Robert Altman
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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: 3 Women, 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 superagent 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; coproducer 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, t
he 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 Popeye in his first feature film.
RICHARD ZANUCK was president of Twentieth Century Fox during the making of M*A*S*H.
VILMOS ZSIGMOND was the cinematographer on McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Images, and The Long Goodbye, for which he won a National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography.
FILMOGRAPHY
AS DIRECTOR
1957 The Delinquents (producer, screenwriter)
1957 The James Dean Story (codirector, producer)*
1964 Nightmare in Chicago (producer)
1968 Countdown
&n
bsp; 1969 That Cold Day in the Park
1970 M*A*S*H*
1970 Brewster McCloud*
1971 McCabe & Mrs. Miller (coscreenwriter)*
1972 Images (screenwriter)*
1973 The Long Goodbye*
1974 Thieves Like Us (coscreenwriter)*
1974 California Split (producer)*
1975 Nashville (producer)*
1976 Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (producer, coscreenwriter)*
1977 3 Women (producer, screenwriter)*
1978 A Wedding (producer, coscreenwriter)*
1979 Quintet (producer, coscreenwriter)*
1979 A Perfect Couple (producer, coscreenwriter)*
1980 HealtH (producer, coscreenwriter)
1980 Popeye*
1982 Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
1983 Streamers (producer)
1984 Secret Honor (producer)*
1985 O.C. and Stiggs (coproducer)*
1985 Fool for Love*
1987 Beyond Therapy (coscreenwriter)*
1988 Aria (director and screenwriter of “Les Boréades” segment)*
1990 Vincent & Theo*
1992 The Player*
1993 Short Cuts (coscreenwriter)*
1994 Prêt-à-Porter (Ready to Wear) (producer, coscreenwriter)*
1996 Kansas City (producer, coscreenwriter)*
1996–97 Robert Altman’s Jazz ‘34: Remembrances of Kansas City Swing (producer)
1998 The Gingerbread Man*
1999 Cookie’s Fortune (producer)*
2000 Dr. T & the Women (producer)*
2001 Gosford Park (producer)*
2003 The Company (producer)*
2006 A Prairie Home Companion (producer)*
AS PRODUCER
1977 Welcome to L.A. (director, Alan Rudolph)
1977 The Late Show (director, Robert Benton)*
1978 Remember My Name (director, Alan Rudolph)
1979 Rich Kids (director, Robert M. Young)
1994 Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (director, Alan Rudolph)*
1997 Afterglow (director, Alan Rudolph)*