Bob Rafelson has died. He was an important part of New Hollywood in the 1970s and was nominated for two Oscars for his work on 'Five Easy Pieces.' He was 89.
Rafelson died in Aspen, where he lived. Gabrielle Taurek Rafelson, his wife, said that he spent Saturday night with his family.
Rafelson and the late Bert Schneider came up with the idea for the fictional pop music group and TV show "The Monkees." In 1967, Rafelson won an Emmy for outstanding comedy series.
But he may have been best known for his work during the New Hollywood era. This was when the old studio system gave way to a bunch of rebellious young voices and new ways of making movies. It was this time that Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, and Steven Spielberg got their start.
Rafelson directed and co-wrote the movies "Five Easy Pieces," about an upper-class pianist who wants a more blue-collar life, and "The King of Marvin Gardens," about a depressed late-night radio talk show host. Both movies had Jack Nicholson in them and were about the American dream going wrong. In 1971, "Five Easy Pieces" got Rafelson nods for best picture and best screenplay.
He also made important New Hollywood films like "The Last Picture Show" by Peter Bogdanovich and "Easy Rider" by Dennis Hopper.
Coppola once called him "one of the most important filmmakers of his time." Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson are both fans of his work.
Rafelson was born in New York City. He was a distant relative of the writer of "The Jazz Singer," Samson Raphaelson, who he said liked his work. At Dartmouth, he also met the famous screenwriter Buck Henry and became friends with him.
During his time in the U.S. Army in Japan, he became interested in Japanese movies and the movies of Yasujiro Ozu, especially "Tokyo Story."
Rafelson got married to his high school sweetheart after he finished college. She went on to work as a production designer on his movies and others. He got his start in the entertainment business by writing for TV shows like "The Witness" and "The Greatest Show on Earth."
"The Monkees," on the other hand, was his first big hit. He said that the idea for The Monkees came before both The Beatles and the musical comedy "A Hard Day's Night." However, when it first aired on NBC in 1966, it was a good fit for the time. It ran for two years and gave Rafelson a chance to try his hand at directing.
The Monkees were also in his first movie as a director, "Head," which was the first of many times he would work with Jack Nicholson.
Nicholson told Esquire in 2019: "I may have thought I started his career, but I think he started mine."
His wife said that the movie he was most proud of was "Mountains of the Moon," which he directed in 1990. It was a biopic about two explorers, Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, and their search for the source of the Nile.
She said that Rafelson's travels to places like Morocco, India, southeast Asia, Mexico, and Guatemala had an effect on his work.
Taurek Rafelson said, "He loved nothing more than to get lost in strange parts of the world."
Rafelson moved to Aspen with his wife Taurek Rafelson and their two sons, Ethan and Harper, 20 years ago. Peter and Julie were his two children with his first wife, Toby Rafelson. Julie died when she was 10 years old in 1973.
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