21, 2024.
43. Fear, David (October 12–18, 2006). "Ace in the hole". Time Out New York . Archived from the original on May 1, 2009. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
44. Thompson, Anne (October 6, 2006). "All 'Hands' on for Altman project". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved January 21, 2024.
45. Lyman, Rick (November 26, 2006). "At Altman's Death, Much Left Undone". The New York Times . Retrieved January 21, 2023.

External links

• Robert Altman filmography at IMDb