Altman, Robert (1925-2006), was an American motion-picture director known for his unusual, offbeat films. Altman’s movies have a documentary visual style that seems as if the camera just happened to catch revealing moments in the characters’ lives. He often used ensemble casts, with a large number of equally important performers, rather than casts dominated by a few stars. Altman’s films tend to favor character analysis over plot. They reflect an ironic skepticism toward traditional American values and institutions. Many of his films have pessimistic, unhappy endings, though they employ eccentric humor and raunchy comedy. In 2006, Altman received an honorary Academy Award for a “career that has repeatedly reinvented the art form and inspired filmmakers and audiences alike.”
Robert Bernard Altman was born on Feb. 20, 1925, in Kansas City, Missouri. He began his career directing industrial films and then TV in the 1950’s. Altman gained prominence when he directed M*A*S*H (1970), a darkly comic movie about a battlefield hospital. During the 1970’s, he directed a series of offbeat films praised by critics, including McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), a quirky Western; Thieves Like Us (1974), a rural gangster film; and Nashville (1975), about the country music industry.
Altman’s output fell in the 1980’s, but he made a comeback in the 1990’s with The Player (1992), a satire on the movie industry; Short Cuts (1993), based on stories by the American author Raymond Carver; Kansas City (1996), set during the Great Depression of the 1930’s; and Cookie’s Fortune (1999), a comedy about eccentric characters in a Mississippi town. Dr. T and the Women (2000) portrays the personal and professional life of a gynecologist (women’s doctor). Altman’s other films include Brewster McCloud (1971), California Split (1974), A Wedding (1978), Popeye (1980), Fool for Love (1985), The Gingerbread Man (1998), Gosford Park (2001), and A Prairie Home Companion (2006). Altman died on Nov. 20, 2006.
