Bob Rafelson died at his residence in Aspen, Colo., Saturday, July 23, 2022.
AP
Bob Rafelson, an influential determine within the New Hollywood period of the Seventies who was nominated for 2 Oscars for “5 Simple Items,” has died. He was 89.
Rafelson died at his residence in Aspen Saturday evening surrounded by his household, stated his spouse, Gabrielle Taurek Rafelson.
Rafelson was accountable for co-creating the fictional pop music group and tv collection “The Monkees” alongside the late Bert Schneider, which gained him an Emmy for excellent comedy collection in 1967.
However he was maybe greatest identified for his work through the New Hollywood period, which noticed a classical studio system giving method to a batch of rebellious younger voices and contemporary filmmaking kinds, and helped usher in abilities like Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg.
Rafelson directed and co-wrote “5 Simple Items,” about an upper-class pianist who yearns for a extra blue-collar life, and “The King of Marvin Gardens,” a couple of depressed late-night-radio discuss present host. Each movies starred Jack Nicholson and explored themes of the American dream gone haywire. “5 Simple Items” acquired Rafelson two Oscar nominations in 1971, for greatest image and screenplay.
He additionally produced seminal New Hollywood classics together with Peter Bogdanovich’s “The Final Image Present” and Dennis Hopper’s “Simple Rider.”
Coppola as soon as known as him “one of the vital cinematic artists of his period” and his followers embody Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson.
Rafelson was born in New York Metropolis and was a distant relative of “The Jazz Singer” screenwriter Samson Raphaelson, who he stated took an curiosity in his work. At Dartmouth he additionally grew to become buddies with legendary screenwriter Buck Henry.
He developed an curiosity in Japanese cinema and the movies of Yasujiro Ozu, particularly “Tokyo Story,” whereas serving within the US Military in Japan.
After faculty, Rafelson married his highschool sweetheart, who would work as a manufacturing designer on his movies and others. He acquired his begin within the leisure enterprise in tv, writing for reveals like “The Witness” and “The Biggest Present on Earth.”
However “The Monkees” was his first massive success. The thought for The Monkees, he stated, predated The Beatles and the musical comedy “A Exhausting Day’s Night time,” but it surely hit the second properly when it premiered on NBC in 1966. It ran for 2 years and allowed Rafelson to take a stab at directing himself.
The Monkees additionally appeared in his characteristic directorial debut, “Head,” which might be the primary of many collaborations with Nicholson.
“I'll have thought I began his profession,” Nicholson instructed Esquire in 2019, “however I believe he began my profession.”
Rafelson was proudest of the 1990 movie he directed, “Mountains of the Moon,” a biographical film that instructed the story of two explorers, Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, as they looked for the supply of the Nile, his spouse stated.
Rafelson’s personal adventures to locations like Morocco, India, Southeast Asia, Mexico and Guatemala influenced his work, she stated.
“He cherished nothing greater than disappearing into unusual pockets of the world,” Taurek Rafelson stated.
Rafelson left Hollywood 20 years in the past to concentrate on elevating two sons with Taurek Rafelson, Ethan and Harper, in Aspen. He and his first spouse, Toby Rafelson, additionally had two youngsters, Peter, and Julie, who died in 1973 when she was 10 years outdated.
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