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Legendary Director Robert Altman Dead at 81
Born on Feb. 20, 1925, Kansas City, Missouri, native Robert Altman died on Nov. 20 — less than a year after accepting an Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement, and a few months after the release of his last film, an affectionate adaptation of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion. Altman had a heart transplant in 1995, keeping the surgery quiet while continuing to undertake demanding projects such as Dr T and the Women, Gosford Park and The Company.
Altman began his long career directing industrial films on the order of "How to Run a Filling Station," graduated to episodic television (where his credits included Peter Gunn, The Millionaire and Alfred Hitchcock Presents), and then forged a feature directing career that produced some of the finest films of the 1970s, notably MASH, McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Nashville. Altman was famous for his deft use of large ensemble casts, overlapping dialogue and an intricate network of overlapping story lines that come together into a complex mosaic of American attitudes and experiences. Outspoken and uncompromising, his far-reaching influence can be seen in films as diverse as Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997) and last year's multiple-Oscar-winning Crash. No cause of death has been announced.
Obituary by Maitland McDonagh
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Nov 21, 2006 1:08 PM
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Terrible, terrible loss. Such an amazing man, an amazing director. I remember seeing MASH for the first time...Do yourself a favor and see this year's Prarie Home Companion, it was great, I think highly underrated. I'm so glad he received that honorary Oscar this year - Hollywood really lost a legend today.
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Nov 21, 2006 1:15 PM
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What a tremendous loss to cinema. Altman's been one of the most important directors of the last forty years. Not giving anything away to those who haven't yet seen it, but Altman's death makes the final scene in "Prarie Home Companion" that much more poignant. He will truly be missed.
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Nov 21, 2006 2:31 PM
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Sad news. One of my favorite movies of all times is "Short Cuts". He was truly an actor's director. RIP
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Nov 21, 2006 2:38 PM
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This is such sad news. He was/is my favorite director. I loved "A Prairie Home Companion" and "MASH" and "Nashville" but especially "Gosford Park." What a loss to the artistic community of film.
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Nov 21, 2006 3:44 PM
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He was one of the great ones.
This makes me want to watch MASH tonight.
And you can do the same thing if you please...
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Nov 21, 2006 4:23 PM
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I'm so glad he was able to go out with such a winning movie! A Prairie Home Companion is such a sublime movie! It's my favorite movie of the past several years. Add it to The Player and Short Cuts and Nashville and M*A*S*H and more. The only reason I'm smiling today is because the last interview with him that I read showed that he was a man who was satisfied with his life and ready for whatever's coming next. He faced death as he faced life: head on! A role model, to be sure! 
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Nov 22, 2006 5:35 AM
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Thank you, Mr Altman, for all your brilliance, especially Nashville (still one of my all-time favorite movies, and soundtracks), M*A*S*H, Short Cuts and Gosford Park. I haven't yet experienced A Prarie Home Companion, but now I know I must. You will be missed.
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Nov 22, 2006 11:10 AM
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