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Robert Altman-visionary director, hard-partying hedonist, eccentric family man, Hollywood legend-comes roaring to life in this rollicking oral biography. After an all-American boyhood in Kansas City, a stint flying bombers in World War II, and jobs ranging from dog tattoo entrepreneur to television director, Robert Altman burst onto the scene in 1970 with M*A*S*H. He reinvented American filmmaking, and went on to produce such masterpieces as McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts, and Gosford Park. In Robert Altman, Mitchell Zuckoff has woven together Altman's final…mehr
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Robert Altman-visionary director, hard-partying hedonist, eccentric family man, Hollywood legend-comes roaring to life in this rollicking oral biography. After an all-American boyhood in Kansas City, a stint flying bombers in World War II, and jobs ranging from dog tattoo entrepreneur to television director, Robert Altman burst onto the scene in 1970 with M*A*S*H. He reinvented American filmmaking, and went on to produce such masterpieces as McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts, and Gosford Park. In Robert Altman, Mitchell Zuckoff has woven together Altman's final interviews; an incredible cast of voices including Meryl Streep, Warren Beatty, Paul Newman, among scores of others; and contemporary reviews and news accounts into a riveting tale of an extraordinary life.
Produktdetails
- Produktdetails
- Verlag: Knopf
- Seitenzahl: 578
- Erscheinungstermin: 7. Dezember 2010
- Englisch
- Abmessung: 203mm x 132mm x 31mm
- Gewicht: 636g
- ISBN-13: 9780307387912
- ISBN-10: 0307387917
- Artikelnr.: 29926022
- Herstellerkennzeichnung
- Libri GmbH
- Europaallee 1
- 36244 Bad Hersfeld
- gpsr@libri.de
- Verlag: Knopf
- Seitenzahl: 578
- Erscheinungstermin: 7. Dezember 2010
- Englisch
- Abmessung: 203mm x 132mm x 31mm
- Gewicht: 636g
- ISBN-13: 9780307387912
- ISBN-10: 0307387917
- Artikelnr.: 29926022
- Herstellerkennzeichnung
- Libri GmbH
- Europaallee 1
- 36244 Bad Hersfeld
- gpsr@libri.de
Mitchell Zuckoff is a professor of journalism at Boston University. He is the author of three previous books, most recently Ponzi’s Scheme: The True Story of A Financial Legend. As a reporter with The Boston Globe, he was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize and the recipient of numerous national writing awards.
Act I: 1925-1969
1. Kansas City
2. Into the River
3. 307th Bomb Group
4. Making Pictures
5. The Calvin Company
6. The Delinquents
7. California
8. Kathryn
9. Cheese
10. No Milk
11. Countdown
Act II: 1970-1980
12. M*A*S*H
13. After M*A*S*H
14. McCabe
15. Fatherhood I
16. Mirrors
17. Split, California
18. Nashville
19. Diamond Cutter
20. Active Verbs
21. Scotty
22. Popeye
Act III: 1981-2006
23. The Wilderness
24. "I Made This"
25. The Player
26. Short Cuts
27. Heart in a Cooler
28. Mr. A and the Women
29. Home Stretch
30. Fatherhood II
31. Boots On
32. Not a Tragedy
A Note on Methods
Cast of Characters
Filmography
Awards and Honors
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Index
Cast of Characters
The following are brief, Altman-centric biographies of people whose
interviews are included in this book. Not included are journalists,
reviewers, authors, and others whose writings and comments are excerpted
throughout.
Jane Adams is an actress who played Junior League do-gooder Nettie Bolt in
Kansas City and director Emily Shapiro in Robert Altman's stage production
of Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues.
Lou Adler is a legendary music producer who coproduced the 1967 Monterey
International Pop Music Festival. The documentary of the event led him into
the film business and to his role as producer of Brewster McCloud.
Anouk Aimée is an award-winning French film actress who became an
international star from her role in A Man and a Woman, directed by Claude
Lelouch. She played the character Simone Lowenthal in Prêt-à-Porter.
Christine Altman is Robert Altman's eldest child. Her mother is the late
LaVonne Elmer, Robert Altman's first wife, to whom he was married from 1946
to 1949.
John Altman is a first cousin of Robert Altman. His father, Frank Altman,
was the brother of Robert Altman's father, Bernard "B.C." Altman. He is a
filmmaker in Kansas City.
Kathryn Reed Altman is the third wife and widow of Robert Altman. They met
in 1959 when he was directing an episode of the television series
Whirlybirds, and were married soon after. She is the mother of two of his
sons, Robert Reed Altman and Matthew Altman, and his stepdaughter, Konni
Corriere.
Matthew Altman is the fourth son of Robert Altman. He was adopted as an
infant. He worked on several of his father's movies as a crew member or in
the art department as a set dresser, and appeared uncredited in Thieves
Like Us, as "boy getting free soda."
Michael Altman is the eldest son of Robert Altman. His mother is Lotus
Corelli Altman Monroe. At fourteen, he wrote the lyrics to the theme song
from M*A*S*H, "Suicide Is Painless." He is a film projectionist in Los
Angeles.
Robert Altman was born in Kansas City on February 20, 1925, and died in Los
Angeles on November 20, 2006. His motto was "Giggle and give in."
Robert Reed Altman is the third son of Robert Altman. He began working with
his father on Nashville, worked on a half dozen of his father's movies as a
camera operator, and was director of photography on Tanner on Tanner. He
has also been a camera operator on television series including Lost, The
O.C., The Wonder Years, and Chuck.
Stephen Altman is the second son of Robert Altman. His mother is Lotus
Corelli Altman Monroe. He was the production designer on more than a dozen
of his father's movies and television projects, including The Player, Short
Cuts, and Gosford Park, and worked on a dozen others in the art or
editorial departments.
Paul Thomas Anderson credits the films of Robert Altman with helping him to
learn to be a director. Anderson served as the standby director for
insurance purposes on Altman's last film, A Prairie Home Companion.
Anne Archer appeared in Short Cuts as Claire Kane, a woman horrified to
learn that her husband left a young woman's body in a river while he fished
with his buddies.
Wren Arthur worked as an assistant to Robert Altman in the late 1990s and
rose to the position of producer on Tanner on Tanner and A Prairie Home
Companion. She acted in Dr. T & the Women as a member of the doctor's
staff.
Josh Astrachan was associate producer of Dr. T & the Women, coproducer of
Gosford Park, and a producer of The Company and A Prairie Home Companion.
René Auberjonois appeared as sweet-natured Father "Dago Red" Mulcahy in
M*A*S*H, the man-turning-into-a-bird character called the Lecturer in
Brewster McCloud, the bar owner/busybody Sheehan in McCabe & Mrs. Miller,
the unfaithful husband Hugh in Images, and as himself in The Player.
Lauren Bacall played presidential candidate Esther Brill in HealtH and
fashion doyenne Slim Chrysler in Prêt-à-Porter. The name Slim was a nod to
her role as Marie "Slim" Browning opposite Humphrey Bogart in the 1944
Howard Hawks film To Have and Have Not.
Reza Badiyi was Robert Altman's intern and protégé at the Calvin Company
and rose to a career as a television director on dozens of shows, including
Mission: Impossible, Hawaii Five-O, Cagney & Lacey, Falcon Crest, and
Baywatch.
Richard Bakalyan is a veteran character actor who played gang leader Eddy
in The Delinquents.
Bob Balaban is an actor, writer, producer, and director. He produced
Gosford Park and played the role of the American film producer Morris
Weissman.
Frank W. Barhydt met Robert Altman as a boy when Altman was working for
Barhydt's father at the Calvin Company. Barhydt cowrote the screenplays for
Quintet, HealtH, Short Cuts, and Kansas City, and had acting roles in
Tanner '88 and The Player.
Sue Barton was the publicist on Nashville and appears as herself in the
scene where Elliott Gould drops by.
Richard Baskin was music supervisor on Nashville and played the role of the
studio musician Frog. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Original
Score. He was also a composer for Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting
Bull's History Lesson.
Warren Beatty had already been nominated for two Academy Awards, for Best
Actor in a Leading Role and Best Picture, as producer, for Bonnie and
Clyde, when he played doomed entrepreneur John McCabe in McCabe & Mrs.
Miller.
Harry Belafonte played himself in The Player, Prêt-à-Porter, and Tanner on
Tanner, and the gangster Seldom Seen in Kansas City, for which he won a New
York Film Critics Circle Award. He and Robert Altman worked for years on an
unfinished project on blackface, tentatively called Cork. When asked by
Vanity Fair magazine to name the living person he most admired, Altman
said, "Harry Belafonte."
Robert Benton is a writer and director whose 1977 film The Late Show,
starring Lily Tomlin and Art Carney, was produced by Robert Altman at
Lion's Gate Films.
Robert Blees produced the infamous Bus Stop episode directed by Robert
Altman and starring Fabian, and also produced episodes of Combat! directed
by Altman.
Jim Bouton was a pitcher for the New York Yankees who made an indelible
mark on baseball with his book Ball Four. He played Terry Lennox in The
Long Goodbye.
Kenneth Branagh starred as hotshot lawyer Rick Magruder in The Gingerbread
Man.
Denise Breton met Robert Altman when she was the European publicist for
M*A*S*H. She remained his European publicist, as well as being a friend and
supporter, for the rest of his life.
David Brown was an executive at Twentieth Century Fox during the making of
M*A*S*H, after which he formed a production company with Richard Zanuck.
After that partnership disbanded, he was a producer on The Player.
Carol Burnett played mother-of-the-bride Katherine "Tulip" Brenner in A
Wedding, presidential adviser Gloria Burbank in HealtH, and schoolteacher
Alberta Johnson in the television production The Laundromat.
Bill Bushnell was the first managing director of the American Conservatory
Theatre in San Francisco, where Robert Altman found several actors for
M*A*S*H. Bushnell introduced Robert Altman to the play Secret Honor, and
also to his wife, Scotty Bushnell, who subsequently became Bushnell's
ex-wife and Altman's longtime producer.
James Caan starred as the lunar astronaut Lee Stegler in Countdown.
Neve Campbell produced and starred in The Company, playing the poised
for-greatness ballet dancer Loretta "Ry" Ryan.
Keith Carradine played the naïve, doomed Cowboy in McCabe & Mrs. Miller;
starred as the naïve, doomed bank robber Bowie in Thieves Like Us; and
played a conflicted lothario, pop star Tom Frank, in Nashville. His song
"I'm Easy" won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Geraldine Chaplin played the impostor BBC correspondent Opal in Nashville;
sharpshooter Annie Oakley in Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting
Bull's History Lesson; and wedding-planner-with-a-secret Rita Billingsley
in A Wedding.
Cher played sharp-tongued waitress Sissy in Come Back to the Five and Dime,
Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. She played herself in The Player and Prêt-à-Porter.
Julie Christie starred as the canny whorehouse madam Constance Miller in
McCabe & Mrs. Miller, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for
Best Actress. She appeared as herself in a cameo in Nashville.
Graeme Clifford was assistant director on That Cold Day in the Park,
casting director on McCabe & Mrs. Miller, an assistant on M*A*S*H, and
editor of Images. He later became a director in his own right, with credits
including Frances.
Leonard Cohen wrote "The Stranger Song," "Sisters of Mercy," and "Winter
Lady," which together created the haunting score for McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
Sam Cohn was Robert Altman's agent off and on for large portions of his
career.
John Considine played Annie Oakley's husband, Frank Butler, in Buffalo Bill
and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson. He cowrote the
screenplay and played security chief Jeff Kuykendall in A Wedding, and
appeared in episodes of Combat!, Tanner '88, and Gun directed by Robert
Altman.
Konni Corriere is the daughter of Kathryn Reed Altman and the stepdaughter
of Robert Altman. She was his assistant on Prêt-à-Porter.
Bud Cort played timid Private Lorenzo Boone in M*A*S*H, then starred as the
boy-who-would-fly title character in Brewster McCloud.
Norman Corwin has been called "America's Poet Laureate of Radio." His
program On a Note of Triumph, broadcast upon the surrender of Nazi Germany,
is considered his masterpiece.
Susan Davis was Robert Altman's cousin by marriage (his aunt married her
uncle) and an actress who appeared in his Calvin Company films and early
television work.
Dale Dennison was the pilot on the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Robert
Altman was copilot during World War II.
Paul Dooley played pompous father of the bride Liam "Snooks" Brenner in A
Wedding, unlikely suitor Alex Theodopoulos in A Perfect Couple, burger
fiend Wimpy in Popeye, "little guy" candidate Gil Gainey in HealtH-for
which he also cowrote the screenplay-and torture target Randall Schwab in
O.C. and Stiggs.
Robert Dornhelm is an Austrian director who was nominated for an Oscar for
his documentary The Children of Theatre Street, and a longtime friend of
Robert and Kathryn Altman's.
David Dortort was the creator and producer of one of television's most
successful series, Bonanza.
Faye Dunaway knew Robert Altman but never worked with him.
Robert Duvall played astronaut Chiz in Countdown, the supercilious Major
Frank Burns in M*A*S*H, and the psychotic Dixon Doss in The Gingerbread
Man.
Shelley Duvall was "discovered" by Robert Altman during the casting of
Brewster McCloud, in which she played Brewster's down-to-earth girlfriend,
Suzanne Davis. She then played reluctant prostitute Ida Coyle in McCabe &
Mrs. Miller; innocent gun moll Keechie in Thieves Like Us; boy-crazy Marthe
(aka L.A. Joan) in Nashville; Grover Cleveland's wife in Buffalo Bill and
the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson; self-deluding Millie
Lammoreaux in 3 Women (for which she shared Best Actress honors at the
Cannes Film Festival); and Olive Oyl in Popeye.
Robert Evans produced Popeye after making a name for himself as the
quintessentially "new Hollywood" head of production at Paramount Pictures.
Donald Factor is an heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune and was the
producer of That Cold Day in the Park.
Jules Feiffer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, as well as an author,
playwright, and screenwriter. He wrote the screenplay for Popeye.
Julian Fellowes is an actor and writer who wrote the screenplay for Gosford
Park, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, among other
honors.
Corey Fischer played Captain Bandini in M*A*S*H, Officer Hines in Brewster
McCloud, and the mad Reverend Elliot in McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
Fabian Forte was a teen pop idol in the 1950s who starred in an infamous
episode of Bus Stop called "A Lion Walks Among Us," directed by Robert
Altman.
David Foster produced McCabe & Mrs. Miller, which launched his Hollywood
career. Later films included The Getaway, The Drowning Pool, The Mean
Season, and The Mask of Zorro.
Gillian Freeman is an author who wrote the screenplay for That Cold Day in
the Park. An idea given her by Robert Altman became her novel Easter Egg
Hunt.
Harvey and SuEllen Fried were friends of Robert Altman's from Kansas City.
SuEllen Fried acted in Altman's productions at the Jewish Community Center
of Kansas City and also had a role in The Delinquents.
Peter Gallagher played prosecutor Lieutenant Commander John Challee in The
Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, sleazy studio executive Larry Levy in The
Player, and chain-saw wielding ex-husband Stormy Weathers in Short Cuts.
Tess Gallagher is a poet and the widow of Raymond Carver, whose short
stories were the basis for Short Cuts.
George W. George was a film and theater producer and writer who helped to
launch the career of Robert Altman. His later work included his production
of My Dinner with Andre.
Henry Gibson played mean Dr. Verringer in The Long Goodbye, self-important
country music king Haven Hamilton in Nashville, favored son-in-law Fred
Bott in A Perfect Couple, and dirty trickster Bobby Hammer in HealtH.
Jeff Goldblum played magazine editor Lloyd Harris in California Split; the
mysterious, magical Tricycle Man in Nashville; the neurotic bisexual Bruce
in Beyond Therapy; and himself in The Player.
Dr. Martin Goldfarb is a Los Angeles cardiologist who befriended Robert
Altman at a poker game when they were young men and allowed him to live in
his home for two years.
Art Goodell was a cameraman who worked with Robert Altman making industrial
films at the Calvin Company in Kansas City in the 1950s.
Elliott Gould played the irreverent surgeon Captain Trapper John McIntyre
in M*A*S*H, the out-of-time Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye,
incorrigible gambler Charlie Waters in California Split, and himself in
Nashville and The Player.
Dona Granata designed the costumes for Kansas City, The Gingerbread Man,
Cookie's Fortune, Dr. T & the Women, and the opera adaptation of A Wedding.
Danford Greene edited Nightmare in Chicago, That Cold Day in the Park, and
M*A*S*H, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film
Editing.
Scott Griffin produced Resurrection Blues when it was directed by Robert
Altman at the Old Vic in London.
Philip Baker Hall played a paranoid, confessional Richard Nixon in Secret
Honor.
Robert Harders directed Philip Baker Hall in the original one-man play of
Secret Honor and served as associate director on the film.
Buck Henry played a comic version of himself pitching The Graduate, Part II
in The Player and the committed fisherman Gordon Johnson in Short Cuts.
Barbara Altman Hodes is the younger of Robert Altman's two sisters.
John Horoschak, Jr. was a gunner on the B-24 Liberator bomber on which
Robert Altman was copilot during World War II.
Lauren Hutton played filmmaker Florence Farmer in A Wedding.
Mike Kaplan was the publicist for 3 Women and other Lion's Gate Films
releases. He played the Treasurer/Jules Keen in Buffalo Bill and the
Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, and studio executive Marty
Grossman in The Player. He was associate producer of Short Cuts and
produced a film based on its making, called Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert
Altman in Carver Country.
Elliott Kastner is a combative independent producer who produced The Long
Goodbye. Among his other films are Where Eagles Dare and The Missouri
Breaks.
Elaine Kaufman is the eponymous owner of Robert Altman's favorite
restaurant in New York.
Garrison Keillor played announcer/raconteur GK and wrote the screenplay for
A Prairie Home Companion, a fictional account of the last night of his
long-running radio show.
Sally Kellerman played Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in M*A*S*H, for
which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She played bird woman/guardian angel Louise in Brewster McCloud, fashion
editor Sissy Wanamaker in Prêt-à-Porter, and herself in The Player. She
also appeared in an episode of the television series Gun directed by Robert
Altman.
Kevin Kline played clueless security man Guy Noir in A Prairie Home
Companion.
Wolf Kroeger was art director on Quintet and set designer on Popeye and
Streamers. He was an associate producer on HealtH.
Alan Ladd, Jr., is an independent producer who was president of Twentieth
Century Fox for most of the period when Robert Altman made five films in a
row for the studio: 3Women, A Wedding, Quintet, A Perfect Couple, and
HealtH.
Margaret Ladd played pot-smoking bridesmaid Ruby Sparr in A Wedding and
kept a diary of her experiences on the set.
Tom Laughlin played college-bound Scotty White in The Delinquents more than
a decade before being cast in his defining role, as the title character in
Billy Jack.
Jennifer Jason Leigh played nonchalant phone-sex worker Lois Kaiser in
Short Cuts and desperate kidnapper Blondie O'Hara in Kansas City. She is
the daughter of Barbara Turner, who collaborated with Robert Altman as an
actress and a screenwriter, and the late Vic Morrow, who worked with him on
Combat!
David Levy worked with Robert Altman off and on for more than two decades
after Altman hired Levy away from his job as an assistant to super-agent
Sam Cohn, who represented Altman at the time. He was a crew member on
HealtH and Popeye; associate producer on The Player, Short Cuts, and The
Gingerbread Man; co producer on Cookie's Fortune and Dr. T & the Women; and
a producer of Gosford Park, The Company, and A Prairie Home Companion.
George Litto is sometimes called the unsung hero of M*A*S*H for having
orchestrated the hiring of Robert Altman as its director. He was Altman's
agent for periods of the 1960s and '70s, and when the money fell out became
executive producer of Thieves Like Us.
Johnny Mandel composed the music for "Suicide Is Painless," the theme song
for M*A*S*H.
Loring Mandel wrote the screenplay for Countdown.
Norma Maring is alumni director emeritus at Wentworth Military Academy in
Lexington, Missouri.
Malachy McCourt is a writer and raconteur who says he was the original
choice to play Father Mulcahy in M*A*S*H.
Malcolm McDowell played himself in The Player and mercurial company
director Alberto Antonelli in The Company.
Pam Dixon Mickelson was the casting director on Cookie's Fortune, Dr. T &
the Women, The Company, and A Prairie Home Companion, and helped with
casting on Gosford Park.
Matthew Modine played the young soldier Billy in Streamers, cuckolded
husband Dr. Ralph Wyman in Short Cuts, and huckster Skip Cheeseboro in
Robert Altman's production of Resurrection Blues by Arthur Miller, staged
at the Old Vic in London in 2006.
Lotus Corelli Altman Monroe was Robert Altman's second wife. They were
married from 1952 to 1959. She is the mother of his sons Michael and
Stephen.
Julianne Moore played the unhappily married artist Marian Wyman in Short
Cuts and the simple-like-a-fox Cora Duvall in Cookie's Fortune.
Michael Murphy started working with Robert Altman as an unnamed soldier in
Combat! He played skeptical civilian Rick in Countdown, the woman procuring
character called the Rounder in That Cold Day in the Park, whorehouse
doctor Captain Ezekiel "Me Lay" Marston IV in M*A*S*H, suicidal supercop
Frank Shaft in Brewster McCloud, corporate toady Eugene Sears in McCabe &
Mrs. Miller, political operative John Triplette in Nashville, Captain
Blakely in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, presidential candidate Jack
Tanner in Tanner '88 and Tanner on Tanner, and power broker Henry Stilton
in Kansas City.
Patricia Neal played Jewel Mae "Cookie" Orcutt in Cookie's Fortune. She was
the ex-wife of the late Roald Dahl.
Paul Newman played proto-celebrity William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody in
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, and the
optimistic Essex in Quintet.
Peter Newman was a production executive on Come Back to the Five and Dime,
Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, and was a producer of O.C. and Stiggs.
Allan Nicholls played cuckolded third wheel Bill in Nashville; the
journalist Prentiss Ingraham in Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting
Bull's History Lesson; security man Jake Jacobs in both A Wedding, for
which he cowrote the screenplay, and HealtH; Dana 115 in A Perfect Couple,
for which he also wrote the music and cowrote the screenplay; and Rough
House in Popeye. He was music supervisor on HealtH, O.C. and Stiggs, and
Prêt-à-Porter. He was an assistant director on Streamers, Secret Honor, The
Laundromat, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, The Player, Short Cuts, and
Tanner on Tanner, and associate producer on Quintet.
David Picker ran United Artists when Robert Altman made The Long Goodbye.
Johnnie Planco was Robert Altman's longtime agent at William Morris.
Polly Platt was working as a production designer when she quit Nashville
over her disagreement about the climactic assassination.
Anne Rapp wrote the screenplays for Cookie's Fortune and Dr. T & the Women.
Tim Robbins played homicidal movie executive Griffin Mill in The Player,
priapic motorcycle cop Gene Shepard in Short Cuts, and hotel room-bound
journalist Joe Flynn in Prêt-à-Porter.
Bill Robinson worked for a time as Robert Altman's agent and longer as his
backgammon partner.
Annie Ross is a renowned jazz singer who played the widowed jazz singer
Tess Trainer in Short Cuts.
Alan Rudolph was Robert Altman's friend, protégé, and collaborator for more
than three decades. He was an assistant director on The Long Goodbye,
California Split, and Nashville. He cowrote Buffalo Bill and the Indians,
or Sitting Bull's History Lesson. He appeared as himself in the opening
scene of The Player. Five films he directed were produced by Robert Altman:
Welcome to L.A., Remember My Name, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle,
Afterglow, and Trixie.
Mark Rydell is a director and actor who played the psychotic, observant
Jewish gangster Marty Augustine in The Long Goodbye.
Joan Altman Sarafian is the elder of Robert Altman's two sisters.
Richard Sarafian is a director, writer, and actor who worked with Robert
Altman making industrial films at the Calvin Company. His films include
Vanishing Point and The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing. He was Altman's
brother-in-law during his marriage to Joan Altman Sarafian.
John Schuck played the sexually troubled dentist Captain Walter Kosciusko
"Painless Pole" Waldowski in M*A*S*H, eager Officer Marty Johnson in
Brewster McCloud, townsman Smalley in McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and brooding
bank robber Elmo "Chicamaw" Mobley in Thieves Like Us.
Martin Scorsese was one of the few directors whose work Robert Altman
publicly admired. He played himself in Tanner on Tanner and was
instrumental in preserving a number of Altman films, including McCabe &
Mrs. Miller.
George Segal played the conflicted gambler Bill Denny in California Split.
Matthew Seig was an associate producer of Tanner '88, coproducer of Kansas
City and Jazz '34, and a producer of Tanner on Tanner. He continues to
manage Robert Altman's copyright and business affairs.
Jim Shepard teaches writing at Williams College. His books include Lights
Out in the Reptile House, Project X, and Like You'd Understand, Anyway.
Sam Shepard is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who wrote Fool for Love
for the stage, adapted it for screen (though he says Robert Altman actually
wrote most of the screenplay), and starred in the movie version as the
tortured, incestuous cowboy Eddie.
Tom Skerritt appeared in small roles in Combat!, then played easygoing, if
racist and sexist, Captain Augustus "Duke" Forrest in M*A*S*H, and
accessory-after-the-fact Dee Mobley in Thieves Like Us.
Lois Smith is a renowned press agent who spent more than thirty-five years
working with Robert Altman, even serving him beyond the grave by helping to
organize memorials in New York and Los Angeles.
Roger Snowdall was a soundman who worked with Robert Altman making
industrial films at the Calvin Company in Kansas City in the 1950s.
Frank South wrote the 2 by South plays, Precious Blood and Rattlesnake in a
Cooler.
Sissy Spacek played blank slate/identity thief Pinky Rose in 3 Women.
Jerre Steenhof was one of Robert Altman's high school girlfriends.
Stewart Stern wrote the screenplay for The James Dean Story, a role for
which he was ideally suited, having been a close friend of Dean's and
having written the screenplay for Rebel Without a Cause.
Meryl Streep played singing sister (and mother to the character played by
Lindsay Lohan) Yolanda Johnson in A Prairie Home Companion. News that she
had agreed to a leading role in Robert Altman's next planned film, to be
called Hands on a Hard Body, made him nearly giddy in the weeks before his
death.
William Stuckey was the nose-turret gunner on the B-24 Liberator bomber
copiloted by Robert Altman in World War II.
Joan Tewkesbury wrote the screenplays for Thieves Like Us and Nashville,
for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original
Screenplay. She was a script supervisor on McCabe & Mrs. Miller, in which
she also played a townswoman. She played "the lady in the train station" in
Thieves Like Us.
Michael Tolkin's screenplay for The Player, based on his novel of the same
name, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Lily Tomlin played unsatisfied housewife Linnea Reese in Nashville, her
first film role, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actress. She played herself in the movie within a movie in The
Player , waitress/accidental killer Doreen Piggot in Short Cuts, and
singing sister Rhonda Johnson in A Prairie Home Companion.
Garry Trudeau, the creator of the "Doonesbury" comic strip, was the writer
and a producer of the Tanner '88 television series and the writer of Tanner
on Tanner.
Barbara Turner played Hildegarde in Nightmare in Chicago and wrote the
screenplay for The Company. She is the mother of Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Raymond Wagner is a producer who was a business partner of Robert Altman in
the 1960s. He produced the film Petulia, adapted for the screen by Barbara
Turner at Altman's suggestion, when their partnership dissolved.
Jerry Walsh was related to Robert Altman by marriage (his uncle John
married Altman's aunt Pauline) and later became his friend, his lawyer, and
the executor of his estate.
Joseph Walsh wrote the screenplay for California Split, based partly on his
own exploits as a young man with his friend Elliott Gould, whose character
is based on Walsh.
John Williams composed the theme music for Nightmare in Chicago, The
Kathryn Reed Story, Images, and The Long Goodbye.
Robin Williams starred as Po
1. Kansas City
2. Into the River
3. 307th Bomb Group
4. Making Pictures
5. The Calvin Company
6. The Delinquents
7. California
8. Kathryn
9. Cheese
10. No Milk
11. Countdown
Act II: 1970-1980
12. M*A*S*H
13. After M*A*S*H
14. McCabe
15. Fatherhood I
16. Mirrors
17. Split, California
18. Nashville
19. Diamond Cutter
20. Active Verbs
21. Scotty
22. Popeye
Act III: 1981-2006
23. The Wilderness
24. "I Made This"
25. The Player
26. Short Cuts
27. Heart in a Cooler
28. Mr. A and the Women
29. Home Stretch
30. Fatherhood II
31. Boots On
32. Not a Tragedy
A Note on Methods
Cast of Characters
Filmography
Awards and Honors
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Index
Cast of Characters
The following are brief, Altman-centric biographies of people whose
interviews are included in this book. Not included are journalists,
reviewers, authors, and others whose writings and comments are excerpted
throughout.
Jane Adams is an actress who played Junior League do-gooder Nettie Bolt in
Kansas City and director Emily Shapiro in Robert Altman's stage production
of Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues.
Lou Adler is a legendary music producer who coproduced the 1967 Monterey
International Pop Music Festival. The documentary of the event led him into
the film business and to his role as producer of Brewster McCloud.
Anouk Aimée is an award-winning French film actress who became an
international star from her role in A Man and a Woman, directed by Claude
Lelouch. She played the character Simone Lowenthal in Prêt-à-Porter.
Christine Altman is Robert Altman's eldest child. Her mother is the late
LaVonne Elmer, Robert Altman's first wife, to whom he was married from 1946
to 1949.
John Altman is a first cousin of Robert Altman. His father, Frank Altman,
was the brother of Robert Altman's father, Bernard "B.C." Altman. He is a
filmmaker in Kansas City.
Kathryn Reed Altman is the third wife and widow of Robert Altman. They met
in 1959 when he was directing an episode of the television series
Whirlybirds, and were married soon after. She is the mother of two of his
sons, Robert Reed Altman and Matthew Altman, and his stepdaughter, Konni
Corriere.
Matthew Altman is the fourth son of Robert Altman. He was adopted as an
infant. He worked on several of his father's movies as a crew member or in
the art department as a set dresser, and appeared uncredited in Thieves
Like Us, as "boy getting free soda."
Michael Altman is the eldest son of Robert Altman. His mother is Lotus
Corelli Altman Monroe. At fourteen, he wrote the lyrics to the theme song
from M*A*S*H, "Suicide Is Painless." He is a film projectionist in Los
Angeles.
Robert Altman was born in Kansas City on February 20, 1925, and died in Los
Angeles on November 20, 2006. His motto was "Giggle and give in."
Robert Reed Altman is the third son of Robert Altman. He began working with
his father on Nashville, worked on a half dozen of his father's movies as a
camera operator, and was director of photography on Tanner on Tanner. He
has also been a camera operator on television series including Lost, The
O.C., The Wonder Years, and Chuck.
Stephen Altman is the second son of Robert Altman. His mother is Lotus
Corelli Altman Monroe. He was the production designer on more than a dozen
of his father's movies and television projects, including The Player, Short
Cuts, and Gosford Park, and worked on a dozen others in the art or
editorial departments.
Paul Thomas Anderson credits the films of Robert Altman with helping him to
learn to be a director. Anderson served as the standby director for
insurance purposes on Altman's last film, A Prairie Home Companion.
Anne Archer appeared in Short Cuts as Claire Kane, a woman horrified to
learn that her husband left a young woman's body in a river while he fished
with his buddies.
Wren Arthur worked as an assistant to Robert Altman in the late 1990s and
rose to the position of producer on Tanner on Tanner and A Prairie Home
Companion. She acted in Dr. T & the Women as a member of the doctor's
staff.
Josh Astrachan was associate producer of Dr. T & the Women, coproducer of
Gosford Park, and a producer of The Company and A Prairie Home Companion.
René Auberjonois appeared as sweet-natured Father "Dago Red" Mulcahy in
M*A*S*H, the man-turning-into-a-bird character called the Lecturer in
Brewster McCloud, the bar owner/busybody Sheehan in McCabe & Mrs. Miller,
the unfaithful husband Hugh in Images, and as himself in The Player.
Lauren Bacall played presidential candidate Esther Brill in HealtH and
fashion doyenne Slim Chrysler in Prêt-à-Porter. The name Slim was a nod to
her role as Marie "Slim" Browning opposite Humphrey Bogart in the 1944
Howard Hawks film To Have and Have Not.
Reza Badiyi was Robert Altman's intern and protégé at the Calvin Company
and rose to a career as a television director on dozens of shows, including
Mission: Impossible, Hawaii Five-O, Cagney & Lacey, Falcon Crest, and
Baywatch.
Richard Bakalyan is a veteran character actor who played gang leader Eddy
in The Delinquents.
Bob Balaban is an actor, writer, producer, and director. He produced
Gosford Park and played the role of the American film producer Morris
Weissman.
Frank W. Barhydt met Robert Altman as a boy when Altman was working for
Barhydt's father at the Calvin Company. Barhydt cowrote the screenplays for
Quintet, HealtH, Short Cuts, and Kansas City, and had acting roles in
Tanner '88 and The Player.
Sue Barton was the publicist on Nashville and appears as herself in the
scene where Elliott Gould drops by.
Richard Baskin was music supervisor on Nashville and played the role of the
studio musician Frog. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Original
Score. He was also a composer for Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting
Bull's History Lesson.
Warren Beatty had already been nominated for two Academy Awards, for Best
Actor in a Leading Role and Best Picture, as producer, for Bonnie and
Clyde, when he played doomed entrepreneur John McCabe in McCabe & Mrs.
Miller.
Harry Belafonte played himself in The Player, Prêt-à-Porter, and Tanner on
Tanner, and the gangster Seldom Seen in Kansas City, for which he won a New
York Film Critics Circle Award. He and Robert Altman worked for years on an
unfinished project on blackface, tentatively called Cork. When asked by
Vanity Fair magazine to name the living person he most admired, Altman
said, "Harry Belafonte."
Robert Benton is a writer and director whose 1977 film The Late Show,
starring Lily Tomlin and Art Carney, was produced by Robert Altman at
Lion's Gate Films.
Robert Blees produced the infamous Bus Stop episode directed by Robert
Altman and starring Fabian, and also produced episodes of Combat! directed
by Altman.
Jim Bouton was a pitcher for the New York Yankees who made an indelible
mark on baseball with his book Ball Four. He played Terry Lennox in The
Long Goodbye.
Kenneth Branagh starred as hotshot lawyer Rick Magruder in The Gingerbread
Man.
Denise Breton met Robert Altman when she was the European publicist for
M*A*S*H. She remained his European publicist, as well as being a friend and
supporter, for the rest of his life.
David Brown was an executive at Twentieth Century Fox during the making of
M*A*S*H, after which he formed a production company with Richard Zanuck.
After that partnership disbanded, he was a producer on The Player.
Carol Burnett played mother-of-the-bride Katherine "Tulip" Brenner in A
Wedding, presidential adviser Gloria Burbank in HealtH, and schoolteacher
Alberta Johnson in the television production The Laundromat.
Bill Bushnell was the first managing director of the American Conservatory
Theatre in San Francisco, where Robert Altman found several actors for
M*A*S*H. Bushnell introduced Robert Altman to the play Secret Honor, and
also to his wife, Scotty Bushnell, who subsequently became Bushnell's
ex-wife and Altman's longtime producer.
James Caan starred as the lunar astronaut Lee Stegler in Countdown.
Neve Campbell produced and starred in The Company, playing the poised
for-greatness ballet dancer Loretta "Ry" Ryan.
Keith Carradine played the naïve, doomed Cowboy in McCabe & Mrs. Miller;
starred as the naïve, doomed bank robber Bowie in Thieves Like Us; and
played a conflicted lothario, pop star Tom Frank, in Nashville. His song
"I'm Easy" won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Geraldine Chaplin played the impostor BBC correspondent Opal in Nashville;
sharpshooter Annie Oakley in Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting
Bull's History Lesson; and wedding-planner-with-a-secret Rita Billingsley
in A Wedding.
Cher played sharp-tongued waitress Sissy in Come Back to the Five and Dime,
Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. She played herself in The Player and Prêt-à-Porter.
Julie Christie starred as the canny whorehouse madam Constance Miller in
McCabe & Mrs. Miller, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for
Best Actress. She appeared as herself in a cameo in Nashville.
Graeme Clifford was assistant director on That Cold Day in the Park,
casting director on McCabe & Mrs. Miller, an assistant on M*A*S*H, and
editor of Images. He later became a director in his own right, with credits
including Frances.
Leonard Cohen wrote "The Stranger Song," "Sisters of Mercy," and "Winter
Lady," which together created the haunting score for McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
Sam Cohn was Robert Altman's agent off and on for large portions of his
career.
John Considine played Annie Oakley's husband, Frank Butler, in Buffalo Bill
and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson. He cowrote the
screenplay and played security chief Jeff Kuykendall in A Wedding, and
appeared in episodes of Combat!, Tanner '88, and Gun directed by Robert
Altman.
Konni Corriere is the daughter of Kathryn Reed Altman and the stepdaughter
of Robert Altman. She was his assistant on Prêt-à-Porter.
Bud Cort played timid Private Lorenzo Boone in M*A*S*H, then starred as the
boy-who-would-fly title character in Brewster McCloud.
Norman Corwin has been called "America's Poet Laureate of Radio." His
program On a Note of Triumph, broadcast upon the surrender of Nazi Germany,
is considered his masterpiece.
Susan Davis was Robert Altman's cousin by marriage (his aunt married her
uncle) and an actress who appeared in his Calvin Company films and early
television work.
Dale Dennison was the pilot on the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Robert
Altman was copilot during World War II.
Paul Dooley played pompous father of the bride Liam "Snooks" Brenner in A
Wedding, unlikely suitor Alex Theodopoulos in A Perfect Couple, burger
fiend Wimpy in Popeye, "little guy" candidate Gil Gainey in HealtH-for
which he also cowrote the screenplay-and torture target Randall Schwab in
O.C. and Stiggs.
Robert Dornhelm is an Austrian director who was nominated for an Oscar for
his documentary The Children of Theatre Street, and a longtime friend of
Robert and Kathryn Altman's.
David Dortort was the creator and producer of one of television's most
successful series, Bonanza.
Faye Dunaway knew Robert Altman but never worked with him.
Robert Duvall played astronaut Chiz in Countdown, the supercilious Major
Frank Burns in M*A*S*H, and the psychotic Dixon Doss in The Gingerbread
Man.
Shelley Duvall was "discovered" by Robert Altman during the casting of
Brewster McCloud, in which she played Brewster's down-to-earth girlfriend,
Suzanne Davis. She then played reluctant prostitute Ida Coyle in McCabe &
Mrs. Miller; innocent gun moll Keechie in Thieves Like Us; boy-crazy Marthe
(aka L.A. Joan) in Nashville; Grover Cleveland's wife in Buffalo Bill and
the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson; self-deluding Millie
Lammoreaux in 3 Women (for which she shared Best Actress honors at the
Cannes Film Festival); and Olive Oyl in Popeye.
Robert Evans produced Popeye after making a name for himself as the
quintessentially "new Hollywood" head of production at Paramount Pictures.
Donald Factor is an heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune and was the
producer of That Cold Day in the Park.
Jules Feiffer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, as well as an author,
playwright, and screenwriter. He wrote the screenplay for Popeye.
Julian Fellowes is an actor and writer who wrote the screenplay for Gosford
Park, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, among other
honors.
Corey Fischer played Captain Bandini in M*A*S*H, Officer Hines in Brewster
McCloud, and the mad Reverend Elliot in McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
Fabian Forte was a teen pop idol in the 1950s who starred in an infamous
episode of Bus Stop called "A Lion Walks Among Us," directed by Robert
Altman.
David Foster produced McCabe & Mrs. Miller, which launched his Hollywood
career. Later films included The Getaway, The Drowning Pool, The Mean
Season, and The Mask of Zorro.
Gillian Freeman is an author who wrote the screenplay for That Cold Day in
the Park. An idea given her by Robert Altman became her novel Easter Egg
Hunt.
Harvey and SuEllen Fried were friends of Robert Altman's from Kansas City.
SuEllen Fried acted in Altman's productions at the Jewish Community Center
of Kansas City and also had a role in The Delinquents.
Peter Gallagher played prosecutor Lieutenant Commander John Challee in The
Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, sleazy studio executive Larry Levy in The
Player, and chain-saw wielding ex-husband Stormy Weathers in Short Cuts.
Tess Gallagher is a poet and the widow of Raymond Carver, whose short
stories were the basis for Short Cuts.
George W. George was a film and theater producer and writer who helped to
launch the career of Robert Altman. His later work included his production
of My Dinner with Andre.
Henry Gibson played mean Dr. Verringer in The Long Goodbye, self-important
country music king Haven Hamilton in Nashville, favored son-in-law Fred
Bott in A Perfect Couple, and dirty trickster Bobby Hammer in HealtH.
Jeff Goldblum played magazine editor Lloyd Harris in California Split; the
mysterious, magical Tricycle Man in Nashville; the neurotic bisexual Bruce
in Beyond Therapy; and himself in The Player.
Dr. Martin Goldfarb is a Los Angeles cardiologist who befriended Robert
Altman at a poker game when they were young men and allowed him to live in
his home for two years.
Art Goodell was a cameraman who worked with Robert Altman making industrial
films at the Calvin Company in Kansas City in the 1950s.
Elliott Gould played the irreverent surgeon Captain Trapper John McIntyre
in M*A*S*H, the out-of-time Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye,
incorrigible gambler Charlie Waters in California Split, and himself in
Nashville and The Player.
Dona Granata designed the costumes for Kansas City, The Gingerbread Man,
Cookie's Fortune, Dr. T & the Women, and the opera adaptation of A Wedding.
Danford Greene edited Nightmare in Chicago, That Cold Day in the Park, and
M*A*S*H, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film
Editing.
Scott Griffin produced Resurrection Blues when it was directed by Robert
Altman at the Old Vic in London.
Philip Baker Hall played a paranoid, confessional Richard Nixon in Secret
Honor.
Robert Harders directed Philip Baker Hall in the original one-man play of
Secret Honor and served as associate director on the film.
Buck Henry played a comic version of himself pitching The Graduate, Part II
in The Player and the committed fisherman Gordon Johnson in Short Cuts.
Barbara Altman Hodes is the younger of Robert Altman's two sisters.
John Horoschak, Jr. was a gunner on the B-24 Liberator bomber on which
Robert Altman was copilot during World War II.
Lauren Hutton played filmmaker Florence Farmer in A Wedding.
Mike Kaplan was the publicist for 3 Women and other Lion's Gate Films
releases. He played the Treasurer/Jules Keen in Buffalo Bill and the
Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, and studio executive Marty
Grossman in The Player. He was associate producer of Short Cuts and
produced a film based on its making, called Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert
Altman in Carver Country.
Elliott Kastner is a combative independent producer who produced The Long
Goodbye. Among his other films are Where Eagles Dare and The Missouri
Breaks.
Elaine Kaufman is the eponymous owner of Robert Altman's favorite
restaurant in New York.
Garrison Keillor played announcer/raconteur GK and wrote the screenplay for
A Prairie Home Companion, a fictional account of the last night of his
long-running radio show.
Sally Kellerman played Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in M*A*S*H, for
which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She played bird woman/guardian angel Louise in Brewster McCloud, fashion
editor Sissy Wanamaker in Prêt-à-Porter, and herself in The Player. She
also appeared in an episode of the television series Gun directed by Robert
Altman.
Kevin Kline played clueless security man Guy Noir in A Prairie Home
Companion.
Wolf Kroeger was art director on Quintet and set designer on Popeye and
Streamers. He was an associate producer on HealtH.
Alan Ladd, Jr., is an independent producer who was president of Twentieth
Century Fox for most of the period when Robert Altman made five films in a
row for the studio: 3Women, A Wedding, Quintet, A Perfect Couple, and
HealtH.
Margaret Ladd played pot-smoking bridesmaid Ruby Sparr in A Wedding and
kept a diary of her experiences on the set.
Tom Laughlin played college-bound Scotty White in The Delinquents more than
a decade before being cast in his defining role, as the title character in
Billy Jack.
Jennifer Jason Leigh played nonchalant phone-sex worker Lois Kaiser in
Short Cuts and desperate kidnapper Blondie O'Hara in Kansas City. She is
the daughter of Barbara Turner, who collaborated with Robert Altman as an
actress and a screenwriter, and the late Vic Morrow, who worked with him on
Combat!
David Levy worked with Robert Altman off and on for more than two decades
after Altman hired Levy away from his job as an assistant to super-agent
Sam Cohn, who represented Altman at the time. He was a crew member on
HealtH and Popeye; associate producer on The Player, Short Cuts, and The
Gingerbread Man; co producer on Cookie's Fortune and Dr. T & the Women; and
a producer of Gosford Park, The Company, and A Prairie Home Companion.
George Litto is sometimes called the unsung hero of M*A*S*H for having
orchestrated the hiring of Robert Altman as its director. He was Altman's
agent for periods of the 1960s and '70s, and when the money fell out became
executive producer of Thieves Like Us.
Johnny Mandel composed the music for "Suicide Is Painless," the theme song
for M*A*S*H.
Loring Mandel wrote the screenplay for Countdown.
Norma Maring is alumni director emeritus at Wentworth Military Academy in
Lexington, Missouri.
Malachy McCourt is a writer and raconteur who says he was the original
choice to play Father Mulcahy in M*A*S*H.
Malcolm McDowell played himself in The Player and mercurial company
director Alberto Antonelli in The Company.
Pam Dixon Mickelson was the casting director on Cookie's Fortune, Dr. T &
the Women, The Company, and A Prairie Home Companion, and helped with
casting on Gosford Park.
Matthew Modine played the young soldier Billy in Streamers, cuckolded
husband Dr. Ralph Wyman in Short Cuts, and huckster Skip Cheeseboro in
Robert Altman's production of Resurrection Blues by Arthur Miller, staged
at the Old Vic in London in 2006.
Lotus Corelli Altman Monroe was Robert Altman's second wife. They were
married from 1952 to 1959. She is the mother of his sons Michael and
Stephen.
Julianne Moore played the unhappily married artist Marian Wyman in Short
Cuts and the simple-like-a-fox Cora Duvall in Cookie's Fortune.
Michael Murphy started working with Robert Altman as an unnamed soldier in
Combat! He played skeptical civilian Rick in Countdown, the woman procuring
character called the Rounder in That Cold Day in the Park, whorehouse
doctor Captain Ezekiel "Me Lay" Marston IV in M*A*S*H, suicidal supercop
Frank Shaft in Brewster McCloud, corporate toady Eugene Sears in McCabe &
Mrs. Miller, political operative John Triplette in Nashville, Captain
Blakely in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, presidential candidate Jack
Tanner in Tanner '88 and Tanner on Tanner, and power broker Henry Stilton
in Kansas City.
Patricia Neal played Jewel Mae "Cookie" Orcutt in Cookie's Fortune. She was
the ex-wife of the late Roald Dahl.
Paul Newman played proto-celebrity William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody in
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, and the
optimistic Essex in Quintet.
Peter Newman was a production executive on Come Back to the Five and Dime,
Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, and was a producer of O.C. and Stiggs.
Allan Nicholls played cuckolded third wheel Bill in Nashville; the
journalist Prentiss Ingraham in Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting
Bull's History Lesson; security man Jake Jacobs in both A Wedding, for
which he cowrote the screenplay, and HealtH; Dana 115 in A Perfect Couple,
for which he also wrote the music and cowrote the screenplay; and Rough
House in Popeye. He was music supervisor on HealtH, O.C. and Stiggs, and
Prêt-à-Porter. He was an assistant director on Streamers, Secret Honor, The
Laundromat, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, The Player, Short Cuts, and
Tanner on Tanner, and associate producer on Quintet.
David Picker ran United Artists when Robert Altman made The Long Goodbye.
Johnnie Planco was Robert Altman's longtime agent at William Morris.
Polly Platt was working as a production designer when she quit Nashville
over her disagreement about the climactic assassination.
Anne Rapp wrote the screenplays for Cookie's Fortune and Dr. T & the Women.
Tim Robbins played homicidal movie executive Griffin Mill in The Player,
priapic motorcycle cop Gene Shepard in Short Cuts, and hotel room-bound
journalist Joe Flynn in Prêt-à-Porter.
Bill Robinson worked for a time as Robert Altman's agent and longer as his
backgammon partner.
Annie Ross is a renowned jazz singer who played the widowed jazz singer
Tess Trainer in Short Cuts.
Alan Rudolph was Robert Altman's friend, protégé, and collaborator for more
than three decades. He was an assistant director on The Long Goodbye,
California Split, and Nashville. He cowrote Buffalo Bill and the Indians,
or Sitting Bull's History Lesson. He appeared as himself in the opening
scene of The Player. Five films he directed were produced by Robert Altman:
Welcome to L.A., Remember My Name, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle,
Afterglow, and Trixie.
Mark Rydell is a director and actor who played the psychotic, observant
Jewish gangster Marty Augustine in The Long Goodbye.
Joan Altman Sarafian is the elder of Robert Altman's two sisters.
Richard Sarafian is a director, writer, and actor who worked with Robert
Altman making industrial films at the Calvin Company. His films include
Vanishing Point and The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing. He was Altman's
brother-in-law during his marriage to Joan Altman Sarafian.
John Schuck played the sexually troubled dentist Captain Walter Kosciusko
"Painless Pole" Waldowski in M*A*S*H, eager Officer Marty Johnson in
Brewster McCloud, townsman Smalley in McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and brooding
bank robber Elmo "Chicamaw" Mobley in Thieves Like Us.
Martin Scorsese was one of the few directors whose work Robert Altman
publicly admired. He played himself in Tanner on Tanner and was
instrumental in preserving a number of Altman films, including McCabe &
Mrs. Miller.
George Segal played the conflicted gambler Bill Denny in California Split.
Matthew Seig was an associate producer of Tanner '88, coproducer of Kansas
City and Jazz '34, and a producer of Tanner on Tanner. He continues to
manage Robert Altman's copyright and business affairs.
Jim Shepard teaches writing at Williams College. His books include Lights
Out in the Reptile House, Project X, and Like You'd Understand, Anyway.
Sam Shepard is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who wrote Fool for Love
for the stage, adapted it for screen (though he says Robert Altman actually
wrote most of the screenplay), and starred in the movie version as the
tortured, incestuous cowboy Eddie.
Tom Skerritt appeared in small roles in Combat!, then played easygoing, if
racist and sexist, Captain Augustus "Duke" Forrest in M*A*S*H, and
accessory-after-the-fact Dee Mobley in Thieves Like Us.
Lois Smith is a renowned press agent who spent more than thirty-five years
working with Robert Altman, even serving him beyond the grave by helping to
organize memorials in New York and Los Angeles.
Roger Snowdall was a soundman who worked with Robert Altman making
industrial films at the Calvin Company in Kansas City in the 1950s.
Frank South wrote the 2 by South plays, Precious Blood and Rattlesnake in a
Cooler.
Sissy Spacek played blank slate/identity thief Pinky Rose in 3 Women.
Jerre Steenhof was one of Robert Altman's high school girlfriends.
Stewart Stern wrote the screenplay for The James Dean Story, a role for
which he was ideally suited, having been a close friend of Dean's and
having written the screenplay for Rebel Without a Cause.
Meryl Streep played singing sister (and mother to the character played by
Lindsay Lohan) Yolanda Johnson in A Prairie Home Companion. News that she
had agreed to a leading role in Robert Altman's next planned film, to be
called Hands on a Hard Body, made him nearly giddy in the weeks before his
death.
William Stuckey was the nose-turret gunner on the B-24 Liberator bomber
copiloted by Robert Altman in World War II.
Joan Tewkesbury wrote the screenplays for Thieves Like Us and Nashville,
for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original
Screenplay. She was a script supervisor on McCabe & Mrs. Miller, in which
she also played a townswoman. She played "the lady in the train station" in
Thieves Like Us.
Michael Tolkin's screenplay for The Player, based on his novel of the same
name, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Lily Tomlin played unsatisfied housewife Linnea Reese in Nashville, her
first film role, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actress. She played herself in the movie within a movie in The
Player , waitress/accidental killer Doreen Piggot in Short Cuts, and
singing sister Rhonda Johnson in A Prairie Home Companion.
Garry Trudeau, the creator of the "Doonesbury" comic strip, was the writer
and a producer of the Tanner '88 television series and the writer of Tanner
on Tanner.
Barbara Turner played Hildegarde in Nightmare in Chicago and wrote the
screenplay for The Company. She is the mother of Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Raymond Wagner is a producer who was a business partner of Robert Altman in
the 1960s. He produced the film Petulia, adapted for the screen by Barbara
Turner at Altman's suggestion, when their partnership dissolved.
Jerry Walsh was related to Robert Altman by marriage (his uncle John
married Altman's aunt Pauline) and later became his friend, his lawyer, and
the executor of his estate.
Joseph Walsh wrote the screenplay for California Split, based partly on his
own exploits as a young man with his friend Elliott Gould, whose character
is based on Walsh.
John Williams composed the theme music for Nightmare in Chicago, The
Kathryn Reed Story, Images, and The Long Goodbye.
Robin Williams starred as Po
Act I: 1925-1969
1. Kansas City
2. Into the River
3. 307th Bomb Group
4. Making Pictures
5. The Calvin Company
6. The Delinquents
7. California
8. Kathryn
9. Cheese
10. No Milk
11. Countdown
Act II: 1970-1980
12. M*A*S*H
13. After M*A*S*H
14. McCabe
15. Fatherhood I
16. Mirrors
17. Split, California
18. Nashville
19. Diamond Cutter
20. Active Verbs
21. Scotty
22. Popeye
Act III: 1981-2006
23. The Wilderness
24. "I Made This"
25. The Player
26. Short Cuts
27. Heart in a Cooler
28. Mr. A and the Women
29. Home Stretch
30. Fatherhood II
31. Boots On
32. Not a Tragedy
A Note on Methods
Cast of Characters
Filmography
Awards and Honors
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Index
Cast of Characters
The following are brief, Altman-centric biographies of people whose
interviews are included in this book. Not included are journalists,
reviewers, authors, and others whose writings and comments are excerpted
throughout.
Jane Adams is an actress who played Junior League do-gooder Nettie Bolt in
Kansas City and director Emily Shapiro in Robert Altman's stage production
of Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues.
Lou Adler is a legendary music producer who coproduced the 1967 Monterey
International Pop Music Festival. The documentary of the event led him into
the film business and to his role as producer of Brewster McCloud.
Anouk Aimée is an award-winning French film actress who became an
international star from her role in A Man and a Woman, directed by Claude
Lelouch. She played the character Simone Lowenthal in Prêt-à-Porter.
Christine Altman is Robert Altman's eldest child. Her mother is the late
LaVonne Elmer, Robert Altman's first wife, to whom he was married from 1946
to 1949.
John Altman is a first cousin of Robert Altman. His father, Frank Altman,
was the brother of Robert Altman's father, Bernard "B.C." Altman. He is a
filmmaker in Kansas City.
Kathryn Reed Altman is the third wife and widow of Robert Altman. They met
in 1959 when he was directing an episode of the television series
Whirlybirds, and were married soon after. She is the mother of two of his
sons, Robert Reed Altman and Matthew Altman, and his stepdaughter, Konni
Corriere.
Matthew Altman is the fourth son of Robert Altman. He was adopted as an
infant. He worked on several of his father's movies as a crew member or in
the art department as a set dresser, and appeared uncredited in Thieves
Like Us, as "boy getting free soda."
Michael Altman is the eldest son of Robert Altman. His mother is Lotus
Corelli Altman Monroe. At fourteen, he wrote the lyrics to the theme song
from M*A*S*H, "Suicide Is Painless." He is a film projectionist in Los
Angeles.
Robert Altman was born in Kansas City on February 20, 1925, and died in Los
Angeles on November 20, 2006. His motto was "Giggle and give in."
Robert Reed Altman is the third son of Robert Altman. He began working with
his father on Nashville, worked on a half dozen of his father's movies as a
camera operator, and was director of photography on Tanner on Tanner. He
has also been a camera operator on television series including Lost, The
O.C., The Wonder Years, and Chuck.
Stephen Altman is the second son of Robert Altman. His mother is Lotus
Corelli Altman Monroe. He was the production designer on more than a dozen
of his father's movies and television projects, including The Player, Short
Cuts, and Gosford Park, and worked on a dozen others in the art or
editorial departments.
Paul Thomas Anderson credits the films of Robert Altman with helping him to
learn to be a director. Anderson served as the standby director for
insurance purposes on Altman's last film, A Prairie Home Companion.
Anne Archer appeared in Short Cuts as Claire Kane, a woman horrified to
learn that her husband left a young woman's body in a river while he fished
with his buddies.
Wren Arthur worked as an assistant to Robert Altman in the late 1990s and
rose to the position of producer on Tanner on Tanner and A Prairie Home
Companion. She acted in Dr. T & the Women as a member of the doctor's
staff.
Josh Astrachan was associate producer of Dr. T & the Women, coproducer of
Gosford Park, and a producer of The Company and A Prairie Home Companion.
René Auberjonois appeared as sweet-natured Father "Dago Red" Mulcahy in
M*A*S*H, the man-turning-into-a-bird character called the Lecturer in
Brewster McCloud, the bar owner/busybody Sheehan in McCabe & Mrs. Miller,
the unfaithful husband Hugh in Images, and as himself in The Player.
Lauren Bacall played presidential candidate Esther Brill in HealtH and
fashion doyenne Slim Chrysler in Prêt-à-Porter. The name Slim was a nod to
her role as Marie "Slim" Browning opposite Humphrey Bogart in the 1944
Howard Hawks film To Have and Have Not.
Reza Badiyi was Robert Altman's intern and protégé at the Calvin Company
and rose to a career as a television director on dozens of shows, including
Mission: Impossible, Hawaii Five-O, Cagney & Lacey, Falcon Crest, and
Baywatch.
Richard Bakalyan is a veteran character actor who played gang leader Eddy
in The Delinquents.
Bob Balaban is an actor, writer, producer, and director. He produced
Gosford Park and played the role of the American film producer Morris
Weissman.
Frank W. Barhydt met Robert Altman as a boy when Altman was working for
Barhydt's father at the Calvin Company. Barhydt cowrote the screenplays for
Quintet, HealtH, Short Cuts, and Kansas City, and had acting roles in
Tanner '88 and The Player.
Sue Barton was the publicist on Nashville and appears as herself in the
scene where Elliott Gould drops by.
Richard Baskin was music supervisor on Nashville and played the role of the
studio musician Frog. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Original
Score. He was also a composer for Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting
Bull's History Lesson.
Warren Beatty had already been nominated for two Academy Awards, for Best
Actor in a Leading Role and Best Picture, as producer, for Bonnie and
Clyde, when he played doomed entrepreneur John McCabe in McCabe & Mrs.
Miller.
Harry Belafonte played himself in The Player, Prêt-à-Porter, and Tanner on
Tanner, and the gangster Seldom Seen in Kansas City, for which he won a New
York Film Critics Circle Award. He and Robert Altman worked for years on an
unfinished project on blackface, tentatively called Cork. When asked by
Vanity Fair magazine to name the living person he most admired, Altman
said, "Harry Belafonte."
Robert Benton is a writer and director whose 1977 film The Late Show,
starring Lily Tomlin and Art Carney, was produced by Robert Altman at
Lion's Gate Films.
Robert Blees produced the infamous Bus Stop episode directed by Robert
Altman and starring Fabian, and also produced episodes of Combat! directed
by Altman.
Jim Bouton was a pitcher for the New York Yankees who made an indelible
mark on baseball with his book Ball Four. He played Terry Lennox in The
Long Goodbye.
Kenneth Branagh starred as hotshot lawyer Rick Magruder in The Gingerbread
Man.
Denise Breton met Robert Altman when she was the European publicist for
M*A*S*H. She remained his European publicist, as well as being a friend and
supporter, for the rest of his life.
David Brown was an executive at Twentieth Century Fox during the making of
M*A*S*H, after which he formed a production company with Richard Zanuck.
After that partnership disbanded, he was a producer on The Player.
Carol Burnett played mother-of-the-bride Katherine "Tulip" Brenner in A
Wedding, presidential adviser Gloria Burbank in HealtH, and schoolteacher
Alberta Johnson in the television production The Laundromat.
Bill Bushnell was the first managing director of the American Conservatory
Theatre in San Francisco, where Robert Altman found several actors for
M*A*S*H. Bushnell introduced Robert Altman to the play Secret Honor, and
also to his wife, Scotty Bushnell, who subsequently became Bushnell's
ex-wife and Altman's longtime producer.
James Caan starred as the lunar astronaut Lee Stegler in Countdown.
Neve Campbell produced and starred in The Company, playing the poised
for-greatness ballet dancer Loretta "Ry" Ryan.
Keith Carradine played the naïve, doomed Cowboy in McCabe & Mrs. Miller;
starred as the naïve, doomed bank robber Bowie in Thieves Like Us; and
played a conflicted lothario, pop star Tom Frank, in Nashville. His song
"I'm Easy" won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Geraldine Chaplin played the impostor BBC correspondent Opal in Nashville;
sharpshooter Annie Oakley in Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting
Bull's History Lesson; and wedding-planner-with-a-secret Rita Billingsley
in A Wedding.
Cher played sharp-tongued waitress Sissy in Come Back to the Five and Dime,
Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. She played herself in The Player and Prêt-à-Porter.
Julie Christie starred as the canny whorehouse madam Constance Miller in
McCabe & Mrs. Miller, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for
Best Actress. She appeared as herself in a cameo in Nashville.
Graeme Clifford was assistant director on That Cold Day in the Park,
casting director on McCabe & Mrs. Miller, an assistant on M*A*S*H, and
editor of Images. He later became a director in his own right, with credits
including Frances.
Leonard Cohen wrote "The Stranger Song," "Sisters of Mercy," and "Winter
Lady," which together created the haunting score for McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
Sam Cohn was Robert Altman's agent off and on for large portions of his
career.
John Considine played Annie Oakley's husband, Frank Butler, in Buffalo Bill
and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson. He cowrote the
screenplay and played security chief Jeff Kuykendall in A Wedding, and
appeared in episodes of Combat!, Tanner '88, and Gun directed by Robert
Altman.
Konni Corriere is the daughter of Kathryn Reed Altman and the stepdaughter
of Robert Altman. She was his assistant on Prêt-à-Porter.
Bud Cort played timid Private Lorenzo Boone in M*A*S*H, then starred as the
boy-who-would-fly title character in Brewster McCloud.
Norman Corwin has been called "America's Poet Laureate of Radio." His
program On a Note of Triumph, broadcast upon the surrender of Nazi Germany,
is considered his masterpiece.
Susan Davis was Robert Altman's cousin by marriage (his aunt married her
uncle) and an actress who appeared in his Calvin Company films and early
television work.
Dale Dennison was the pilot on the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Robert
Altman was copilot during World War II.
Paul Dooley played pompous father of the bride Liam "Snooks" Brenner in A
Wedding, unlikely suitor Alex Theodopoulos in A Perfect Couple, burger
fiend Wimpy in Popeye, "little guy" candidate Gil Gainey in HealtH-for
which he also cowrote the screenplay-and torture target Randall Schwab in
O.C. and Stiggs.
Robert Dornhelm is an Austrian director who was nominated for an Oscar for
his documentary The Children of Theatre Street, and a longtime friend of
Robert and Kathryn Altman's.
David Dortort was the creator and producer of one of television's most
successful series, Bonanza.
Faye Dunaway knew Robert Altman but never worked with him.
Robert Duvall played astronaut Chiz in Countdown, the supercilious Major
Frank Burns in M*A*S*H, and the psychotic Dixon Doss in The Gingerbread
Man.
Shelley Duvall was "discovered" by Robert Altman during the casting of
Brewster McCloud, in which she played Brewster's down-to-earth girlfriend,
Suzanne Davis. She then played reluctant prostitute Ida Coyle in McCabe &
Mrs. Miller; innocent gun moll Keechie in Thieves Like Us; boy-crazy Marthe
(aka L.A. Joan) in Nashville; Grover Cleveland's wife in Buffalo Bill and
the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson; self-deluding Millie
Lammoreaux in 3 Women (for which she shared Best Actress honors at the
Cannes Film Festival); and Olive Oyl in Popeye.
Robert Evans produced Popeye after making a name for himself as the
quintessentially "new Hollywood" head of production at Paramount Pictures.
Donald Factor is an heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune and was the
producer of That Cold Day in the Park.
Jules Feiffer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, as well as an author,
playwright, and screenwriter. He wrote the screenplay for Popeye.
Julian Fellowes is an actor and writer who wrote the screenplay for Gosford
Park, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, among other
honors.
Corey Fischer played Captain Bandini in M*A*S*H, Officer Hines in Brewster
McCloud, and the mad Reverend Elliot in McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
Fabian Forte was a teen pop idol in the 1950s who starred in an infamous
episode of Bus Stop called "A Lion Walks Among Us," directed by Robert
Altman.
David Foster produced McCabe & Mrs. Miller, which launched his Hollywood
career. Later films included The Getaway, The Drowning Pool, The Mean
Season, and The Mask of Zorro.
Gillian Freeman is an author who wrote the screenplay for That Cold Day in
the Park. An idea given her by Robert Altman became her novel Easter Egg
Hunt.
Harvey and SuEllen Fried were friends of Robert Altman's from Kansas City.
SuEllen Fried acted in Altman's productions at the Jewish Community Center
of Kansas City and also had a role in The Delinquents.
Peter Gallagher played prosecutor Lieutenant Commander John Challee in The
Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, sleazy studio executive Larry Levy in The
Player, and chain-saw wielding ex-husband Stormy Weathers in Short Cuts.
Tess Gallagher is a poet and the widow of Raymond Carver, whose short
stories were the basis for Short Cuts.
George W. George was a film and theater producer and writer who helped to
launch the career of Robert Altman. His later work included his production
of My Dinner with Andre.
Henry Gibson played mean Dr. Verringer in The Long Goodbye, self-important
country music king Haven Hamilton in Nashville, favored son-in-law Fred
Bott in A Perfect Couple, and dirty trickster Bobby Hammer in HealtH.
Jeff Goldblum played magazine editor Lloyd Harris in California Split; the
mysterious, magical Tricycle Man in Nashville; the neurotic bisexual Bruce
in Beyond Therapy; and himself in The Player.
Dr. Martin Goldfarb is a Los Angeles cardiologist who befriended Robert
Altman at a poker game when they were young men and allowed him to live in
his home for two years.
Art Goodell was a cameraman who worked with Robert Altman making industrial
films at the Calvin Company in Kansas City in the 1950s.
Elliott Gould played the irreverent surgeon Captain Trapper John McIntyre
in M*A*S*H, the out-of-time Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye,
incorrigible gambler Charlie Waters in California Split, and himself in
Nashville and The Player.
Dona Granata designed the costumes for Kansas City, The Gingerbread Man,
Cookie's Fortune, Dr. T & the Women, and the opera adaptation of A Wedding.
Danford Greene edited Nightmare in Chicago, That Cold Day in the Park, and
M*A*S*H, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film
Editing.
Scott Griffin produced Resurrection Blues when it was directed by Robert
Altman at the Old Vic in London.
Philip Baker Hall played a paranoid, confessional Richard Nixon in Secret
Honor.
Robert Harders directed Philip Baker Hall in the original one-man play of
Secret Honor and served as associate director on the film.
Buck Henry played a comic version of himself pitching The Graduate, Part II
in The Player and the committed fisherman Gordon Johnson in Short Cuts.
Barbara Altman Hodes is the younger of Robert Altman's two sisters.
John Horoschak, Jr. was a gunner on the B-24 Liberator bomber on which
Robert Altman was copilot during World War II.
Lauren Hutton played filmmaker Florence Farmer in A Wedding.
Mike Kaplan was the publicist for 3 Women and other Lion's Gate Films
releases. He played the Treasurer/Jules Keen in Buffalo Bill and the
Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, and studio executive Marty
Grossman in The Player. He was associate producer of Short Cuts and
produced a film based on its making, called Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert
Altman in Carver Country.
Elliott Kastner is a combative independent producer who produced The Long
Goodbye. Among his other films are Where Eagles Dare and The Missouri
Breaks.
Elaine Kaufman is the eponymous owner of Robert Altman's favorite
restaurant in New York.
Garrison Keillor played announcer/raconteur GK and wrote the screenplay for
A Prairie Home Companion, a fictional account of the last night of his
long-running radio show.
Sally Kellerman played Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in M*A*S*H, for
which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She played bird woman/guardian angel Louise in Brewster McCloud, fashion
editor Sissy Wanamaker in Prêt-à-Porter, and herself in The Player. She
also appeared in an episode of the television series Gun directed by Robert
Altman.
Kevin Kline played clueless security man Guy Noir in A Prairie Home
Companion.
Wolf Kroeger was art director on Quintet and set designer on Popeye and
Streamers. He was an associate producer on HealtH.
Alan Ladd, Jr., is an independent producer who was president of Twentieth
Century Fox for most of the period when Robert Altman made five films in a
row for the studio: 3Women, A Wedding, Quintet, A Perfect Couple, and
HealtH.
Margaret Ladd played pot-smoking bridesmaid Ruby Sparr in A Wedding and
kept a diary of her experiences on the set.
Tom Laughlin played college-bound Scotty White in The Delinquents more than
a decade before being cast in his defining role, as the title character in
Billy Jack.
Jennifer Jason Leigh played nonchalant phone-sex worker Lois Kaiser in
Short Cuts and desperate kidnapper Blondie O'Hara in Kansas City. She is
the daughter of Barbara Turner, who collaborated with Robert Altman as an
actress and a screenwriter, and the late Vic Morrow, who worked with him on
Combat!
David Levy worked with Robert Altman off and on for more than two decades
after Altman hired Levy away from his job as an assistant to super-agent
Sam Cohn, who represented Altman at the time. He was a crew member on
HealtH and Popeye; associate producer on The Player, Short Cuts, and The
Gingerbread Man; co producer on Cookie's Fortune and Dr. T & the Women; and
a producer of Gosford Park, The Company, and A Prairie Home Companion.
George Litto is sometimes called the unsung hero of M*A*S*H for having
orchestrated the hiring of Robert Altman as its director. He was Altman's
agent for periods of the 1960s and '70s, and when the money fell out became
executive producer of Thieves Like Us.
Johnny Mandel composed the music for "Suicide Is Painless," the theme song
for M*A*S*H.
Loring Mandel wrote the screenplay for Countdown.
Norma Maring is alumni director emeritus at Wentworth Military Academy in
Lexington, Missouri.
Malachy McCourt is a writer and raconteur who says he was the original
choice to play Father Mulcahy in M*A*S*H.
Malcolm McDowell played himself in The Player and mercurial company
director Alberto Antonelli in The Company.
Pam Dixon Mickelson was the casting director on Cookie's Fortune, Dr. T &
the Women, The Company, and A Prairie Home Companion, and helped with
casting on Gosford Park.
Matthew Modine played the young soldier Billy in Streamers, cuckolded
husband Dr. Ralph Wyman in Short Cuts, and huckster Skip Cheeseboro in
Robert Altman's production of Resurrection Blues by Arthur Miller, staged
at the Old Vic in London in 2006.
Lotus Corelli Altman Monroe was Robert Altman's second wife. They were
married from 1952 to 1959. She is the mother of his sons Michael and
Stephen.
Julianne Moore played the unhappily married artist Marian Wyman in Short
Cuts and the simple-like-a-fox Cora Duvall in Cookie's Fortune.
Michael Murphy started working with Robert Altman as an unnamed soldier in
Combat! He played skeptical civilian Rick in Countdown, the woman procuring
character called the Rounder in That Cold Day in the Park, whorehouse
doctor Captain Ezekiel "Me Lay" Marston IV in M*A*S*H, suicidal supercop
Frank Shaft in Brewster McCloud, corporate toady Eugene Sears in McCabe &
Mrs. Miller, political operative John Triplette in Nashville, Captain
Blakely in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, presidential candidate Jack
Tanner in Tanner '88 and Tanner on Tanner, and power broker Henry Stilton
in Kansas City.
Patricia Neal played Jewel Mae "Cookie" Orcutt in Cookie's Fortune. She was
the ex-wife of the late Roald Dahl.
Paul Newman played proto-celebrity William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody in
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, and the
optimistic Essex in Quintet.
Peter Newman was a production executive on Come Back to the Five and Dime,
Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, and was a producer of O.C. and Stiggs.
Allan Nicholls played cuckolded third wheel Bill in Nashville; the
journalist Prentiss Ingraham in Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting
Bull's History Lesson; security man Jake Jacobs in both A Wedding, for
which he cowrote the screenplay, and HealtH; Dana 115 in A Perfect Couple,
for which he also wrote the music and cowrote the screenplay; and Rough
House in Popeye. He was music supervisor on HealtH, O.C. and Stiggs, and
Prêt-à-Porter. He was an assistant director on Streamers, Secret Honor, The
Laundromat, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, The Player, Short Cuts, and
Tanner on Tanner, and associate producer on Quintet.
David Picker ran United Artists when Robert Altman made The Long Goodbye.
Johnnie Planco was Robert Altman's longtime agent at William Morris.
Polly Platt was working as a production designer when she quit Nashville
over her disagreement about the climactic assassination.
Anne Rapp wrote the screenplays for Cookie's Fortune and Dr. T & the Women.
Tim Robbins played homicidal movie executive Griffin Mill in The Player,
priapic motorcycle cop Gene Shepard in Short Cuts, and hotel room-bound
journalist Joe Flynn in Prêt-à-Porter.
Bill Robinson worked for a time as Robert Altman's agent and longer as his
backgammon partner.
Annie Ross is a renowned jazz singer who played the widowed jazz singer
Tess Trainer in Short Cuts.
Alan Rudolph was Robert Altman's friend, protégé, and collaborator for more
than three decades. He was an assistant director on The Long Goodbye,
California Split, and Nashville. He cowrote Buffalo Bill and the Indians,
or Sitting Bull's History Lesson. He appeared as himself in the opening
scene of The Player. Five films he directed were produced by Robert Altman:
Welcome to L.A., Remember My Name, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle,
Afterglow, and Trixie.
Mark Rydell is a director and actor who played the psychotic, observant
Jewish gangster Marty Augustine in The Long Goodbye.
Joan Altman Sarafian is the elder of Robert Altman's two sisters.
Richard Sarafian is a director, writer, and actor who worked with Robert
Altman making industrial films at the Calvin Company. His films include
Vanishing Point and The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing. He was Altman's
brother-in-law during his marriage to Joan Altman Sarafian.
John Schuck played the sexually troubled dentist Captain Walter Kosciusko
"Painless Pole" Waldowski in M*A*S*H, eager Officer Marty Johnson in
Brewster McCloud, townsman Smalley in McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and brooding
bank robber Elmo "Chicamaw" Mobley in Thieves Like Us.
Martin Scorsese was one of the few directors whose work Robert Altman
publicly admired. He played himself in Tanner on Tanner and was
instrumental in preserving a number of Altman films, including McCabe &
Mrs. Miller.
George Segal played the conflicted gambler Bill Denny in California Split.
Matthew Seig was an associate producer of Tanner '88, coproducer of Kansas
City and Jazz '34, and a producer of Tanner on Tanner. He continues to
manage Robert Altman's copyright and business affairs.
Jim Shepard teaches writing at Williams College. His books include Lights
Out in the Reptile House, Project X, and Like You'd Understand, Anyway.
Sam Shepard is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who wrote Fool for Love
for the stage, adapted it for screen (though he says Robert Altman actually
wrote most of the screenplay), and starred in the movie version as the
tortured, incestuous cowboy Eddie.
Tom Skerritt appeared in small roles in Combat!, then played easygoing, if
racist and sexist, Captain Augustus "Duke" Forrest in M*A*S*H, and
accessory-after-the-fact Dee Mobley in Thieves Like Us.
Lois Smith is a renowned press agent who spent more than thirty-five years
working with Robert Altman, even serving him beyond the grave by helping to
organize memorials in New York and Los Angeles.
Roger Snowdall was a soundman who worked with Robert Altman making
industrial films at the Calvin Company in Kansas City in the 1950s.
Frank South wrote the 2 by South plays, Precious Blood and Rattlesnake in a
Cooler.
Sissy Spacek played blank slate/identity thief Pinky Rose in 3 Women.
Jerre Steenhof was one of Robert Altman's high school girlfriends.
Stewart Stern wrote the screenplay for The James Dean Story, a role for
which he was ideally suited, having been a close friend of Dean's and
having written the screenplay for Rebel Without a Cause.
Meryl Streep played singing sister (and mother to the character played by
Lindsay Lohan) Yolanda Johnson in A Prairie Home Companion. News that she
had agreed to a leading role in Robert Altman's next planned film, to be
called Hands on a Hard Body, made him nearly giddy in the weeks before his
death.
William Stuckey was the nose-turret gunner on the B-24 Liberator bomber
copiloted by Robert Altman in World War II.
Joan Tewkesbury wrote the screenplays for Thieves Like Us and Nashville,
for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original
Screenplay. She was a script supervisor on McCabe & Mrs. Miller, in which
she also played a townswoman. She played "the lady in the train station" in
Thieves Like Us.
Michael Tolkin's screenplay for The Player, based on his novel of the same
name, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Lily Tomlin played unsatisfied housewife Linnea Reese in Nashville, her
first film role, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actress. She played herself in the movie within a movie in The
Player , waitress/accidental killer Doreen Piggot in Short Cuts, and
singing sister Rhonda Johnson in A Prairie Home Companion.
Garry Trudeau, the creator of the "Doonesbury" comic strip, was the writer
and a producer of the Tanner '88 television series and the writer of Tanner
on Tanner.
Barbara Turner played Hildegarde in Nightmare in Chicago and wrote the
screenplay for The Company. She is the mother of Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Raymond Wagner is a producer who was a business partner of Robert Altman in
the 1960s. He produced the film Petulia, adapted for the screen by Barbara
Turner at Altman's suggestion, when their partnership dissolved.
Jerry Walsh was related to Robert Altman by marriage (his uncle John
married Altman's aunt Pauline) and later became his friend, his lawyer, and
the executor of his estate.
Joseph Walsh wrote the screenplay for California Split, based partly on his
own exploits as a young man with his friend Elliott Gould, whose character
is based on Walsh.
John Williams composed the theme music for Nightmare in Chicago, The
Kathryn Reed Story, Images, and The Long Goodbye.
Robin Williams starred as Po
1. Kansas City
2. Into the River
3. 307th Bomb Group
4. Making Pictures
5. The Calvin Company
6. The Delinquents
7. California
8. Kathryn
9. Cheese
10. No Milk
11. Countdown
Act II: 1970-1980
12. M*A*S*H
13. After M*A*S*H
14. McCabe
15. Fatherhood I
16. Mirrors
17. Split, California
18. Nashville
19. Diamond Cutter
20. Active Verbs
21. Scotty
22. Popeye
Act III: 1981-2006
23. The Wilderness
24. "I Made This"
25. The Player
26. Short Cuts
27. Heart in a Cooler
28. Mr. A and the Women
29. Home Stretch
30. Fatherhood II
31. Boots On
32. Not a Tragedy
A Note on Methods
Cast of Characters
Filmography
Awards and Honors
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Index
Cast of Characters
The following are brief, Altman-centric biographies of people whose
interviews are included in this book. Not included are journalists,
reviewers, authors, and others whose writings and comments are excerpted
throughout.
Jane Adams is an actress who played Junior League do-gooder Nettie Bolt in
Kansas City and director Emily Shapiro in Robert Altman's stage production
of Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues.
Lou Adler is a legendary music producer who coproduced the 1967 Monterey
International Pop Music Festival. The documentary of the event led him into
the film business and to his role as producer of Brewster McCloud.
Anouk Aimée is an award-winning French film actress who became an
international star from her role in A Man and a Woman, directed by Claude
Lelouch. She played the character Simone Lowenthal in Prêt-à-Porter.
Christine Altman is Robert Altman's eldest child. Her mother is the late
LaVonne Elmer, Robert Altman's first wife, to whom he was married from 1946
to 1949.
John Altman is a first cousin of Robert Altman. His father, Frank Altman,
was the brother of Robert Altman's father, Bernard "B.C." Altman. He is a
filmmaker in Kansas City.
Kathryn Reed Altman is the third wife and widow of Robert Altman. They met
in 1959 when he was directing an episode of the television series
Whirlybirds, and were married soon after. She is the mother of two of his
sons, Robert Reed Altman and Matthew Altman, and his stepdaughter, Konni
Corriere.
Matthew Altman is the fourth son of Robert Altman. He was adopted as an
infant. He worked on several of his father's movies as a crew member or in
the art department as a set dresser, and appeared uncredited in Thieves
Like Us, as "boy getting free soda."
Michael Altman is the eldest son of Robert Altman. His mother is Lotus
Corelli Altman Monroe. At fourteen, he wrote the lyrics to the theme song
from M*A*S*H, "Suicide Is Painless." He is a film projectionist in Los
Angeles.
Robert Altman was born in Kansas City on February 20, 1925, and died in Los
Angeles on November 20, 2006. His motto was "Giggle and give in."
Robert Reed Altman is the third son of Robert Altman. He began working with
his father on Nashville, worked on a half dozen of his father's movies as a
camera operator, and was director of photography on Tanner on Tanner. He
has also been a camera operator on television series including Lost, The
O.C., The Wonder Years, and Chuck.
Stephen Altman is the second son of Robert Altman. His mother is Lotus
Corelli Altman Monroe. He was the production designer on more than a dozen
of his father's movies and television projects, including The Player, Short
Cuts, and Gosford Park, and worked on a dozen others in the art or
editorial departments.
Paul Thomas Anderson credits the films of Robert Altman with helping him to
learn to be a director. Anderson served as the standby director for
insurance purposes on Altman's last film, A Prairie Home Companion.
Anne Archer appeared in Short Cuts as Claire Kane, a woman horrified to
learn that her husband left a young woman's body in a river while he fished
with his buddies.
Wren Arthur worked as an assistant to Robert Altman in the late 1990s and
rose to the position of producer on Tanner on Tanner and A Prairie Home
Companion. She acted in Dr. T & the Women as a member of the doctor's
staff.
Josh Astrachan was associate producer of Dr. T & the Women, coproducer of
Gosford Park, and a producer of The Company and A Prairie Home Companion.
René Auberjonois appeared as sweet-natured Father "Dago Red" Mulcahy in
M*A*S*H, the man-turning-into-a-bird character called the Lecturer in
Brewster McCloud, the bar owner/busybody Sheehan in McCabe & Mrs. Miller,
the unfaithful husband Hugh in Images, and as himself in The Player.
Lauren Bacall played presidential candidate Esther Brill in HealtH and
fashion doyenne Slim Chrysler in Prêt-à-Porter. The name Slim was a nod to
her role as Marie "Slim" Browning opposite Humphrey Bogart in the 1944
Howard Hawks film To Have and Have Not.
Reza Badiyi was Robert Altman's intern and protégé at the Calvin Company
and rose to a career as a television director on dozens of shows, including
Mission: Impossible, Hawaii Five-O, Cagney & Lacey, Falcon Crest, and
Baywatch.
Richard Bakalyan is a veteran character actor who played gang leader Eddy
in The Delinquents.
Bob Balaban is an actor, writer, producer, and director. He produced
Gosford Park and played the role of the American film producer Morris
Weissman.
Frank W. Barhydt met Robert Altman as a boy when Altman was working for
Barhydt's father at the Calvin Company. Barhydt cowrote the screenplays for
Quintet, HealtH, Short Cuts, and Kansas City, and had acting roles in
Tanner '88 and The Player.
Sue Barton was the publicist on Nashville and appears as herself in the
scene where Elliott Gould drops by.
Richard Baskin was music supervisor on Nashville and played the role of the
studio musician Frog. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Original
Score. He was also a composer for Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting
Bull's History Lesson.
Warren Beatty had already been nominated for two Academy Awards, for Best
Actor in a Leading Role and Best Picture, as producer, for Bonnie and
Clyde, when he played doomed entrepreneur John McCabe in McCabe & Mrs.
Miller.
Harry Belafonte played himself in The Player, Prêt-à-Porter, and Tanner on
Tanner, and the gangster Seldom Seen in Kansas City, for which he won a New
York Film Critics Circle Award. He and Robert Altman worked for years on an
unfinished project on blackface, tentatively called Cork. When asked by
Vanity Fair magazine to name the living person he most admired, Altman
said, "Harry Belafonte."
Robert Benton is a writer and director whose 1977 film The Late Show,
starring Lily Tomlin and Art Carney, was produced by Robert Altman at
Lion's Gate Films.
Robert Blees produced the infamous Bus Stop episode directed by Robert
Altman and starring Fabian, and also produced episodes of Combat! directed
by Altman.
Jim Bouton was a pitcher for the New York Yankees who made an indelible
mark on baseball with his book Ball Four. He played Terry Lennox in The
Long Goodbye.
Kenneth Branagh starred as hotshot lawyer Rick Magruder in The Gingerbread
Man.
Denise Breton met Robert Altman when she was the European publicist for
M*A*S*H. She remained his European publicist, as well as being a friend and
supporter, for the rest of his life.
David Brown was an executive at Twentieth Century Fox during the making of
M*A*S*H, after which he formed a production company with Richard Zanuck.
After that partnership disbanded, he was a producer on The Player.
Carol Burnett played mother-of-the-bride Katherine "Tulip" Brenner in A
Wedding, presidential adviser Gloria Burbank in HealtH, and schoolteacher
Alberta Johnson in the television production The Laundromat.
Bill Bushnell was the first managing director of the American Conservatory
Theatre in San Francisco, where Robert Altman found several actors for
M*A*S*H. Bushnell introduced Robert Altman to the play Secret Honor, and
also to his wife, Scotty Bushnell, who subsequently became Bushnell's
ex-wife and Altman's longtime producer.
James Caan starred as the lunar astronaut Lee Stegler in Countdown.
Neve Campbell produced and starred in The Company, playing the poised
for-greatness ballet dancer Loretta "Ry" Ryan.
Keith Carradine played the naïve, doomed Cowboy in McCabe & Mrs. Miller;
starred as the naïve, doomed bank robber Bowie in Thieves Like Us; and
played a conflicted lothario, pop star Tom Frank, in Nashville. His song
"I'm Easy" won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Geraldine Chaplin played the impostor BBC correspondent Opal in Nashville;
sharpshooter Annie Oakley in Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting
Bull's History Lesson; and wedding-planner-with-a-secret Rita Billingsley
in A Wedding.
Cher played sharp-tongued waitress Sissy in Come Back to the Five and Dime,
Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. She played herself in The Player and Prêt-à-Porter.
Julie Christie starred as the canny whorehouse madam Constance Miller in
McCabe & Mrs. Miller, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for
Best Actress. She appeared as herself in a cameo in Nashville.
Graeme Clifford was assistant director on That Cold Day in the Park,
casting director on McCabe & Mrs. Miller, an assistant on M*A*S*H, and
editor of Images. He later became a director in his own right, with credits
including Frances.
Leonard Cohen wrote "The Stranger Song," "Sisters of Mercy," and "Winter
Lady," which together created the haunting score for McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
Sam Cohn was Robert Altman's agent off and on for large portions of his
career.
John Considine played Annie Oakley's husband, Frank Butler, in Buffalo Bill
and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson. He cowrote the
screenplay and played security chief Jeff Kuykendall in A Wedding, and
appeared in episodes of Combat!, Tanner '88, and Gun directed by Robert
Altman.
Konni Corriere is the daughter of Kathryn Reed Altman and the stepdaughter
of Robert Altman. She was his assistant on Prêt-à-Porter.
Bud Cort played timid Private Lorenzo Boone in M*A*S*H, then starred as the
boy-who-would-fly title character in Brewster McCloud.
Norman Corwin has been called "America's Poet Laureate of Radio." His
program On a Note of Triumph, broadcast upon the surrender of Nazi Germany,
is considered his masterpiece.
Susan Davis was Robert Altman's cousin by marriage (his aunt married her
uncle) and an actress who appeared in his Calvin Company films and early
television work.
Dale Dennison was the pilot on the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Robert
Altman was copilot during World War II.
Paul Dooley played pompous father of the bride Liam "Snooks" Brenner in A
Wedding, unlikely suitor Alex Theodopoulos in A Perfect Couple, burger
fiend Wimpy in Popeye, "little guy" candidate Gil Gainey in HealtH-for
which he also cowrote the screenplay-and torture target Randall Schwab in
O.C. and Stiggs.
Robert Dornhelm is an Austrian director who was nominated for an Oscar for
his documentary The Children of Theatre Street, and a longtime friend of
Robert and Kathryn Altman's.
David Dortort was the creator and producer of one of television's most
successful series, Bonanza.
Faye Dunaway knew Robert Altman but never worked with him.
Robert Duvall played astronaut Chiz in Countdown, the supercilious Major
Frank Burns in M*A*S*H, and the psychotic Dixon Doss in The Gingerbread
Man.
Shelley Duvall was "discovered" by Robert Altman during the casting of
Brewster McCloud, in which she played Brewster's down-to-earth girlfriend,
Suzanne Davis. She then played reluctant prostitute Ida Coyle in McCabe &
Mrs. Miller; innocent gun moll Keechie in Thieves Like Us; boy-crazy Marthe
(aka L.A. Joan) in Nashville; Grover Cleveland's wife in Buffalo Bill and
the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson; self-deluding Millie
Lammoreaux in 3 Women (for which she shared Best Actress honors at the
Cannes Film Festival); and Olive Oyl in Popeye.
Robert Evans produced Popeye after making a name for himself as the
quintessentially "new Hollywood" head of production at Paramount Pictures.
Donald Factor is an heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune and was the
producer of That Cold Day in the Park.
Jules Feiffer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, as well as an author,
playwright, and screenwriter. He wrote the screenplay for Popeye.
Julian Fellowes is an actor and writer who wrote the screenplay for Gosford
Park, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, among other
honors.
Corey Fischer played Captain Bandini in M*A*S*H, Officer Hines in Brewster
McCloud, and the mad Reverend Elliot in McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
Fabian Forte was a teen pop idol in the 1950s who starred in an infamous
episode of Bus Stop called "A Lion Walks Among Us," directed by Robert
Altman.
David Foster produced McCabe & Mrs. Miller, which launched his Hollywood
career. Later films included The Getaway, The Drowning Pool, The Mean
Season, and The Mask of Zorro.
Gillian Freeman is an author who wrote the screenplay for That Cold Day in
the Park. An idea given her by Robert Altman became her novel Easter Egg
Hunt.
Harvey and SuEllen Fried were friends of Robert Altman's from Kansas City.
SuEllen Fried acted in Altman's productions at the Jewish Community Center
of Kansas City and also had a role in The Delinquents.
Peter Gallagher played prosecutor Lieutenant Commander John Challee in The
Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, sleazy studio executive Larry Levy in The
Player, and chain-saw wielding ex-husband Stormy Weathers in Short Cuts.
Tess Gallagher is a poet and the widow of Raymond Carver, whose short
stories were the basis for Short Cuts.
George W. George was a film and theater producer and writer who helped to
launch the career of Robert Altman. His later work included his production
of My Dinner with Andre.
Henry Gibson played mean Dr. Verringer in The Long Goodbye, self-important
country music king Haven Hamilton in Nashville, favored son-in-law Fred
Bott in A Perfect Couple, and dirty trickster Bobby Hammer in HealtH.
Jeff Goldblum played magazine editor Lloyd Harris in California Split; the
mysterious, magical Tricycle Man in Nashville; the neurotic bisexual Bruce
in Beyond Therapy; and himself in The Player.
Dr. Martin Goldfarb is a Los Angeles cardiologist who befriended Robert
Altman at a poker game when they were young men and allowed him to live in
his home for two years.
Art Goodell was a cameraman who worked with Robert Altman making industrial
films at the Calvin Company in Kansas City in the 1950s.
Elliott Gould played the irreverent surgeon Captain Trapper John McIntyre
in M*A*S*H, the out-of-time Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye,
incorrigible gambler Charlie Waters in California Split, and himself in
Nashville and The Player.
Dona Granata designed the costumes for Kansas City, The Gingerbread Man,
Cookie's Fortune, Dr. T & the Women, and the opera adaptation of A Wedding.
Danford Greene edited Nightmare in Chicago, That Cold Day in the Park, and
M*A*S*H, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film
Editing.
Scott Griffin produced Resurrection Blues when it was directed by Robert
Altman at the Old Vic in London.
Philip Baker Hall played a paranoid, confessional Richard Nixon in Secret
Honor.
Robert Harders directed Philip Baker Hall in the original one-man play of
Secret Honor and served as associate director on the film.
Buck Henry played a comic version of himself pitching The Graduate, Part II
in The Player and the committed fisherman Gordon Johnson in Short Cuts.
Barbara Altman Hodes is the younger of Robert Altman's two sisters.
John Horoschak, Jr. was a gunner on the B-24 Liberator bomber on which
Robert Altman was copilot during World War II.
Lauren Hutton played filmmaker Florence Farmer in A Wedding.
Mike Kaplan was the publicist for 3 Women and other Lion's Gate Films
releases. He played the Treasurer/Jules Keen in Buffalo Bill and the
Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, and studio executive Marty
Grossman in The Player. He was associate producer of Short Cuts and
produced a film based on its making, called Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert
Altman in Carver Country.
Elliott Kastner is a combative independent producer who produced The Long
Goodbye. Among his other films are Where Eagles Dare and The Missouri
Breaks.
Elaine Kaufman is the eponymous owner of Robert Altman's favorite
restaurant in New York.
Garrison Keillor played announcer/raconteur GK and wrote the screenplay for
A Prairie Home Companion, a fictional account of the last night of his
long-running radio show.
Sally Kellerman played Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in M*A*S*H, for
which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She played bird woman/guardian angel Louise in Brewster McCloud, fashion
editor Sissy Wanamaker in Prêt-à-Porter, and herself in The Player. She
also appeared in an episode of the television series Gun directed by Robert
Altman.
Kevin Kline played clueless security man Guy Noir in A Prairie Home
Companion.
Wolf Kroeger was art director on Quintet and set designer on Popeye and
Streamers. He was an associate producer on HealtH.
Alan Ladd, Jr., is an independent producer who was president of Twentieth
Century Fox for most of the period when Robert Altman made five films in a
row for the studio: 3Women, A Wedding, Quintet, A Perfect Couple, and
HealtH.
Margaret Ladd played pot-smoking bridesmaid Ruby Sparr in A Wedding and
kept a diary of her experiences on the set.
Tom Laughlin played college-bound Scotty White in The Delinquents more than
a decade before being cast in his defining role, as the title character in
Billy Jack.
Jennifer Jason Leigh played nonchalant phone-sex worker Lois Kaiser in
Short Cuts and desperate kidnapper Blondie O'Hara in Kansas City. She is
the daughter of Barbara Turner, who collaborated with Robert Altman as an
actress and a screenwriter, and the late Vic Morrow, who worked with him on
Combat!
David Levy worked with Robert Altman off and on for more than two decades
after Altman hired Levy away from his job as an assistant to super-agent
Sam Cohn, who represented Altman at the time. He was a crew member on
HealtH and Popeye; associate producer on The Player, Short Cuts, and The
Gingerbread Man; co producer on Cookie's Fortune and Dr. T & the Women; and
a producer of Gosford Park, The Company, and A Prairie Home Companion.
George Litto is sometimes called the unsung hero of M*A*S*H for having
orchestrated the hiring of Robert Altman as its director. He was Altman's
agent for periods of the 1960s and '70s, and when the money fell out became
executive producer of Thieves Like Us.
Johnny Mandel composed the music for "Suicide Is Painless," the theme song
for M*A*S*H.
Loring Mandel wrote the screenplay for Countdown.
Norma Maring is alumni director emeritus at Wentworth Military Academy in
Lexington, Missouri.
Malachy McCourt is a writer and raconteur who says he was the original
choice to play Father Mulcahy in M*A*S*H.
Malcolm McDowell played himself in The Player and mercurial company
director Alberto Antonelli in The Company.
Pam Dixon Mickelson was the casting director on Cookie's Fortune, Dr. T &
the Women, The Company, and A Prairie Home Companion, and helped with
casting on Gosford Park.
Matthew Modine played the young soldier Billy in Streamers, cuckolded
husband Dr. Ralph Wyman in Short Cuts, and huckster Skip Cheeseboro in
Robert Altman's production of Resurrection Blues by Arthur Miller, staged
at the Old Vic in London in 2006.
Lotus Corelli Altman Monroe was Robert Altman's second wife. They were
married from 1952 to 1959. She is the mother of his sons Michael and
Stephen.
Julianne Moore played the unhappily married artist Marian Wyman in Short
Cuts and the simple-like-a-fox Cora Duvall in Cookie's Fortune.
Michael Murphy started working with Robert Altman as an unnamed soldier in
Combat! He played skeptical civilian Rick in Countdown, the woman procuring
character called the Rounder in That Cold Day in the Park, whorehouse
doctor Captain Ezekiel "Me Lay" Marston IV in M*A*S*H, suicidal supercop
Frank Shaft in Brewster McCloud, corporate toady Eugene Sears in McCabe &
Mrs. Miller, political operative John Triplette in Nashville, Captain
Blakely in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, presidential candidate Jack
Tanner in Tanner '88 and Tanner on Tanner, and power broker Henry Stilton
in Kansas City.
Patricia Neal played Jewel Mae "Cookie" Orcutt in Cookie's Fortune. She was
the ex-wife of the late Roald Dahl.
Paul Newman played proto-celebrity William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody in
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, and the
optimistic Essex in Quintet.
Peter Newman was a production executive on Come Back to the Five and Dime,
Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, and was a producer of O.C. and Stiggs.
Allan Nicholls played cuckolded third wheel Bill in Nashville; the
journalist Prentiss Ingraham in Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting
Bull's History Lesson; security man Jake Jacobs in both A Wedding, for
which he cowrote the screenplay, and HealtH; Dana 115 in A Perfect Couple,
for which he also wrote the music and cowrote the screenplay; and Rough
House in Popeye. He was music supervisor on HealtH, O.C. and Stiggs, and
Prêt-à-Porter. He was an assistant director on Streamers, Secret Honor, The
Laundromat, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, The Player, Short Cuts, and
Tanner on Tanner, and associate producer on Quintet.
David Picker ran United Artists when Robert Altman made The Long Goodbye.
Johnnie Planco was Robert Altman's longtime agent at William Morris.
Polly Platt was working as a production designer when she quit Nashville
over her disagreement about the climactic assassination.
Anne Rapp wrote the screenplays for Cookie's Fortune and Dr. T & the Women.
Tim Robbins played homicidal movie executive Griffin Mill in The Player,
priapic motorcycle cop Gene Shepard in Short Cuts, and hotel room-bound
journalist Joe Flynn in Prêt-à-Porter.
Bill Robinson worked for a time as Robert Altman's agent and longer as his
backgammon partner.
Annie Ross is a renowned jazz singer who played the widowed jazz singer
Tess Trainer in Short Cuts.
Alan Rudolph was Robert Altman's friend, protégé, and collaborator for more
than three decades. He was an assistant director on The Long Goodbye,
California Split, and Nashville. He cowrote Buffalo Bill and the Indians,
or Sitting Bull's History Lesson. He appeared as himself in the opening
scene of The Player. Five films he directed were produced by Robert Altman:
Welcome to L.A., Remember My Name, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle,
Afterglow, and Trixie.
Mark Rydell is a director and actor who played the psychotic, observant
Jewish gangster Marty Augustine in The Long Goodbye.
Joan Altman Sarafian is the elder of Robert Altman's two sisters.
Richard Sarafian is a director, writer, and actor who worked with Robert
Altman making industrial films at the Calvin Company. His films include
Vanishing Point and The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing. He was Altman's
brother-in-law during his marriage to Joan Altman Sarafian.
John Schuck played the sexually troubled dentist Captain Walter Kosciusko
"Painless Pole" Waldowski in M*A*S*H, eager Officer Marty Johnson in
Brewster McCloud, townsman Smalley in McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and brooding
bank robber Elmo "Chicamaw" Mobley in Thieves Like Us.
Martin Scorsese was one of the few directors whose work Robert Altman
publicly admired. He played himself in Tanner on Tanner and was
instrumental in preserving a number of Altman films, including McCabe &
Mrs. Miller.
George Segal played the conflicted gambler Bill Denny in California Split.
Matthew Seig was an associate producer of Tanner '88, coproducer of Kansas
City and Jazz '34, and a producer of Tanner on Tanner. He continues to
manage Robert Altman's copyright and business affairs.
Jim Shepard teaches writing at Williams College. His books include Lights
Out in the Reptile House, Project X, and Like You'd Understand, Anyway.
Sam Shepard is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who wrote Fool for Love
for the stage, adapted it for screen (though he says Robert Altman actually
wrote most of the screenplay), and starred in the movie version as the
tortured, incestuous cowboy Eddie.
Tom Skerritt appeared in small roles in Combat!, then played easygoing, if
racist and sexist, Captain Augustus "Duke" Forrest in M*A*S*H, and
accessory-after-the-fact Dee Mobley in Thieves Like Us.
Lois Smith is a renowned press agent who spent more than thirty-five years
working with Robert Altman, even serving him beyond the grave by helping to
organize memorials in New York and Los Angeles.
Roger Snowdall was a soundman who worked with Robert Altman making
industrial films at the Calvin Company in Kansas City in the 1950s.
Frank South wrote the 2 by South plays, Precious Blood and Rattlesnake in a
Cooler.
Sissy Spacek played blank slate/identity thief Pinky Rose in 3 Women.
Jerre Steenhof was one of Robert Altman's high school girlfriends.
Stewart Stern wrote the screenplay for The James Dean Story, a role for
which he was ideally suited, having been a close friend of Dean's and
having written the screenplay for Rebel Without a Cause.
Meryl Streep played singing sister (and mother to the character played by
Lindsay Lohan) Yolanda Johnson in A Prairie Home Companion. News that she
had agreed to a leading role in Robert Altman's next planned film, to be
called Hands on a Hard Body, made him nearly giddy in the weeks before his
death.
William Stuckey was the nose-turret gunner on the B-24 Liberator bomber
copiloted by Robert Altman in World War II.
Joan Tewkesbury wrote the screenplays for Thieves Like Us and Nashville,
for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original
Screenplay. She was a script supervisor on McCabe & Mrs. Miller, in which
she also played a townswoman. She played "the lady in the train station" in
Thieves Like Us.
Michael Tolkin's screenplay for The Player, based on his novel of the same
name, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Lily Tomlin played unsatisfied housewife Linnea Reese in Nashville, her
first film role, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actress. She played herself in the movie within a movie in The
Player , waitress/accidental killer Doreen Piggot in Short Cuts, and
singing sister Rhonda Johnson in A Prairie Home Companion.
Garry Trudeau, the creator of the "Doonesbury" comic strip, was the writer
and a producer of the Tanner '88 television series and the writer of Tanner
on Tanner.
Barbara Turner played Hildegarde in Nightmare in Chicago and wrote the
screenplay for The Company. She is the mother of Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Raymond Wagner is a producer who was a business partner of Robert Altman in
the 1960s. He produced the film Petulia, adapted for the screen by Barbara
Turner at Altman's suggestion, when their partnership dissolved.
Jerry Walsh was related to Robert Altman by marriage (his uncle John
married Altman's aunt Pauline) and later became his friend, his lawyer, and
the executor of his estate.
Joseph Walsh wrote the screenplay for California Split, based partly on his
own exploits as a young man with his friend Elliott Gould, whose character
is based on Walsh.
John Williams composed the theme music for Nightmare in Chicago, The
Kathryn Reed Story, Images, and The Long Goodbye.
Robin Williams starred as Po