As a young director in the 1970s, he was hailed as Hollywood’s “child prodigy”. Now Peter Bogdanovich, who became famous for films like “The Last Picture Show”, “What’s Up Doc” and “Paper Moon”, has died at the age of 82. According to his daughter Antonia Bogdanovich, he died on Thursday morning n (local time) in his home in Los Angeles, as the “New York Times” and the “Hollywood Reporter” reported. His speaking team confirmed the death of the director.
Bogdanovich had a great role model in Hollywood, “Citzen Kane” director Orson Welles. “I loved Orson. And I think he actually loved me too,” mused the director in a 2019 interview with the US culture magazine “Vulture”. When the young director conjured up a perfect portrait of the American countryside in the 1950s with “The Last Picture Show”, he became famous overnight and compared to the genius of directing Welles.
In his Texas nostalgia, the young actress Cybill Shepherd had given Bogdanovich the role of the adored student Jacy. It was also the beginning of a longstanding affair between the married filmmaker and his leading lady.
“A wonderful artist”
Further successes followed with the comedy “What’s Up Doc”, with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal, and the melancholy road movie “Paper Moon” with the young Tatum O’Neal. “I was hot,” said Bogdanovich in the “Vulture” interview. At that time he was offered directing films such as “The Godfather”, “The Exorcist”, “Chinatown” – “and almost everything”.
Colleagues reacted in dismay to the news of death on Thursday. “He was a close friend and a master of cinema,” wrote director Guillermo del Toro on Twitter. He created “masterpieces”. “I’m devastated. He was a wonderful and great artist,” said Francis Ford Coppola in a message according to “Deadline.com” the filmmaker.
Bogdanovich was a father figure for her, wrote Tatum O’Neal (58) on Instagram. She felt safe with him. She also posted a photo and video of the filming of “Paper Moon”. For her first feature film, starring alongside her father Ryan O’Neal, she received an Oscar for best supporting role in 1974 at the age of ten. She played a cunning little girl who got by with a con artist during the Great Depression.
Not an Oscar, but a Grammy holder
Bogdanovich often made headlines through his personal life. While filming the comedy “They All Laughed” (1981; “They All Laughed”) he fell in love again with an actress, the Playboy model Dorothy Stratten. Her husband, Paul Snider, killed the 20-year-old and killed himself. After Stratten’s death, he was completely exhausted, explained Bogdanovich in “Vulture”.
A few years after Stratten’s death, the director married her younger sister, Louise, despite an age difference of almost 30 years. The marriage ended in divorce in 2001.
Later on, Bogdanovich rarely directs feature films. In 2001 he brought Kirsten Dunst in front of the camera for “The Cat’s Meow”. In the comedy “She’s Funny That Way” he let his stars Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson, Rhys Ifans and Imogen Poots stumble through all sorts of amorous entanglements. He presented the film at the Venice Film Festival in 2014.
Bogdanovich did not receive an Oscar in his long career, but he is the holder of a Grammy trophy. The director earned it with his music documentary “Runnin ‘Down a Dream” about the band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. He won the coveted music award for directing the “Best Long Music Video”.
Source: Nachrichten
