Peter Bogdanovich Dies: ‘The Last Picture Show’, ‘Paper Moon’ & ‘What’s Up, Doc?’ Director Was 82

Ruined his professional career by letting himself be guided by his dick rather than his brain.

I know he was 82, but I was really not expecting this. Just yesterday I was thinking about how underrated What's Up Doc is, and although Ryan O'Neil is pretty bad in it, he still works thanks to Bogdanovich's direction.

Has Cybill Shepherd commented?

Was it the Democratic hoax?

Last Picture Show is a legit masterpiece. What's Up Doc and Paper Moon are both great. I'm also a big fan of Targets, his first feature. It's strange but chilling and memorable.

Wow, I had forgotten about him

Has Polly Platt commented?

Is Polly Platt still with us?

Polly died back in 2011, unfortunately.

^Polly is no longer with us.

If you'd like to see an inside view into the split up between Polly and Peter, there's Shelley Long-Ryan O'Neal-Drew Barrymore film called Irreconcilable Differences. It's tv movie bland but entertaining at points.

This is big for me. I championed him in my 20s, and have derided him since. He made some good films, but was such a snob. They All Laughed will be with me forever. Who would have thought John Ritter, Ben Gazzara, and Colleen Camp would soar to such heights?!?!?

And Karina Longworth did a series about Platt for her podcast "You Must Remember This," which obviously had a great deal of material about Bogdanovich. It's worth checking out.

He got an Oscar for Cloris.

Loved LPS and PM and Texasville. Everybody hated it and it was disorganized and bleak and random but I loved the nutty characters.

Duane, sitting in the hot tub:

I was thinkin' about shootin' my dick off.

Duane, just because you're depressed I don't think you should shoot your dick off.

Why not? 'Caused me nothin' but trouble my whole life.

Well, it's a small target and when you miss you're gonna ruin our new hot tub.

Has Cher commented?

He did a good movie later in life: "The Cat's Meow" with Kirsten Dunst and Joanna Lumley. It was set in the 20s on a small yacht, and was about the death of the director Thomas Ince.

r11: Longworth did a podcast on Dorothy Stratten where Bogdanovich is gone into at length. He does not come off well.

The absolute best podcast on film history!

Piddled and diddled his life away, sort of like his idol Orson Welles. Wrecked his career on a series of flops starring the vapid Cybill Shepherd. Bogdanovich ended up like just another pretentious name dropper.

Loved him on the Sopranos

He directed the farce Noises Off which is very funny, and no one ever talks about it.

Kind of like Kane where he ruins his career over a woman with a mediocre talent.

The thing though with Kane's alter-ego Hearst, Marion Davies was not a mediocre talent. Hearst ruined HER career.

R18, he was great as Dr. Melfi’s psychiatrist. I had no idea he had acting chops like that (he had strong comedic timing), but then I read that he got his start as an actor in theater/Broadway at a young age.

His career really did follow after his idol Orson Welles.

[quote] "He got an Oscar for Cloris."

Cloris got an Oscar for Cloris, R12. But as her director, he obviously had a hand in the process.

[quote] "Has Cher commented?"

Thanks for the giggle, R14.

My all-time favorite Bogdonavich film is "The Last Picture Show". I need to read the book. I'll add it to my 2022 list.

What's his best movie? I want to watch one of his masterpieces. Last Picture Show?

I know him from Sopranos, mainly. He directed an episode or two of Sopranos (as well as played the part of Dr. Melfi's psychiatrist). Steve Schirripa said that when PB directed he called Steve "Bobby" (name of the character). Apparently, this is rude (calling an actor by his character's name).

He ended up living with the sister and/or mother of Dorothy Stratten. The sister was weird, IMO, adopting the name "Stratten" when it wasn't even Dorothy's real last name. PB was weird as well, probably.

He was odd and eclectic and always interesting. So icky that he married Dorothy Stratton’s little sister Louise. …… Loved him as Elliott - Melfi’s gossipy therapist on The Sopranos.

I wonder if he'll be buried at Westwood Cemetery near Stratten.

PAPER MOON was a delight. Sorry that he’s dead. I’ve read a lot about him, good and bad.

I saw my first of his films last year (Paper Moon). It was so charming and legitimately good. I couldn't understand why it seemed he made a bunch of great films in the 70s....and then dropped off the face of the earth.

Tatum O’Neal Calls ‘Paper Moon’ Director Peter Bogdanovich “My Heaven & Earth”:

OK, I have seen Paper Moon. I forgot that was a PB movie. I don't think I could rewatch it now. Too many Ryan O'Neal / Tatum O'Neal threads on DL ruined it for me.

Didn’t Louise turn on him?

R22... Larry McMurtry is one of my favourite writers. He had strong source material.

Did he die of COVID because he wasn't wearing a MASK?

I for one will not be shedding any tears about his demise. He was an appalling human being. In interviews he sounds like the biggest asshole in the world. He was the sleazebag Hollywood creep par excellence. His career as a major director ended long, long ago but he still popped up on occasion in acting roles playing (what else?) a sleazy, Hollywood creep. And that business of his seducing poor Dorothy Stratten and then after her death seducing and marrying her little sister....that was just beyond grotesque. He was truly vile.

Was Peter on our DL list of ‘People to die in 2022’?

#SAD

'He was truly vile.'

It's a shit business.

I think he may have been on the I thought he was already dead list. He's no Betty White.

R31 I'd be lying if I said I had any interest in reading the western stuff (the "Lonesome Dove" series for instance), R31. But if "The Last Picture Show" is as great as its supposed to be, I'll definitely delve deeper into McMurtry's work.

I just happen to be attracted to the period, and absolutely everything else about the story. Isolation (physical and otherwise), and the passage of time are two of my favorite themes in general, and if they're as much a part of his other work as they are in "TLPS", thrn I may become a fan of his western fiction.

R21- Let's not forget that one of our DL mascots appeared on The Sopranos - Linda Lavin as Dr. Wendy Kobler - Meadows shrink.

Here she is-

[quote] [R22]... Larry McMurtry is one of my favourite writers. He had strong source material.

I tried to read Lonesome Dove (friend had recommended it) and just couldn't get through it.

No DL love for "At Long Last Love"?

He's dead. Good.

He was also a film historian. His books of interviews with Welles and Hitchcock are excellent.

Did Cybill string him along, or was it the other way around?

I didn't realize how much he and Cher hated each other.

R38 You should check out Power of the Dog, it has those themes and was shockingly good being one of the first Westerns I’ve ever read. There was a National Book award short list novel this year called Zorrie that based on your description you would like too, it’s a little gem of a book.

I'd never heard of Power of the Dog.

R32, though I'm sure you were kidding, according to THR's obit, he died of natural causes:

[quote]Bogdanovich died shortly after midnight Thursday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, his daughter Antonia Bogdanovich told The Hollywood Reporter.

Wonder who gets the house on Woodlawn? If those walls could talk.

All DLers love 'At Long Last Love.' But you'll wait in vain for any of them to admit it.

I saw it twice at Radio City. But the second time I saw it he had cut it. I don't know why. It didn't make it any better. Only more disjointed. And the reviews were out already and nobody was going to re=review it. It looked great on the Music Hall screen. Black and white in color.

R42 - I'm old enough to remember that back in the 1970s, At Long Last Love topped many critics' Worst Films of the Year list. (IIRC, Gene Shallit, one of the ugliest film critics on the planet, said Cybil Shepard danced with the grace of an elephant lumbering across a snow bank.)

Several years ago I got to see a digitally restored copy of the film playing at the Quad Cinema in NY - and I'm not in the least embarrassed to say it was one of the most delightful movies I'd seen in a while.

In later life, he favored bandannas as ascots. fooling no one about his neck.

I understand why some people on here are criticizing him as a pretentious name-dropper, but that’s the reason I’m sad he’s gone. There’s some old proverb about how every time someone dies a library burns to the ground. There just aren’t that many people left who love cinema and actually had relationships with many of the big names of the silent and golden ages of Hollywood. I would have loved to be able to talk with him for a few hours about all of those people he met.

True r54, movies are now more about high-concept franchises with CGI and little or no decent dialogue. There’s not much to love anymore.

He charmed crusty old John Ford into giving some "money" interviews and quotes.

He's playing himself in Welles' THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND.

PAPER MOON and LAST PICTURE SHOW are so great, he should have stopped there.

I give him permission to make What's Up, Doc, and then stop.

He and Orson Welles lived together for years.

R58- Check this out-

He was such a dick to women but also a walking film encyclopedia.

I really liked what he did with the Tom Petty documentary. I thought he did a great job.

It's hard to watch movies with Cher as an actress and not realize "it's Cher." I have a hard time judging whether she's a good actress or not.

I was just thinking about him yesterday. RIP.

Check out Alison Martino's Insta. She had a party for him in October. 2 cunts.

Amazing how quickly his star fell. He took up with Cybill Shepard and that was it. People hated their guts. They were insufferable.

R62 Ethel Merman had the same problem, I never not saw Ethel.

Being a director was his way of meeting women, I guess.

He made two top-notch films: LAST PICTURE SHOW and PAPER MOON. SAINT JACK, MASK, and THE CAT'S MEOW have their moments.

WHAT'S UP DOC? is decent but I watched it again recently and it's nowhere near as funny as it means to be.

AT LONG LAST LOVE is appalling - Shepherd is completely amateurish in every way (her attempts as comic acting are community theater level), Reynolds is phoning it in, and even Kahn is defeated by the awful script. Only John Hillerman and Eileen Brennan survive unscathed. And the film goes on and on and on with one lousy musical number after another. Bogdanovich had no feel for how to make a musical film...at all. This film is even worse than DAISY MILLER (which is perfectly OK whenever Shepherd isn't on screen or isn't talking).

Longworth sometimes makes too much of questionable source material, but the Polly Platt series is pretty convincing that once she gave Bogdanovich the heave ho, he was over.

[quote]Has Cher commented?

Yes, R14, a respectable comment.

Cher's always a class act.

I agree with R5 that "Targets" is one of his most interesting (and darkest) movies. "Gonna shoot some pigs."

I also give Bogdanovich credit for extending his hospitality to financially strapped Orson Welles for extended periods at his Bel Air house. Welles wasn't an easy houseguest, but the welcome mat was always out.

RIP

Polly Platt was the brilliant creative genius behind The Last Picture Show & Paper Moon not Bogdanovich.

r74. you beat me to it and I can't believe it took 74 replies to get there. Even in the early 70s everyone in Hollywood knew it was Polly Platt who brought the artistry to those 2 films.

And What's Up, Doc? Watch Bringing Up Baby if you want to see a genuinely funny film.

Nice tweet from Jeff Bridges.

You’re next, Friedkin.

Is it true his real name was Bogdan Bogdanovich?

I remember “saint Jack” fondly too.

Aww ... I hope Jeff Bridges is doing OK. He had lymphoma but is in remission now.

Jeff, Cybill and Tatum gave very heartfelt statements.

Cher's was surprisingly adult.

Streisand's comes off as very impersonal and a bit phony. It's never been a secret that she hated doing What's Up Doc? and has never been enthused about discussing it in interviews over the years.

What was the beef with Cher? Was he a terror on the set of Mask?

He should have acted more.

R46 posted the article about Cher.

[quote] When writer Andrew Goldman asked the director whom the most difficult actor he ever worked with was, Bogdanovich replied that it was Cher. “Well, she didn’t trust anybody, particularly men,” he said. “She doesn’t like men. That’s why she’s named Cher: She dropped her father’s name. Sarkisian, it is.”

[quote] “She can’t act,” Bogdanovich added. “She won Best Actress at Cannes because I shot her very well. And she can’t sustain a scene. She couldn’t do what Tatum [O’Neal] did in Paper Moon. She’d start off in the right direction, but she’d go off wrong somehow, very quickly. So I shot a lot of close-ups of her because she’s very good in close-ups. Her eyes have the sadness of the world. You get to know her, you find out it’s self-pity, but still, it translates well in movies. I shot more close-ups of her than I think in any picture I ever made.”

[quote][bold]So who was the most difficult actor you’ve ever worked with?[/bold]

[quote]Cher.

[quote][bold]Tell me about your experience with her on Mask.[/bold]

[quote]Well, she didn’t trust anybody, particularly men. She doesn’t like men. That’s why she’s named Cher: She dropped her father’s name. Sarkisian, it is. She can’t act. She won Best Actress at Cannes because I shot her very well. And she can’t sustain a scene. She couldn’t do what Tatum [O’Neal] did in Paper Moon. She’d start off in the right direction, but she’d go off wrong somehow, very quickly. So I shot a lot of close-ups of her because she’s very good in close-ups. Her eyes have the sadness of the world. You get to know her, you find out it’s self-pity, but still, it translates well in movies.Roger Ebert loved Mask and Cher’s performance, writing, “Cher makes Rusty Dennis into one of the most interesting movie characters in a long time.” I shot more close-ups of her than I think in any picture I ever made.

R84 beat me to it.

I was just thinking about him today and how I'd like to watch Noises Off again.

His early film were masterpieces, although they did show a bit too much of his influences (TLPS = John Ford, Paper Moon = Howard Hawks, What's Up, Doc = Preston Sturges). He did manage to pull off Noises Off, which many said wouldn't work on screen, and Saint Jack and The Cat's Meow are both extremely underrated. I liked his made-for-TV sequel to To Sir With Love as well.

R59, you can't watch the outtakes without also having a look at the Remix.

The Cat’s Meow was very charming, a last gasp of excellence from Kirsten Dunst’s youth era.

[quote]And that business of his seducing poor Dorothy Stratten

Did he seduce her? It seemed to be a movie fling that was on the verge of becoming a relationship when she was murdered. She was married to an awful psychopath and was looking for a way to distance herself from him. And Peter clearly had a thing for blonde models. It did seem to be very reminiscent of his affair with Cybill.

I do agree that the stuff with his sister was creepy, though.

[quote] She can’t act,” …. And she can’t sustain a scene. She’d start off in the right direction, but she’d go off wrong somehow, very quickly.

That's what John Schlesinger had to do with Julie Christie in Darling. She tried to speak a line of dialogue but she's emphasise the wrong word.

The editor had to cut up different footage to get the complete sentence.

The podcast "The Plot Thickens" did a season on Peter which was really good. I don't even like Bogdanovich or his movies but loved hearing his stories about Hollywood and making films.

[quote] I do agree that the stuff with his sister was creepy, though.

He did sexual stuff with his own sister?? Wow--edgy!

His genius was hiring all the right people: actors, cinematographers, costumers, etc.

[quote]I was thinking about how underrated What's Up Doc is

What's up Doc was not underrated in the slightest - THEN or NOW

I'm inclined to agree with R33. Bogdanovich was not only a drug addicted sleaze, he was an arrogant punk. Self destruction was inevitable.

R95 has stated OUR boundaries.

[quote] It's hard to watch movies with Cher as an actress and not realize "it's Cher."

That's why I avoid them.

I tried to watch this oddball schmalz-fest to enjoy genuine actresses playing genuine characters but every now and then an American circus-freak with a mask-like visage appeared on camera.

Ugh!

[quote]At Long Last Love topped many critics' Worst Films of the Year list

Yes, it was dreadful, but it's campy as hell and a lot of stupid fun.

Bogdanovich on Cher:

"And she can’t sustain a scene. She couldn’t do what Tatum did in Paper Moon. She’d start off in the right direction, but she’d go off wrong somehow, very quickly. So I shot a lot of close-ups of her because she’s very good in close-ups."

That's odd, only the most amateurish of actors cannot repeat themselves. WTF was going on in Cher's life that made her so nonfunctional?

"“I’ve seen pictures of us, I look like an arrogant, attractive guy, and she (Cybill) looks like a sexy girl."

Sorry, Peter, not an attractive guy.

I love the performances her drew from Madeleine Kahn.

Cher talked about making Mask in her book. She said she was very protective of this film because she had met Rocky's mother and grew close to her in doing research for the movie.

She never understood why Peter agreed to do the movie, because according to her, he hated bikers and disliked that whole environment. He was even cold and rude to the actors playing the bikers. Except for Sam Elliott, whom he was intimidated by.

She said Peter didn't know how to deal with actresses that he couldn't control. He would ask for her opinion, and then argue with her over it until he got his way. It got so heated one time that Sam had to intervene and tell Peter to walk away.

They patched things up before the movie was released, but when they went to Cannes, Peter started complaining about the cut that the studio released. Cher was pissed because she thought he was hurting the movie's chances, so she bitched him out in public. And he never forgave her for doing that to him.

[quote] Polly Platt was the brilliant creative genius behind The Last Picture Show & Paper Moon not Bogdanovich.

In interviews he always denied that Polly Platt had much to do with his film successes. One of many reasons he was a dickhead.

[quote] "“I’ve seen pictures of us, I look like an arrogant, attractive guy, and she (Cybill) looks like a sexy girl."

He sounds delusional.

I believe Cher's side of the story. She was / is a woman and he expected her to kowtow to him like a young, aspiring actress (Shepherd, Stratten). Also, being rude to the bikers (in Mask). I believe Steve Schirripa (Sopranos). Bogdanovich sounds rude. And yes, that ascot is silly.

Cher and Bogdonavich both seem right; it is odd that PB chose to direct Mask considering his distaste for the biker milieu, and he clearly preferred working with docile blondes, but his observations about Cher aren't incorrect

Cheer was nominated for the Oscar for Silkwood, for Mask, and for Moonstruck (for which she won Best Actress). Bogdanovich only directed Mask, yet he was convinced she couldn't act and it was only his direction and editing that managed to "save" her performance?

Please.

And just for the record, my spellcheck doesn't recognize Bogdanovich, but it sure as hell recognizes Cher.

[quote]I love the performances her drew from Madeleine Kahn.

He drew shit from Madeline Kahn. He gave her a chance in two movies. SHE was a great comedic actress who played her roles to perfection. God, some of you are so stupid.

[quote] Did he seduce her? It seemed to be a movie fling that was on the verge of becoming a relationship when she was murdered. She was married to an awful psychopath and was looking for a way to distance herself from him. And Peter clearly had a thing for blonde models. It did seem to be very reminiscent of his affair with Cybill.

I would say he seduced her , in relatively the same way Paul Snider did; giving her elaborate compliments, telling her how special she was, telling how he was going to make her a star. He was 21 years older than her and knew how to smooth talk a woman. She was an easy target. They weren't "on the verge of becoming a relationship"; she had left Snider and moved in with Bogdanovich. No doubt she was starry-eyed and bowled over by the attentions of the rich, famous movie director and had visions of being a movie star. As far as I know she had no intention of leaving Snider until Bogdanovich got a hold of her. And after her death, he pulled the same act on her 13 year old sister; seducing her with his wealth and prestige. They would stay in hotels together and he bought her expensive gifts and paid for plastic surgery to realign her jaw. It's said that he paid for plastic surgery to make her look more like Dorothy. He denied this, but there interviews of her where her hair is bleached Barbie doll blonde and her lips have obviously been plumped up to resemble Dorothy's (Dorothy had full lips; her sister did not). Dorothy's nickname was "D. R" for Dorothy Ruth. Later her sister Louise took the nickname "L. B.", another way of making seem like Dorothy. Both Bogdanovich and Louise Stratten denied their relationship was nothing more than friendly...then they got married. He put in minor parts in productions he was involved in, but she was no actress. They stayed married a long time, then divorced, but their relationship never ended. What a long, sick story.

"Cher can't act." Said the guy who "directed" Cybill Shepherd four times! Good thing Robert Altman, Mike Nichols, and Norman Jewison thought Cher could... Here's who Peter always reminded me of. That brainy professor on the smart puffs bag!

[quote]Cheer was nominated for the Oscar for Silkwood

OH FUCKING DEAR

Peter Bogdanovich: A Career In Pictures:

God, he was ugly.

[quote]Streisand's comes off as very impersonal and a bit phony. It's never been a secret that she hated doing What's Up Doc? and has never been enthused about discussing it in interviews over the years.

Rich. Considering she was never funnier, sexier, nor did she ever look as good as she did in this film. He showed BRINGING UP BABY, MY MAN GODFREY, THE LADY EVE, all sorts of screwball comedies from the 30s and 40s. Barbra didn't get it. She still doesn't.

He showed the above mentioned films to Barbra and Ryan. They couldn't understand why they were funny.

The ascots make him look so foolish.

His only decent films were the early ones his wife produced.

{quote]He showed BRINGING UP BABY, MY MAN GODFREY, THE LADY EVE, all sorts of screwball comedies from the 30s and 40s. Barbra didn't get it. She still doesn't.

Babs thought she was in a competition with then still alive Barbara Stanwyck. What a douche.

Cher wasn't nominated for "Mask".

I think some of Barbra's perpetual distaste with WUD has to do with Madeline Kahn becoming the break out star of that film and getting just as good, if not better reviews than her. (Though Barbra would never admit it).

Didn't Kahn say that Streisand wasn't overly friendly towards her?

Cher might have gotten a supporting nomination for Silkwood but her performance isn't much, mostly because her character is so thinly drawn. Diana Scarwid was more fun as the mortuary worker girlfriend. Mask was only her second real movie (Chastity and Jimmy Dean don't count), it makes sense that she might have some trouble and chafe at another short, ethnic man telling her what to do. She also hated Lasse Hallstrom and Frank Oz and got them fired from Mermaids. Not saying PB wasn't a misogynist or a jerk, but Cher isn't a shrinking violet.

He was a bitter and nasty little man who resented that his best work was done with his 1st wife as a producer. I find it unfortunate that Platt predeceased him by about 10 years.

At least with Silkwood Cher had a character part. Mask is really just an extension of Cher’s personality. Not to say she isn’t good in it, especially in the end. I wasn’t surprised she wasn’t nominated, but she got a lot of mileage out of losing the nomination, which helped her win for Moonstruck.

"Well I can't say I'm not glad to see the back of him! He was an asshole of the highest order. He coasted on early laurels and the allure of a promising youth. He despised women -- treated them like disposable playthings who only derived value from his self-congratulatory gaze. He had bad skin. In fact, his face was ugly and he wasn't even hot in an ironic sense. He poked fun at Cher. He was pretentious, dining out on name-dropping and sad old anecdotes. He... He... Oh, dear God, HE'S ME!"

[quote]It's hard to watch movies with Cher as an actress and not realize "it's Cher."

Sandy Dennis had the best quote when Cher asked her what she thought about her acting in the film "Come Back to the Five and Dime":

"I thought you were awful, but I couldn't take my eyes off you."

[quote]Didn't Kahn say that Streisand wasn't overly friendly towards her?

Kahn said Barbra kept her distance. But once, Kahn was joking around on set to kill the boredom and did a "number" for the crew. She said Streisand watched her carefully and stole the bit.

No. R117, you ridiculous queen. Streisand hardly noticed her existence. It was the script she didn't understand.

[quote]He showed the above mentioned films to Barbra and Ryan

You don't understand. Ryan was along for the ride, his opinion didn't meant squat and he kept it to himself if there was one.

It's hard to accept that all the actors from What's Up, Doc? are now gone except for Streisand.

Ryan O'Neal is alive, you imbecile R125.

[quote]you ridiculous queen. Streisand hardly noticed her existence. It was the script she didn't understand.

No, Streisand DEFINITELY noticed Kahn's existence.

At the first table read, Streisand got no laughs on funny lines and Madeline Kahn got laughs saying lines that didn't even seem funny on the page.

Afterward, Barbra complained to Bogdanovich: "I'm an extra in my own movie!"

[quote]Ryan was along for the ride

You mean Ryan was along for the ride on Barbra's fame. He wanted Barbra to do the film because he thought it would be good for his career.

Just like when he tried to talk Diana Ross into doing "The Bodyguard"

Dear Austin Pendleton is still very much with us.

Has Madeline Kahn commented?

And everyone thinks I'm the thief!

R128, Ryan was basking in the glow of Love Story - a mega hit - released in Dec 1970. Why he tagged along with Streisand in the spring of 1971 is unexplainable.

I can't remember the last time a director's death got this much attention in the press, and certainly not one who was far past his peak. He didn't make a lot of movies, but he made some real classics.

That Sandy Dennis quote was a response to Cher's audition for the Broadway version of "Jimmy Dean." And I think Cher told that story on herself. Cher should have gotten a supporting Oscar nod for the film version of "Jimmy Dean."

He made three great movies.

(1) The Last Picture Show is great because of the amazing character development and the genuine sense of loneliness and hopelessness. Amazing photography and genius "filmmaker" choices. Chloris Leachman deserved the Oscar for the final scene alone. It's only weaknesses are some moments of choppy editing and the casting of Cybill Shepherd, who is not a great actress.

(2) What's Up, Doc? is comedic perfection. Better than most of the screwball comedies of the 1930s. Witty dialogue that is highly quotable. Provides one zany, absurd, ridiculous moment after another. The sequence involving Judy in Howard Bannister's hotel room is a work of slapstick genius. Out of all of her films, this is the one in which Streisand is at her most attractive and her comic timing and delivery cannot be topped. This movie has no weaknesses that I can find.

(3) Paper Moon is amazing -- beautiful black and white photography, authentic recreations of the rural United States during the 1930s, and real chemistry between Ryan and Tatum O'Neal. What sucks about it? Nothing about the movie itself is bad ... but it's the unfairness of what came after the movie was released that gets me. Tatum O'Neal wins an Oscar for best supporting actress, beating out the incredible Madeline Kahn. Addie was the fucking main character of the movie and had more screen time than her father! Madeline Kahn as Miss Trixie Delight was robbed! This is a crime for which there is no forgiveness.

I saw Mask and it was good, but not as good as these three movies. While he was a talented man for about five years of his life, he seemed like an utterly loathsome human being.

[quote] It's hard to accept that all the actors from What's Up, Doc? are now gone except for Streisand.

Austin Pendleton is still alive. He's 81. He continues to work. He teaches acting and directing and still gets occasional film roles.

R130, safe to say they're dead to each other.

I forgot that Randy Quaid was in WUD and he's still alive. I just saw that Buck Henry, who wrote the script, recently died.

So, Streisand, O'Neal, Pendleton and Quaid are last surviving cast members.

Cher has acted in many other projects and done fine. She is immensely watchable.

Did he hate Cher because Cher's from Kazakstan and he's from Turkestan?

Blood is thicker than water.

Old hatreds last for centuries.

[quote] While he was a talented man for about five years of his life, he seemed like an utterly loathsome human being.

That's an understatement. He was one of the scummiest Hollywood pricks in history. I don't think any movie success of his atones for that.

Watch PAPER MOON and see how Ryan O'Neal honestly carries the entire movie. Tatum is great, but he is outstanding. An underrated performance.

He had a cameo on The Good Wife. It was very bizarre, a character that season was playing an aide or something to Chris Noth’s governor character. She became pregnant and had told someone the father was “Peter” which became a scandal because that was Noth’s name on the show but no one actually asks the woman, Peter Who? A couple episodes later, Bogdanovich shows up. It was just weird.

Here's something from Roger Friedman, who liked him, a lot:

I'm very saddened by the news of the passing of Peter Bogdanovich. Rarely has a key director and film historian had so many friends and admirers in the business. I’m lucky to have counted myself among them. Despite a lot of controversial moments in his personal life. Peter had a lot of connections. He was his own social media and everyone liked him despite the crazy noise around him. I will really miss him.

There was a time in the 1990s when Peter was living in New York, married to Louise Stratten, sister of Dorothy Stratten, and that was a whole scandal. He was doing some acting — he appears in Noah Baumbach’s “Mr. Jealousy” as a shrink. So I got to hang out with him then, circa 1995-98, and that solidified a friendship that went on for some time. Obviously, he’d made great movies from “The Last Picture Show” and “Paper Moon” to the hilarious “What’s Up, Doc?” and of course, “Mask.”

There were some that didn’t work, some were spectacular failures, but you always had to admire his ambition and his talent. And the great thing was that he admired the great talents of the past, his idols Hitchcock and Welles, among others. Aside from Martin Scorsese, was there ever a director who such a film buff, and who could articulate the medium so well? Talking to Peter, reading his books, watching him was an invaluable education.

Here’s a little PS: I, my brother, and my mother all appear in Peter’s final film, “She’s Funny That Way,” released in 2014. Originally titled “Squirrel to the Nuts,” the film boasted quite a cast including Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Cybill Shepherd, Imogen Poots, and Richard Lewis. It’s actually a funny movie, but weird, a little off kilter. Part of the story entails the main players going to a Broadway opening. My mom was invited by producer Holly Wiersma to sit in the fake audience as a theater critic (she’s retired now). They used the United Palace Theater in Harlem. Peter included my brother and me as well. I didn’t think we’d make it on screen but we did because Peter went out of his way to cut us in. I just remember a fun day watching Peter work, and Cybill Shepherd, the love of his life, cracking wise with us all afternoon.

You know that Peter was played by Ryan O’Neal– who’d starred in “Paper Moon” and “What’s Up Doc?”– in a fictionalized account of the director’s divorce from the great costume and production designer, Polly Platt. It was a 1984 Charles Shyer movie called, “Unfaithfully Yours,” starring a young Sharon Stone as Cybill Shepherd, with all names changed. Shyer’s then wife, Nancy Meyers, co-wrote it. It was a flop but it made Peter legendary, and this was after a run of movies in the 1970s that had already made him a legend. Pretty cool, even if he came off very badly.

Condolences to Peter’s daughters, to his ex wife Louise, to Cybill Shepherd, to his friends who have so many stories about him they’ll be sad not to get to tell them at a big memorial service that could have gone on for days. I will really miss him. He was one of a kind.

[quote] It was a flop but it made Peter legendary, and this was after a run of movies in the 1970s that had already made him a legend. Pretty cool, even if he came off very badly.

How can a "flop" make somebody legendary? And nobody considered Bogdanovich a "legend" during his lifetime, except maybe this dumb guy. "Pretty cool, even if he came off badly?" How does coming off badly" be called "pretty cool?" This guy is a moron.

[quote] He was one of a kind.

Maybe. But not a a GOOD way.

In "They All Laughed (what a godawful title)" John Ritter played Dorothy Stratten's love interest. One critic noticed that he was "absurdly made up to look like Bogdanovich." How weird.

I remember that, R143.

I was well aware of the nature of the Cher/Bogdanovich feud, but only just found this earlier today.

The only thing I remember about They All Laughed was an awkward roller skating scene that was supposed to be funny, and wasn’t.

He should have fucked Cybill on the side and stayed with his wife. His whole career would have been different: They were perfect creative collaborators, and he was never the same as a director after Polly moved on.

Was he broke when he died? It appeared he didn’t have a pot to piss in by then.

I would say that Bogdanovich and Roman Polanski were equally talented as directors. It's hard to say whom I prefer.

Polanski by a mile. Rosemarys baby is a masterpiece

Cher : National treasure and icon.

Peter B: who? footnote.

Susan Dey is having a sleepover at Cybill Shepard's. Apparently no one is talking until the movie ends and they finish doing each others' makeup.

He couldn't get along with Cher because she wasn't a blonde thirteen year-old.

I realized a couple of years ago that I just could NOT listen to this guy’s stories anymore. His endless Hitchcock and Welles impersonations, so smarmy and proud oh himself every time. Ugh, a latch-on weasel he was. That said his first few films are wonderful — love targets and Picture Show and Paper Moon. The Streisand movie doesn’t work for me, although Ryan is crazy fuckable

I never knew Cher could act until I saw Silkwood. I'm a lesbian -- and when Cher, to me, the epitome of femininity, convinced me on film she was a lesbian, I knew she could really act.

If Bogdanovich couldn't see that, he was the asshole.

[quote]"Peter always made me laugh! He’ll keep making them laugh up there too. May he rest in peace," Streisand wrote on Twitter.

It's pretty funny that Streisand's "tribute" to Bogdanovich makes no mention of "What's Up, Doc?"

Great job R135. You pretty much nailed all three films. Are you the Madeline Kahn Troll who occasionally devotes threads to her? (I mean that in a good way),

He had one of the most disgusting personalities ever; always bragging, always name dropping, an ego bigger than the great outdoors. And he was so full of shit. He dismissed Polly Platt's work on his films, saying she really didn't contribute much of importance. He said Hugh Hefner was responsible for Dorothy Stratten's death by banning Paul Snider from the Playboy mansion. He said Snider had no problem with him seducing and stealing his wife; it was his rage at Hefner that made him kill her. He said Dorothy Stratten hated posing nude even though she'd publicly stated she was grateful for the opportunity to do it. He denied an intimate relationship with little Louise Stratten....until they got married. He was a big fat fucking liar.

On one of the "ever meet a celebrity" threads, some DL'er had a great story about sitting next to Dorothy and Louise's mom, at a movie screening maybe? Anyway, if the person who posted that happens to be reading this, please post again.

I've always found Polly Platt's life really interesting. The book Is That a Gun in Your Pocket? does an excellent job covering the highs and lows of Platt's career.

I think Bogdanovich hated Cher because as others have said she is strong-willed and is no wilting flower. I think he also resented her because she was the focus of Mask and a huge part of why it was successful and is still loved. He should have been happy considering he hadn't had a hit in quite a few years in Hollywood when it came out in 1985.

Peter was smart to shift to acting and teaching films once his directing career dried up. I think that was his true talent: an actor and film historian.

He did an audio commentary on Citizen Kane's DVD release, and it was one of the best I've ever heard, which was full of background information and scholarly analyses of each scene.

I was once sitting in a theater before a Broadway show and a woman and her elderly mother came and sat next to me. The older woman was talking a lot to me telling me how she owns three houses.

She then sad something like that's my daughter (she had just got up and left for a minute.) The mother then complained how the daughter's husband was so old and she didn't approve. I was getting bored with the discussion until the daughter and husband came back and I saw the husband was Bogdanovitch. Then suddenly I was interested! Tell me more lady!

(so she'd have been the role Caroll Baker played in the film Star 80)

Streisand is tweeting about seeing him in heaven.

Barbra you're Jewish (or were). You don't believe in that.

he was no Alan Pakula

Peter wasn’t THAT bad. Dominic Dunne was the biggest name dropper and they loved him

Michael Murphy is still alive out of the "What's Up Doc?" cast. Randy Quaid had a bit part, and he is still alive and kicking and not to little crazy, too.

Was he hiding a tracheotomy scar with that bandana?

Barbra never looked better in her life when she was onscreen in WUD

Mask is one of my favorite movies but I could only watch it once it was so heart-rending

And I thought Cher was mad at him for making her dye her hair red for Mask and ruining it

Bogdanovich was a pompous ass but Targets is an amazing first film and then he followed up with three classic films in a row and all those films made with heavy input and contributions from Platt.

Then, Platt left and he made three bombs in a row that were completely lacking in the style, wit and charm of the first four films all made with Platt.

Hmmmmm.

As for Cher and Bogdanovich, they were both sorta right. He was a dick and she really isn't a good actress. She's a terrific Star however and his line about her eyes is very much on point.

Cher had a viable movie career when she had super talented directors willing to hold her hand and shape her performances (largely in the editing). When she didn't have those directors, her movie career went into the toilet.

[quote]he was no Alan Pakula

And Alan Pakula was no Robert Altman.

As a '70s teen, I recall that by the time Peter made "Nickelodeon," the studio agreed on the stipulation that Cybill Shepherd NOT be in the film. After the double bombs "Daisy Miller" and "At Long Last Love," it was as if Peter was paying tribute to the plot of "Citizen Kane," the powerful man trying to make a star out of his mistress...

[quote]Both Bogdanovich and Louise Stratten denied their relationship was nothing more than friendly...then they got married.

If I recall, they even went the People Magazine route when they got married, having People do a softball story on their romance, telling some tale about how they were just friends until she was in college or some such thing.

The AP had a different story: they got married in Canada and told the press it was just so Louise could get a green card, and Louise's mother told the AP she had no idea they were getting married and she now felt like "she'd lost another daughter." Very grim.

Where can you find (ideally stream) Last Picture Show? All this content I'd love to access and they make it so hard.

Check out the TCM podcast "The Plot Thickens" hosted by Ben Ben Mankiewicz. . There is a whole series devoted to Peter Bogdanvoich.

R178 I don't think it's free on any streaming service but you can rent it for $3 on Prime.

He was terrible as Melfi's mentor. By that point, they didn't know what to do with her and should have written her out of the show.

R75 missed the multiple early references to Platt or was congratulating themselves on being R74. He clearly was lost without Platt.

I was always curious about Nickelodeon as it takes place in the teens of the 20th Century as popular movies were finding their footing and power. Anybody see it? Is it worth seeking out?

Takes place in the teens? Sounds intriguing...

Granted is from Wikipedia but even a part of Polly Platt's life story would give an actress quite a role:

Platt was married to Philip Klein until his death in a car accident in the 1950s, eight months after they married, and to director Peter Bogdanovich from 1962 to 1971.[2] They divorced after Bogdanovich left her during the filming of The Last Picture Show for its lead actress Cybill Shepherd. Platt and Bogdanovich had two children: Antonia and Sashy. Platt later married prop maker Tony Wade; they remained married until his death in 1985. She was stepmother to his two children, Kelly and Jon.[1][2]

The 1984 film Irreconcilable Differences, starring Ryan O'Neal, Shelley Long and Drew Barrymore, was reportedly loosely based on her marriage to Bogdanovich, and their divorce,[13] and Platt herself confirmed the film "got more right than wrong."[14]

Platt's talent as a mentor and film producer was deeply admired by her peers, who felt she should have become a director. She struggled with alcoholism for more than 25 years.[15] Additionally, sexism in the film industry made directing unlikely for her.[16]

Platt participated in a 2000 Texasville reunion of some of the cast and crew of The Last Picture Show. She and Cybill Shepherd had made peace and were on friendly terms. Platt and her children were reconciled with Bogdanovich when she died.[17]

Get over yourself, Mary R33. No one gives a shit what you think.

Dorothy and Louise’s mother didn’t think too highly of Bogdanovich. When Louise married him her mother reportedly said “Now I have lost two daughters.”

R186, That sounds familiar.

He not only married Dorothy's little sister, he paid for her to have surgery to make her look more like Dorothy. That's an extra level of creepy that most people (even in Hollywood) can't match.

What a great write up/tribute from David Chase.

[quote] No one gives a shit what you think.

Obviously YOU do, sweetie.

[quote]In "They All Laughed (what a godawful title)"

IT'S A SONG TITLE

Some of these comments must be from fraus or Be Kind Rewind types. So many black and white statements made here on this thread about how Polly Platt is responsible for ALL his success (they were a team, that's why they worked, it's weird woke revisionism to pin all his success on her) about how he was EVIL and awful towards women (it takes two people to be in a relationship, Cybill especially is a known cunt). Not getting along with Cher on a film set does not make one a bad person........And she herself paid her respects to him in a mature and adult way.

Also What's Up Doc? is hilarious, you contrarians.

He was a complex man, but an important and vital figure in film. I love how much respect he had for the old masters, for people complaining about how much he "went on" about Welles, Hitchock, Ford.....it's good he tried to keep the art of cinema alive until his death.

It shouldn't matter what kind of person he was, you freaks. Posts like R33 getting so many upvotes is retarded. We should mourn him for his artistic contributions..........if it's this bad when Bogdavonich (a bog standard Hollywood sleaze type) dies I don't want to imagine the threads on Woody Allen's death.

R176 I know it bombed but I liked Daisy Miller and actually thought Cybill was fine for the part but I know I'm in the minority there!

R194 - I know most people hate her but for some reason I never minded Cybill Shepard and actually liked most of her work.

Cybill has plenty of friends in the business.

That she's a well known cunt is a black and white statement.

R195 same, she was ideal for her Taxi Driver, Heartbreak Kid, Last Picture Show and Moonlighting parts at any rate.

[quote]How can a "flop" make somebody legendary? And nobody considered Bogdanovich a "legend" during his lifetime

Right. Bogdanovich was NOT and was NEVER considered a legendary director. At the beginning he was named a "whiz kid," a youngish guy (32) receiving great acclaim for his first few movies, and working with top film stars. But as many times happens, that was it, and he never measured up to his original films - not in quality or commerciality. By the end, Bogdanovich was a footnote, not a legend.

R163, if so, he would never have been able to handle Streisand. I do think he was jealous of and looked down on Cher, and was resentful that he had to work with her.

R193, do you know where you are? This is exactly the place bitch about Bogdanovich the Sleaze.

[quote]Streisand is tweeting about seeing him in heaven. Barbra you're Jewish (or were). You don't believe in that.

Why on earth would you believe that Streisand is a practicing Jew? Because of Yentl?

Only Martin Scorsese knew more about the history of film than he did. I enjoyed his books.

[quote]Right. Bogdanovich was NOT and was NEVER considered a legendary director.

You couldn't be more wrong.

Peter, along with Scorsese, Coppolla, DePalma, Spielberg, Fredkin and Lucas were the premier up and coming directors of American Cinema in the early to mid 1970's. The Last Picture Show was considered a modern-day classic upon its original release, and a couple of critics even compared it to Citizen Kane.

Peter wound up squandering a lot of that goodwill, but his first three movies were well received by audiences and critics alike.

Bogdonavich was an important director. How many directors can you name, other than as above at R201.

And, of course, De Mille. We made a lot of pictures together. He always said I was his greatest star.

One good movie does not a legend make, R201, it takes TEN.

Unlike James Dean, if Bogdanovich had died young after his first few films, he might be considered a legend today. But it was all the lackluster work that followed that ruined his reputation and justifiably made Hollywood think Polly Platt was responsible for the early artistry.

He was a self obsessed fuckwit.

^ In Los Angeles?!? I don't believe it.

[quote] He was terrible as Melfi's mentor. By that point, they didn't know what to do with her and should have written her out of the show.

I thought he was good as Elliott, Melfi's psychiatrist. Supposedly, he, IRL, carried around a huge water bottle and that was put into the show (Sopranos).

Melfi was a corny plot device from Day One (and I love the Sopranos). It was a rip-off of "Analyze This" and it was a cheap exposition device (into Tony's thoughts and motivations).

Based on Moonlighting, Cybill Shepherd is horrible. Her voice is just loud and flat.

Cybill in At Long Last Love...

Babs!

I liked Bogdanovich's movies, but the fact that he directed them wasn't enough to get me to see them, unlike say Scorsese, Kubrick, and Spielberg.

[quote] a fictionalized account of the director's divorce from the great costume and production designer, Polly Platt

Well, THAT was cunty.

Polly said it got more right than wrong, r211.

Is Mabel Albertson still alive? I loved her in Barefoot in the Park.

Massive, massive creep.

[quote]Is Mabel Albertson still alive?

If she were, she'd be 120 years old. Born in 1901.

She died of a sick headache.

I thought she died of disdain, r215.

I learned only recently Mabel Albertson was Jack Albertson's sister.

J'adore Mable in What's Up, Doc?

Bogdanovich pretty much shot his wad with his excellent 1970s films. After that his movies were pretty much run of the mill.

R203 And I can guarantee you that the average person today has no clue who Billy Wilder was, much less knows ten movies he directed, much less knows ten legendary movies he directed.

The average person couldn't name 10 movies Scorsese or Coppola or even Woody Allen directed.

I would hope the average person is at least somewhat familiar with Wilder's Double Indemnity, Some Like It Hot, Sunset Boulevard, The 7 Year Itch, Sabrina, Witness for the Prosecution and The Apartment.

[quote] IT'S A SONG TITLE

Song title or movie title, it's still an awful title.

R220, I can guarantee you that the average person today has no clue who Peter Bogdanovich was, much less know any movie he directed.

r106, it sounds like your tampon has been full to bursting for several weeks now. If you leave it in much longer you risk toxic shock syndrome... not that that would be a bad thing for anyone else, mind you.

[quote] It shouldn't matter what kind of person he was, you freaks.

Oh shut up, you ass. It SHOULD matter. If he was a rapist or child molester would you still be singing his praises? I guess you would. You're the one who sounds like a freak.

[quote] I can't remember the last time a director's death got this much attention in the press, and certainly not one who was far past his peak.

The reason for that is because his life was so sordid and his career so odd. He makes a big splash with three movies, was touted as the next Orson Welles, and then it all imploded. He dumped his wife, who contributed a lot to his success, for a 20 year old model, who he tried to make a movie star but instead made a laughingstock of her and himself. After that relationship withered he came after a 20 year old Playboy model with a jealous husband. She left her husband for him, the rich movie director, and ended up getting killed. After that he obsessed over her younger sister and seduced her and married her and paid to get her face changed to look more like her sister's. He never lived up to his earlier promise (no doubt because he no longer had the assistance of his first wife's talent) and his life was pure sleaze. Of course there would be a lot of talk about his life; his life was an unbelievable mess. That always generates interest.

There was interview in The Vulture (IIRC), which they recently republished. I'd link it, but there's a paywall.

The interview describes his lifestyle as modest, living with Dorothy's family, etc.

Thanks 210- Lordy what a talent- that song is smashing-

The Average Person is stupid and boring and not worthy of interest.

More fun Mabel Albertson facts: She was Cloris Leachman's mother-in-law!!!!

Bogdanovich married Louise Stratten when he was 49 and she was 20, the same age her sister was when she died. Her mother was distraught and said:

“I feel he wants her because of a guilt trip,” Statten's mother said at the time, according to People.

“This happened to my other daughter, who got her head shot off, and it’s gonna happen to this one. He didn’t do it, but he was involved. If he is in love with one daughter, how can he be in love with the other daughter?"

Bogdanovich said her mother was "not herself" when she said those things. Later, they seemed to make amends, no doubt because Bogdanovich helped support her financially. I think for the Stratten sisters that was his main appeal: his money, the fact that he was a movie director. Very enticing to young girls, those two things.

Bogdanovich was basically Martin Prince from The Simpsons....uber smart nerd yet creepily pathetic

[quote] The Average Person is stupid and boring and not worthy of interest.

Then that makes you the epitome of The Average Person.

Fun fact to know snd tell. Years ago, Cybil Shepherd tried. to buy a condo in a posh development in Memphis

The condo board denied her request

[quote]The average person couldn't name 10 movies Scorsese or Coppola or even Woody Allen directed.

Scorsese is still popular today, and a well known name. And I think the general public knows Taxi Driver and Goodfellas.

And almost everyone knows The Godfather movies at this point. Two of the greatest movies ever made.

My point is that being legendary is subjective. Billy Wilder was a legendary director in his heyday, but now is all but forgotten except among cinema aficionados. Bogdanovich has a couple of years of being an it director as well.

R233 Ouch. You really are the King of Zingers, aintcha?

[quote] "“I’ve seen pictures of us, I look like an arrogant, attractive guy, and she (Cybill) looks like a sexy girl."

He seems to think he was Jeff Goldblum or George Hamilton.

[quote] It only got saucier from there. “She can’t act,” Bogdanovich added. “She won Best Actress at Cannes because I shot her very well. And she can’t sustain a scene. She couldn’t do what Tatum [O’Neal] did in Paper Moon. She’d start off in the right direction, but she’d go off wrong somehow, very quickly. So I shot a lot of close-ups of her because she’s very good in close-ups. Her eyes have the sadness of the world. You get to know her, you find out it’s self-pity, but still, it translates well in movies. I shot more close-ups of her than I think in any picture I ever made.”

George Miller said he struggled with Cher in The Witches Of Eastwick until Jack Nicholson explained that as a TV host Cher is used to performing as a solo act, not bouncing off other actors, and from then on her figured out how to direct her and things were fine.

This is why Jack is such a legend. That he was able to pick that up and not the director shows how perspicacious he is in terms of on screen acting.

The Last Picture Show is great because of Larry McMurtry, in addition to Peter B.

[quote] This is why Jack is such a legend. That he was able to pick that up and not the director shows how perspicacious he is in terms of on screen acting.

Yep. Jack Nicholson wasn’t one of the most successful and canny actors of his generation for nout.

Great podcast series on him: TCM’s The Plot Thickens

I always thought he was an insufferable snob….and he is. But he is interviewed extensively in this podcast and was able to laugh at himself. It’s a fascinating series. TCM followed it up with a series on Lucy/Desi. Also terrific

Wish DL would create a separate (but equal) channel just for discussions like this. And make it an evergreen library where we can easily add to discussions. I love all of DL, but threads with thoughtful analysis of theatrical folk are remarkable and available on few other platforms.

[quote] Meadows shrink.

Because of global warming, no doubt.

I’ve told this story on DL before but it’s worth repeating. I once interviewed Sharon Gless in person for a magazine article. Smoked and drank Diet Coke throughout and was an all-around great broad.

She told me a lot of great show biz stories and had deep affection for most of her costars. Robert Wagner’s memoir had just been published and I mentioned that he spoke very fondly of her—she hadn’t read the book yet. That caused her to weep and told me of how Wagner made her career and what a terrific guy he is.

Then I asked if she ever had a celebrity feud. She took a drag of her cigarette, and sip of Coke, gave me a meaningful look and said: “Cybil Shepard called me a cunt.” (I’m sure I’m spelling Cybil’s name wrong but I can’t be bothered to look it up.)

Peter was going to cast Sharon in a movie (can’t remember which one), which made Cybil jealous because she wanted the part. Told Peter not to because “Sharon is a cunt.” So Sharon lost the role.

I’m R245. I have another cute Sharon Gless story—this one has nothing to do with Peter so no reason to post here except I’m lazy and don’t feel like finding a more relevant thread.

In early 1999, my friends (all in the theater) and I started planning a 2000 New Years party. Wanted a fancy dinner party with great wine. We were all broke then, so I took on the task of buying good wine. I bought two bottles a month-one dinner wine and one champagne- leading up to NYE. By NYE, had collected 24 bottles of great wine, including a very expensive one to pop at midnight.

Well!! One of the guests—a regionally famous and prolific playwright who everyone at the party wanted to befriend (except me—the only non-theater person in the bunch) marched in with a bottle of Korbel, announcing that Sharon Gless (who had recently appeared in one of her plays) had presented it to her and THAT is the bottle of wine we’d be popping at midnight.

The dinner hosts (my best friends!) gave me a helpless shrug and agreed. I sullenly glupped down as much of my fancy wine as I could hold before midnight.

Several years later, when I interviewed Gless, I told her the story and she laughed her head off. Told me that she’s a recovering alcoholic and probably just passed on the bottle of cheap bubbly that she was gifted by some fan.

The next day I received a bottle of Dom Perignon from Gless. Great broad!

Wow, I think I'm a Sharon Gless fan now!

Sharon Gless love

Why would Cybill hate Sharon Gless? The only thing I could think of is that she lost the Emmy to her.

Rosie o Neill is on DVD now, BTW.

^ Because Sharon Gless was getting the part. It's not hard, Rose, it's Hollywood.

R249 I think the feud happened before Cagney and Lacy but I could be wrong. Definitely related to Bogdonovich wanting to cast Gless in a movie. I did the interview in 2008 and Sharon told me not to include the “cunt” story in the article. Can’t remember all the details. I recorded the interview and have it somewhere. She told me so many great stories—I need to find that tape!

She loathed the producer of Cagney and Lacy. She encouraged me to included that in the article!

I thought Sharon Gless married the producer of C&L?

Another reason Streisand hated WHAT'S UP, DOC? - She gave up her percentage of the gross and took a flat fee.

The film outgrossed every one of her previous films (including FUNNY GIRL) .

She signed away millions.

No wonder she's still bitter.

R252 maybe I have it wrong—the interview was over a decade ago. Executive producer, maybe? Anyway, he’s the guy who killed the series. And then refused to green light a reunion show—even after Helen Mirren asked for a crossover episode that involved Prime Suspect going to NYC to investigate a crime with C&G.

Whoever that guy was—she hated him.

You’re right—she married one of the producers who also wrote for the series with his former wife.

Anyway! Sorry to hijack this thread with Sharon Gless stories…but, honestly, who better to hijack a thread than Sharon Gless?

[quote]My point is that being legendary is subjective. Billy Wilder was a legendary director in his heyday, but now is all but forgotten except among cinema aficionados

I'm willing to bet cash dollars that 6 out of 10 people know Some Like it Hot.

And only 2 or 3 could actually summarize the plot.

R245 etc - if I start a Sharon Gleas thread will you post there? That dame deserves her own thread!

R257 I’d be delighted. I’ll dig around for my tape. I actually video taped the interview as a way to take note for the story because I needed to video her for a separate project. I know I have a video clip of her telling the cunt story readily accessible because I wanted to share it with a few friends.

I’ve got a lot of dirt from my days as a journalist. I interviewed a lot of famous or famous-adjacent folks. Gless was one of my favs because she was fun, earthy, and willing to spill all the beans.

I’ve been thinking of doing interviews again just as a larky side business. I’m naturally curious and non-judgy, which seems to make people feel comfy opening up.

R24 Maybe you're thinking of Les Moonves. What you said sounds a lot like what Linda Bloodworth Thomason said happened to an actress who got sexually assaulted by Moonves, and almost everyone on here speculated that it was Gless. He told her she was too old and killed a project that she wanted to bring to CBS before sticking his tongue down her throat.

Sharon and Barney and married. And I don't think she hates Barbara Corday, the other producer, because Sharon was the one who broke up their marriage.

R255, wow, I'd take that bet, even if you lowered it to 3 out of 10.

R259….it definitely was someone who said C&L were too old. The quote was something along the lines of “who wants to watch two old broads.” I’ll have to dig up the story—she named names!

Cybill Shepherd was probably jealous of Sharon Gless, who was blonde and pretty as well. Cybill made it on her blonde looks and was probably threatened by Sharon's blonde, good looks.

What I want to know is the name of the female playwright who brought Sharon's champagne to the party.

Why not tell us who she is, if you don't mind?

Yes the Polly Platt podcast detailed her almost directing The War of the Roses. Shame as it would have been fascinating to see her get that opportunity. Hollywood really is/was so sexist. Like everywhere I guess. Look at the talented Sandra Locke and the genius of Impulse and her not getting anything again. It must really chafe.

R49, he reportedly died from complications of Parkinson's disease.

Your average schmoe on the street also doesn't know/or care about Manet, Monet, Proust, Oscar Wilde, Bizet, Cole Porter, Willa Cather or Preston Sturges but that doesn't mean that they're not great/important artists.

The great sweaty masses only care about what is currently hot and what was hot when they were teenagers and fondly remember from their youth.

"The Last Picture Show" is in my top 10 favorite movies of all time. There is nothing else like it—it's outstanding.

Sadly, R266, you're right. I bet if you asked the great sweaty masses who Stan Lee is, they would tell you, "Oh, the guy who created Spider-Man!"

Unfortunately, that's the culture we're living in today. Comicbook culture has taken over completely.

I think Cybill has gotten a bad rap. From reading her book, she grew up in an environment where beauty was prized above everything else. Her relationships with the men in her family were nonexistent (I think she even implied she was molested by one of them). So she didn't have a whole lot of grounding going into showbiz to begin with. A lot of similarities with Dorothy Stratten. Both came from fragile backgrounds and looked to Peter as a lover/father figure.

The smartest thing she did was take Orson Welles advice to move away from mainstream acting and tour around the country doing regional theatre. She came back to Hollywood a much better actress

Oprah has said that she felt Cybill was the only celebrity in all of the years she's done interviews that has been completely truthful in telling how her beauty opened doors for her and how her Hollywood career was basically handed to her on a silver platter. Unlike many celebrities (especially the beneficiaries of nepotism) who want you to believe that it was a huge struggle.

But this is where I think her insecurities have often got the better of her. She often comes off as being threatened by others too easily. A lot of that had to do with Peter basically throwing her out there to the wolves after two movies. She would have benefitted greatly from doing a lot of supporting work in movies before going lead.

I sat in front of Peter and Louise Stratton at an event shortly after their marriage. She seemed rather slow. It was a sad pairing.

Richard Brody from The New Yorker had an excellent write-up about Bogdanovich. I particularly liked this part when he mentioned the Welles and Bogdanovich connection:

[quote] The connection of Welles and Bogdanovich has a diabolical symbolic consistency: like Welles, Bogdanovich was a prodigy of the theatre. Like Welles’s, Bogdanovich’s directing career took a major hit while he was in his prime and never quite got back on track. Like Welles, Bogdanovich, in his later years, spent much of his professional time not directing but acting. From 1994 to the end of his life, Bogdanovich did more than forty acting performances, the most famous of which is his recurring role as Dr. Elliot Kupferberg, in “The Sopranos.” Yet perhaps his most vital activity, in those later years, paralleled Welles’s work yet again: Bogdanovich proved to be a crucial mentor and inspiration to several of the best filmmakers of the new generation, notably Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach. (Bogdanovich told Tad Friend, in a Profile of Baumbach in The New Yorker, that both directors called him “Pop.”) It’s easy to recognize echoes of the vulnerable, melancholy intimacy of “The Last Picture Show” in Baumbach’s films, and of Bogdanovich’s conceptualized stylization of grand passion in Anderson’s work.

R270 lurks through life, waiting for a chance to say she sat in front of the Strattons and to pass such informed judgment on the "sad" pairing.

R272, you sound like a truly insufferable, detestable fuckhead. You must think Stratten and Bogdanovich were an example of "true love", you stupid twat.

As for Bogdanovich and Stratten, well, they were what you could call a sad pairing. He latched onto her when she was a little girl. grooming her as a replacement for her sister, marrying her and trying to fashion her into a blonde beauty like her sister (the transformation never took). He was all she had; she was all he had. They eventually divorced, but never really separated. Has she ever had a relationship with a man beside the repellent Bogdanovich? Seems unlikely. What will she do without him? Probably fall back into the obscurity from whence she came. Seems like a pretty sad "love story" to me.

When the boy(Gary Brockette) and girl get out of the swimming pool in TLPS you see the girl full frontal but you don't see the boy and Bogdanovich filmed it but cut it out. Such a coward.

Brockette died of cancer at 62.

R262 I don't think Cybill was threatened by Sharon Gless's " blonde, good looks". She might have been threatened by Sharon's acting ability but looks wise Cybill Shepherd was much better looking than Sharon Gless, who looks fine but nothing spectacular. Cybill was a successful model which Sharon could never have been. Nice enough looking woman and great actress but I don't see Cybill feeling threatened by Sharon Gless's looks.

Billy Wilder forgotten?

Doubly indemnity

Sunset Boulevard

Sabrina

Witness for the Prosecution

Some like it hot

Looking forward to reading that R271. Bogdanovich had an odd career that's probably ripe for reassessment. Saint Jack (with Ben Gazzara) is a good one.

R245/r258 here’s a recent thread on La Gless!

Ryan O'Neal to Cybill after "At Long Last Love" tanked:

“You’ll have to stop eating to lose weight,” said Ryan, his charm suddenly dissipating. “I couldn’t believe Peter putting you in nothing but white for At Long Last Love. You looked like a beached beluga. And everybody’s starting to wonder if he’s lost it. The sound of that flop is still echoing through the Hollywood Hills.”

Unbelievable that Bogdanovich tried to make Cybill Shepard a movie star. All she had was her looks; no talent to speak of. He must have been so mesmerized by her pussy that he lost all reason.

R272 = Louise Stratten

R274, I remember seeing Bogdanovich questioned about that, maybe on a David Susskind show around 1972. He made a point that he didn't because he's a heterosexual and it didn't interest him. He also "defended" Ken Russell as a heterosexual even though he filmed two nude men in Women in Love.

[quote] He made a point that he didn't because he's a heterosexual and it didn't interest him. He also "defended" Ken Russell as a heterosexual even though he filmed two nude men in Women in Love.

What does being "homosexual" have to do with filming a naked man for a nude scene in a movie? Did Bogdanovich think people would believe he was homosexual if there was any male nudity in a film that he made? Did he think you have to be a homo if you had male nudity in your film? And what are YOU saying? That Bogdanovich defended Ken Russell as straight "even though he filmed two nude men in Women in Love?" So you think Russell was (I don't know if he was or not) gay since he "filmed two nude men?" Having a male nude scene in your movie doesn't make somebody gay. This all seems totally cuckoo.

Maybe the male frontal nudity embarrassed him and he felt most of the audience would feel the same way?

What was LPS's rating on release? I could see a ratings rulebook that allowed you a flash of a gash but not the shock of a cock.

Sounds like, in addition to everything else. Peter Bogdanovich was homophobic.

I think it was mentioned in a film class I had that the guy couldn't be seen the way the girl was because Bogdonovich wouldn't have been able to get an R-rating for the film.

R283, try to concentrate. I am merely repeating what Bogdanovich said 50 YEARS AGO. Things were different then. He wasn't interested in male nudity. In 1971, male nudity would also have gotten The Last Picture Show an X Rating.

[quote] He wasn't interested in male nudity. In 1971, male nudity would also have gotten The Last Picture Show an X Rating.

I doubt that any filmmaker who had a male nude scene in his movie would have said he was "interested in male nudity." You don't have to be "interested in male nudity" to have a naked man in a movie. And a brief glimpse of a guy's dong would not necessarily have gotten an X rating. Bogdanovich obviously found the nude male body distasteful. He was a homophobe, alright.

In the early 1970s, it would definitely have gotten an X rating, R289. How old are you?

Women in Love had plenty of dong, was a somewhat popular film and did not have an x rating.

Neither did Woodstock.

Male filmmakers of the time which were all of them were squeamish showing a dick.

Scorsese had a young and very ripped Harvey Keitel naked in many scenes in his debut film Who's That Knocking at My Door. I find it a little odd that Bogdanovich had issues with that when his New Hollywood contemporaries didn't.

R291, Women in Love was not an AMERICAN film.

[quote] I find it a little odd that Bogdanovich had issues with that when his New Hollywood contemporaries didn't.

He was obviously homophobic. I think the idea of male nudity sickened him. Homophobic creep.

I think is not an established fact.

[quote] I think is not an established fact.

He definitely had a problem with showing a male nude in any film he made, which certainly indicates he had an aversion to male sexuality. Other male filmmakers had no such qualms about having male nudity in their films. Bogdanovich was homophobic. I know you really, really, REALLY like him, but he was.

You're insane.

R298 is in love with Peter Bogdanovich. Now that is REALLY insane.

OK, Dr. Freud, answer me this: of all the movies made between 1965 and 1990, how many did feature male genitalia, or, as you call it, your sex life?

Whack job paranoid.

[quote] OK, Dr. Freud, answer me this: of all the movies made between 1965 and 1990, how many did feature male genitalia, or, as you call it, your sex life?

Oh, there are lots of them: You can look them up on IMBD. I won't include a list of some in this post because you're such an asshole I won't do you the courtesy. Your pathetic love for Peter Bogdanovich amuses me. But there's pity mixed in there, too.

Sure, dear.

Here's a little tidbit from a website called MrMan:

"The sexual revolution that started in the 1960s made way for some groovy on-screen frontal male nudity in the 1970s! We're checking out the best retro cock and balls from the 1970s, including Graham Chapman in Life of Brian, Robert De Niro and Gérard Depardieu in 1900, Danny Mills in Pink Flamingos, allll the dicks in Arabian Nights, and much much much more!"

The Dorothy Stratton episode in the "Dead Blondes" season of the "You Must Remember This" podcast is full of Bogdanovich sleaze.

Mr. Mann.....

I'm glad American filmmakers did not demand male nudity in the 1970s...or I would have lost my sex symbol status!

Women in Love was rated R in America when it opened you asshole.

I didn’t know about him marrying Dorothy’s kid sister. Don’t know how that slipped my mind. It sounds like she allowed him to make her over. He must’ve thought he was in a remake of VERTIGO 😆

Male FRONTAL nudity was just not done in commercial American movies until the 90s at the earliest. It may have been seen in European and British films but not in American mainstream films.

[quote]Male FRONTAL nudity was just not done in commercial American movies until the 90s at the earliest.

Not true. I remember Jan-Michael Vincent having a full frontal nude scene in "Buster and Billy," released in 1974.

Regarding Cher not being able to act, according to Peter, Robert Altman cast her in "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean." Cher had been studying acting, and Bob took a chance on her. The Broadway critics were mostly kind to her, if not the play, and she held her own against Sandy Dennis, Karen Black, and Kathy Bates. Altman's career was revived after a series of flops and the film version got even better reviews. Check it out sometime. The entire ensemble cast is great, including Cher.

R307 = Desperation

Bogdanovich should not have shown Cybil's bare breasts in TLPS. They oddly sloped up like a ski jump or ob Hope's nose.

typo correction: or Bob Hope's nose.

It’s Ob Hope when I’m motor boating a huge rack like Cybill’s.

Ignore gaping asshole and fucking moron R309 and R312 who doesn't know jackshit about American movies at any time in their history.

No one has mentioned the Natalie Wood biopic that PB made in Australia in the 90s. It aired as a tv film here and was quite good.

R316, why are you so emotional over this topic?

[quote]I think the idea of male nudity sickened him.

The idea of his nudity sickens me.

He’d be cool to have on a movie trivia team. Well, would have been, anyway.

the Natalie Wood biopic was very detailed, including the depiction of the Kurt Douglas date rape.