Peter Bogdanovich, Director of ‘The Last Picture Show,’ Dies at 82

Peter Bogdanovich, the highly respected and acclaimed director behind films like “The Last Picture Show,” “Paper Moon,” “What’s Up, Doc?”He has also died. He was 82.

Bogdanovich died Thursday morning, his manager told .

Bogdanovich, a two-time Oscar nominee, has a long and distinguished career as a film critic and historian, and had a close relationship to Orson Welles, the legendary director and actor. Bogdanovich was often seen wearing an ascot and a bespectacled appearance in Hollywood. His screen work has inspired many other filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino (Wes Anderson), Sofia Coppola, and many others.

Peter Bogdanovich (Getty Images)

His breakthrough film “The Last Picture Show”From 1971, the film was nominated eight times for Oscars including Best Picture. Two Oscars were won for supporting actors Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman. This intimate character study was shot in black-and-white in 1951 and is set in North Texas. It also featured breakout roles for Cybill Shepherd, Jeff Bridges and Ellen Burstyn. The film’s black and white aesthetic was unusual for the ’70s and especially for someone in the New Hollywood age of directors. Bogdanovich mentioned often that Orson Wees urged him to shoot the movie in black and white. “Citizen Kane”A filmmaker proclaimed that the best screen performances in film were shot in black and not color.

With his screwball comedy, he was a big success. “What’s Up, Doc?” starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal. Film grossed $66million in 1972 on a budget of only $4 million. He then followed up with “Paper Moon” in 1973, which made the young Tatum O’Neal starring opposite her father in the film the youngest competitive Oscar winner ever.

While many of his films later failed to achieve the same critical and commercial success, he did have some career highlights by directing an episode in “The Sopranos”A documentary about Tom Petty, the Heartbreakers, and more “Runnin’ Down a Dream”In 2007.

He also became a tabloid star when he began a romance with Dorothy Stratten in 1980. Dorothy was a Playboy model and playmate who was later killed by her husband. Stratten would star in Bogdanovich’s “They All Laughed,”The director released the film in 1981, one-year after her death. Bogdanovich, determined to get the film nationwide released, bought the theatrical rights to Fox from his pocket. The film did not do well at the box offices and put Bogdanovich in serious financial trouble.

Peter Bogdanovich (Getty Images)

Bogdanovich had an unforgettable stint on stage as an actor. “The Sopranos,”Over 14 episodes, he played the role of Dr. Elliot Kupferberg. And he also acted in what is Welles’ final film, “The Other Side of the Wind,” which was released posthumously in 2018 thanks to Bogdanovich’s own contributions to help get the film completed.

Bogdanovich began his career in 1960s as a film critic before moving into filmmaking. He also worked as a program manager at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Bogdanovich promoted the work of Welles, Howard Hawks, and John Ford. All of these auteurs would influence his work as a filmmaker. His 1971 documentary “Directed by John Ford” got the famously tight-lipped director to open up and explain some of his long-running career, and he also got rare interviews from Ford’s regular collaborators such as John Wayne, Henry Fonda and James Stewart.

But Bogdanovich would follow in the footsteps of French film critics who would become directors, among them Francois Truffaut and other writers for the French publication Cahiers du Cinéma. He landed a job on Roger Corman’s “The Wild Angels”1966. He would then direct his debut feature. “Targets”Corman, 1968.

Peter Bogdanovich (Getty Images)

Some of Bogdanovich’s other film credits include “Saint Jack,” “Nickelodeon,” “At Long Last Love,” “Daisy Miller,” “Mask” “Texasville,”This was a sequel. “The Last Picture Show” from 1990 based on a book by Larry McMurtry (who also co-wrote the 1971 film’s screenplay) that had Bridges and Shepherd reprising their roles as Duane Jackson and Jacy Farrow more than three decades removed.

Bogdanovich, who was an author of film books, scholarly pieces, and films about Ford, Welles Hawks, Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock and Welles throughout his career, frequently spoke at universities, wrote blog posts, and appeared in documentaries that discussed his friendship with Welles as well as his love for film.

Antonia Bogdanovich and Sashy Bogdanovich are his daughters.

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