On February 20th, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri, Robert Altman was born to B.C. (an insurance salesman) and Helen Altman. He entered St. Peters Catholic school at the age six, and spent a short time at a Catholic high school. From there, he went to Rockhurst High School. It was then that he started exploring the art of exploring sound with the cheap tape recorders available at the time. He was then sent to Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri where he attended through Junior College. In 1945, he enlisted in the Air Force and became a copilot of a B-24. After his discharge from the military, he became fascinated by movies and he and his first wife LaVonne moved to Hollywood, where Altman tried acting (appearing in the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), songwriting (he wrote a musical intended for Broadway, "The Rumors are Flying"), and screenwriting (he co-wrote the screenplay for the film Bodyguard and wrote the story (uncredited) for Christmas Eve), but he could not get a foot hold in Tinseltown. After a brief fling as publicity director with a company in the business of tattooing dogs, Altman finally gave up and returned to his hometown of Kansas City, where he decided he wanted to do some serious work in filmmaking. An old friend of his recommended him to a film production company in Kansas City, the Calvin Co., who hired him in 1950. After a few months of work in writing scripts and editing films, Altman began directing films at Calvin. It was here (while working on documentaries, employee training films, industrial and educational films and advertisements) that he learned much about film making. All in all, Altman pieced together sixty to sixty-five short films for Calvin on every subject imaginable, from football to car crashes, but he kept grasping for more challenging projects. He wrote the screenplay for the Kansas City-produced feature film Corn's-A-Poppin', he produced and directed several television commercials including one with the Eileen Ford Agency, he co-created and directed the TV series _The Pulse of the City (1953)_ which ran for one season on the independent Dumont network, and he even had a formative crack at directing local community theater. His big-screen directorial debut came while still at Calvin with The Delinquents and, by 1956, he left the Calvin Co., and went to Hollywood to direct Alfred Hitchcock's TV show. From here, he went on to direct a large number of television shows, until he was offered the script for MASH in 1969. He was hardly the producer's first choice - more than fifteen other directors had already turned it down. This wasn't his first movie, but it was his first success. Since then, a lot of his movies have been successful, although he has also directed his share of unsuccessful movies since then as well.


MASH (1970): $75,000

He came up with a scheme to "Identi-Code" pets. He would tattoo a number on the cat or dog. Somehow, he managed to tattoo President Harry S. Truman's dog. His son, Mike Altman, wrote the lyrics for "Suicide is Painless," the theme song for MASH (1970), when he was only 14 years old. Son, Robert Reed Altman, with Kathryn Reed, was born in 1960. Son, Stephen Altman, with Lotus Corelli, was born in 1957. Daughter, Christine Altman, with LaVonne Elmer, was born in 1947. Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 29-39. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988. Like the late Richard Hooker, author of the book MASH (on which his film was based), Altman greatly disliked the TV series that followed and said that it didn't make the same anti-war point that his film made. Close friends with actress Julie Christie. He is a member of the NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) Advisory Board. Made his London theatrical debut in early 2006 directing Arthur Miller's play "Resurrection Blues" at the Old Vic under the aegis of Kevin Spacey, the Artistic Directory of the venerable London company. Altman chose an eclectic cast for he Miller play featured, including 'Maxmillian Schell' (qc), 'James Fox' (who replaced John Wood before previews), and American movie actors Matthew Modine and Jane Adams. The English critics panned "Resurrection Blues", partly due to the clash in acting styles of the disparate cast. Adams walked out after a matinée on April 5, 2006, and was replaced by her understudy for subsequent performances. No explanation was given for her departure from the production. The play was scheduled to close a week early in mid-April due to poor ticket sales. Altman claimed after the poor debut of the play that he was not very familiar with the script, and didn't really understand the play. Critics said that his confusion obviously affected the cast, many of whom seemed not to understand the play, and some of whom seemed to have trouble remembering lines. While not an outright debacle, the play is another relative failure characterizing Spacey's troubled tenure as Old Vic chief. His episodes of "Bonanza" (1959) often starred the Hoss character played by Dan Blocker and frequently were humorous. It is said that Altman, a veteran of the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II, was radicalized by a trip to Vietnam to shoot footage of the war in the 1960s. He has never talked about this episode in his life and career. Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Directors Branch). Has twice used a blonde woman in a white trench coat to symbolize death: Sally Kellerman in Brewster McCloud (1970) and Virginia Madsen in A Prairie Home Companion (2006). Profiled in "Conversations with Directors: An Anthology of Interviews from Literature/Film Quarterly", E.M. Walker, D.T. Johnson, eds. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008. Directed both Susannah York and Shelley Duvall to the Best Actress Award at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. York winning for her role as Cathryn in Images (1972), and Duvall for her portrayal of Millie Lammoreaux in 3 Women (1977).