Peter Bogdanovich

Peter Bogdanovich, who parlayed his ardor for Golden Age cinema into the direction of acclaimed films like “The Last Picture Show” and “Paper Moon,” only to have his professional reputation tarnished in one of Hollywood’s most conspicuous falls from grace, died early Thursday January 6 2022at his home in Los Angeles. He was 82. His daughter Antonia Bogdanovich confirmed the death. Mr. Bogdanovich was long recognizable by his soulful basset-hound face, outsize horn-rimmed glasses and trademark neckerchief. “The Last Picture Show” —was only Mr. Bogdanovich’s second film and widely considered his foremost. Before the end of the ’70s, however, Mr. Bogdanovich had been transformed from one of the most celebrated directors in Hollywood into one of the most ostracized. His career would be marred for years to come by critical and box-office failures, personal bankruptcies, the raking of his romantic life through the press. The son of Borislav and Herma Robinson Bogdanovich, Peter Bogdanovich was born on July 30, 1939, in upstate Kingston, N.Y., and reared on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Peter studied with the famed acting teacher Stella Adler. Leaving the Collegiate School, a Manhattan prep school, he played small roles in summer stock, Off Broadway and on television. At 20, he directed an Off Broadway revival of Clifford Odets’s drama “The Big Knife.” For the Museum of Modern Art, Mr. Bogdanovich wrote his series of monographs on great directors, including Ford, Hawks, Hitchcock and Orson Welles. Mr. Bogdanovich struck out for Hollywood in 1964, accompanied by his wife, Polly Platt, a production designer he had married two years before. He was hired as a second-unit director and rewriter by the producer Roger Corman. For Mr. Corman, Mr. Bogdanovich directed his first feature, “Targets,” released in 1968. “Targets” drew wide critical praise. His triumph led him to be hired to direct “The Last Picture Show” for Columbia Pictures. Nominated for eight Oscars, including best picture, “The Last Picture Show” won two, for the performances of Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson. He left Polly Platt and their two young children for Cybil Shepherd, embarking on an eight-year relationship that furnished ceaseless grist for Hollywood gossip columns. In the late 1970s, after his romance with Ms. Shepherd had ended, Mr. Bogdanovich met the Playboy model Dorothy Stratten at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion. They fell in love, and Ms. Stratten, who was married, left her husband to move in with him. But in August 1980, before it was released, her estranged husband, Paul Snider, shot her to death before taking his own life. In 1985, with “$21.37 in the bank and $25.79 in his pocket,” according to court papers, he declared bankruptcy. When Dorothy Stratton's sister Louise was 20, married her, causing a frenzy of tabloid opprobrium. Louise Stratten, billed as L.B. Stratten, appeared in several films and TV movies directed by Mr. Bogdanovich. They divorced in 2001. In the late 1990s, after declaring bankruptcy again, the down-and-out Mr. Bogdanovich lived for a time in the guesthouse of the young director Quentin Tarantino. From the mid-’90s through the first years of the 21st century, Mr. Bogdanovich resorted to directing for television. Mr. Bogdanovich’s luster was also restored with his publication of two acclaimed books: “Who the Devil Made It” (1997), a collection of his interviews with eminent directors, and “Who the Hell’s in It” (2004), about great actors and actresses. In addition to his daughter Antonia, he is survived by another daughter, Alexandra (both from his marriage to Ms. Platt); a sister, Anna Bogdanovich; and three grandchildren.