The Late Great Peter Bogdanovich

Film historian, director, and actor Peter Bogdanovich died on January 6 2022 at the age of 82. The cause was complications from Parkinson's disease.

Peter Bogdanovich was born on July 30 1939 in Kingston, New York. He grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Both his father and mother were immigrants. His father was Serbian and his mother was Austrian. When he was young his father would take Peter Bogdanovich to see silent movies at the Museum of Modern Art. He was still very young when he fell in love with the cinema, so much so that by the time he was 12 he would keep a file of index cards in which he would assess the movies he had seen. He was a teenager when he studied acting under Stella Adler. He acted Off Broadway and in summer stock. In 1958 he made his television debut in an episode of Kraft Television Theatre. He directed an Off Broadway revival of The Big Knife when he was 20.

It was around the same time that he started writing about the cinema. He was published in such venues as Esquire, The Saturday Evening Post, and even the French magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. He served as a film programmer for both the New Yorker Theatre and the Museum of Modern Art. It was in 1961 that his first book, The Cinema of Orson Welles, was published. Over the decades it would be followed by The Cinema of Howard Hawks, The Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Fritz Lang in America, Allan Dwan, and other books on the cinema. His early articles on film were collected in the 1973 book Pieces of Time. He recorded several hours of conversation with Orson Welles, which would ultimately result in the 1992 book This is Orson Welles. He also wrote the book Killing of the Unicorn: Dorothy Stratten 1960–1980, which dealt with his relationship with actress Dorothy Stratten, and A Year and a Day Engagement Calendar 1992: A Desk Diary Adapted From the Works of Robert Graves.

It was in 1964 that Peter Bogdanovich moved to Hollywood to break into the film industry. There he met Roger Corman, who gave him a job. He served as an assistant director on Mr. Corman's The Wild Angels (1966). Roger Corman produced Peter Bogdanovich's first film, Targets (1968). Targets was followed by the American International Pictures movie Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, which Mr. Bogdanovich directed under the name Derek Thomas.

It was in 1971 that Peter Bogdanovich's breakthrough movie was released, The Last Picture Show. It received eight Academy Award nominations and won the Oscars for Best Supporting Actor for Ben Johnson and Best Supporting Actress for Cloris Leachman. Mr. Bogdoanovich followed it with the hit screwball comedy What's Up, Doc? (1972) and the period piece Paper Moon (1973). Unfortunately, Mr. Bogdanovich's next few movies would not be successful. Daisy Miller (1974), At Last Long Love (1975), and Nickelodeon (1976) did poorly at the box office and poorly with critics. His lower budget 1979 film Saint Jack was better received.

To a degree the Eighties would be better for Peter Bogdanovich as a director than the late Seventies had been. They All Laughed (1981) received some good reviews, but ultimately failed at the box office. In contrast, Mask (1985) proved to be a box office hit and to be critically acclaimed. Unfortunately his next two films, Illegally Yours (1988) and Texaville (1990) would be both critical and box office failures.

In the Nineties Peter Bogdanovich turned to directing television. During the decade he directed episodes of Picture Windows, Fallen Angels, and The Wonderful World of Disney. He directed the TV movies Prowler; To Sir, with Love II; The Price of Heaven; Rescuers: Stories of Courage: Two Women; and Naked City: A Killer Christmas. He directed two feature films during the decade: Noises Off (1992) and The Thing Called Love (1993). In the Naughts he directed the film She's Funny That Way (2001). On television he directed an episode of The Mystery of Natalie Wood and an episode of the TV show The Sopranos. He directed the TV movie Hustle. In the Teens he directed the documentary The Great Buster (2018), about Buster Keaton.

While much of Peter Bodanovich's life was dedicated to writing and directing, he continued to act from time to time. He appeared in the film Lion's Love in 1969. He also played a role in his own film Saint Jack. In the Eighties he guest starred as himself on an episode of Moonlighting. In the Nineties he guest starred on the TV shows Northern Exposure (playing himself)), Picture Windows, and Cybil  (playing himself). He in the TV movies Bella Mafia and Rated X. In 2000 he started playing the recurring role of Dr. Kuperferberg, the psychiatrist to Tony Soprano's psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi. He appeared in the movies Mr. Jealousy (1997),  Highball (1997), 54 (1998), Coming Soon (1999), and The Independent (2000).

In the Naughts Mr. Bogdanovich continued to appear on The Sopranos. He appeared in the mini-series Out of Order. He guest starred on the shows 8 Simple Rules, The Simpsons, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and How I Met Your Mother (as himself). He appeared in the movies Festival in Cannes (2001), The Definition of Insanity (2004), Infamous (2006), Dedication (2007), Broken English (2007), The Dukes (2007), The Fifth Patient (2007), The Doorman (2007), Humboldt County (2008), and Queen of the Lot (2010).

In the Teens he guest starred on the show Rizzoli & Isles. He had a recurring role on the show Get Shorty. He appeared in the movies Don't Let Me Go (2013), Cold Turkey (2013), Are You Here (2013), While We're Young (2014), Pearly Gates (2015), Durant's Never Closes (2016), The Tell-Tale Heart (2016), Between Us (2016), Six LA Love Stories (2016), Los Angeles Overnight (2018), Reborn (2018), The Other Side of the World (2018), The Creatress (2019), It Chapter Two (2019), and Willie and Me (2020).

Peter Bogdanovich was closely associated with Turner Classic Movies. In 2005 he hosted their program The Essentials. He also attended multiple TCM Classic Film Festivals. In 2020 he was the subject of TCM's podcast The Plot Thickens.

Peter Bogdanovich has long been one of my favourite directors. In fact, it is fully possible that What's Up, Doc? was the first screwball comedy I ever saw. When I was older was able to see such comedies as Bringing Up Baby and The Awful Truth, and I realized just how much What's Up, Doc? had drawn upon the screwball comedies of the Golden Age for inspiration. They All Laughed is another favourite of mine. When I first saw it I thought that critics and audiences had seriously undervalued it. Paper Moon captured the Depression very well, while remaining very funny. Of course, while Mr. Bogdanovich was good at comedy, he was equally adept at drama. The Last Picture Show remains a classic to this day.

Of course, if Peter Bogdanovich was a great director, it is perhaps because he knew so much about the Golden Age of Hollywood. Mr. Bogdanovich was an excellent film historian, writing several books and making documentaries about the subject. Through  it all his love of classic film showed through. More so than many, he did a good deal to spread love for classic film. He was certainly remarkable as both a director and film historian.