Robert Altman life and biography

Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.

Robert was born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. After serving in World War 2 as a pilot, he took up writing for radio and magazines, then produced industrial films. His first feature film was The Delinquents (1957). He gained instant recognition for M*A*S*H (1970), and went on to direct and/or produce a series of highly individualistic films, noted especially for their simultaneous layers of dialogue. Impatient with Hollywood's conservative and commercial approach to film-making, he moved to Europe, although he returned to America to make such films as Nashville (1975), The Player (1991, BAFTA), Short Cuts (1993), Kansas City (1996), Cookie's Fortune (1998), and Dr T and the Women (2000). Gosford Park (2001, Golden Globe Best Director) was his first British film. He received an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement at the 2005 Academy Awards.

Altman died November 20, 2006 of undisclosed causes. Altman is survived by his wife Kathryn Reed and five children.

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