Peter Bogdanovich, one of the most influential film directors of his time, has passed away at the age of 82. According to IndieWire, the legendary film director passed in his LA home, due to natural causes.
Peter Bogdanovich’s Life
The son of Herma and Borislav Bogdanovich, Peter Bogdanovich was born in Kingston, New York on July 30, 1939. His parents immigrated to America in May 1939. Bogdanovich learned the native tongue of his father, Serbian, before he learned how to speak English. Eventually, he would graduate from New York City’s Collegiate School in 1957. He then ended up studying acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory.
His first real taste of cinema came in the early 60s, when he worked as a film programmer at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He loved to showcase the works of directors like Orson Welles and Howard Hawks, with Welles becoming a very close and personal friend of Bogdanovich’s in the twilight of Welles’s life.
Along with directing, Bogdanovich was also a writer, critic, film historian, and actor throughout his 50+ year career. He was a 2-time Oscar nominee for The Last Picture Show (1971) for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. He was also in 14 episodes of The Sopranos, as he played Dr. Elliot Kupferberg, the therapist to Jennifer Melfi, who was the therapist to Tony Soprano.
Most recently he appeared in Netflix’s The Other Side of the Wind (2018), a long-awaited Orson Welles film where he played the character of Brooks Otterlake, which Orson Welles based on Bogdanovich himself.
I had heard his name from time to time while at film school, but it wasn’t until I read This Is Orson Welles that I really came to appreciate Bogdanovich’s admiration for Orson Welles and how Bogdanovich made a concerted effort to help preserve the life of another legendary film director. Bogdanovich even went so far as to let Welles stay at his home in the early 70s when Welles was in financial peril.
