Hal Ashby

Hal Ashby
Ashby directingBound for Glory(1976)
Born	William Hal Ashby (1929-09-02)September 2, 1929 Ogden, Utah,U.S.
Died	December 27, 1988(1988-12-27)(aged 59) Malibu, California,U.S.
Occupations	Film director editor
Years active	1956–1988
Spouses	Lavon Compton ​ ​ (m.1947;div.1948)​ Maxine Marie Armstrong ​ ​ (m.1949;div.1950)​ Maloy "Mickey" Joan Bartron ​ ​ (m.1956;div.1963)​ Shirley Stockman ​ ​ (m.1963;div.1968)​ Joan Marshall ​ ​ (m.1969;div.1970)​

William Hal Ashby(September 2, 1929 – December 27, 1988)was anAmerican filmdirectorandeditor.His work exemplified thecounterculturalattitude of the era. He directed wide ranging films featuring iconic performances. He is associated with theNew Hollywoodwave of filmmaking with filmmakers such asMartin Scorsese,Woody Allen,Mike Nichols,andSidney Lumet.

Before his career as a director Ashby edited films forNorman Jewison,notablyThe Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming(1966), which earned Ashby anOscarnomination forBest Editing,andIn the Heat of the Night(1967), which earned him his only Oscar for the same category. Ashby received a third Oscar nomination, this time forBest DirectorforComing Home(1978). Other films directed by Ashby includeThe Landlord(1970),Harold and Maude(1971),The Last Detail(1973),Shampoo(1975),Bound for Glory(1976), andBeing There(1979).

Early life and education

Ashby was born September 2, 1929, inOgden, Utah,the youngest of four siblings born toMormonparents Eileen Ireta (née Hetzler) and James Thomas Ashby, adairy farmowner.Ashby's parents divorced in 1936, after which his father remarried.

Following the divorce, Ashby and his siblings lived with their mother, briefly inLogan, Utah,before relocating toPortland, Oregon,where his elder brother took a job in the timber industry.His mother, a cooking enthusiast, opened a restaurant in Portland.After several years in Portland, the family returned to Ogden, where Ashby primarily lived with his father.When Ashby was 12 years old, his father committedsuicide.

Ashby subsequently dropped out of high school.Ashby-approved studio biographies concealed this, falsely stating that he graduated fromUtah State University(situated in nearby Logan, Utah) to ensure he fit into thesocial milieuof college-educated peers likeFrancis Ford CoppolaandMartin Scorsese.Ashby was married and divorced by the time he was 19.

Career

1967–1978: Breakthrough and stardom

As Ashby was entering adult life, he moved from Utah toLos Angeles,California, where he pursued abohemianlifestyle and ultimately became an assistantfilm editorthrough a long apprenticeship. His career gained momentum when he served as the editor ofThe Loved One(1965), an adaptation of theEvelyn Waughnovel that involved such New Hollywood contemporaries as screenwriterTerry Southernand cinematographerHaskell Wexler.After being nominated for theAcademy Award for Film Editingin 1967 forThe Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming,his big break occurred one year later when he won the award forIn the Heat of the Night.Ashby often stated that the practice of editing provided him with the best filmmaking background outside traditional university study and he carried the techniques learned as an editor with him when he began directing.

At the urging of mentorNorman Jewison,Ashby directed his first film,The Landlord—an early rumination on the social dynamics ofgentrificationinPark Slope, Brooklyn—in 1970. While his birth date placed him within theSilent Generation,the filmmaker (who had been a habitualmarijuanasmoker since 1950) eagerly embraced thehippielifestyle, adoptingvegetarianismand growing his hair long before it becamede rigueur.

Over the next ten years, Ashby directed several acclaimed and popular films, many were about outsiders and adventurers traversing the pathways of life. They included the off-beat romanceHarold and Maude(1971),The Last Detail(1973), and the social satireBeing There(1979), withPeter Sellers,giving the star a well-received role after many felt he had lapsed into self-parody. His most significant commercial success wasShampoo(1975), a collaboration withWarren BeattyandRobert Townethat satirized late-1960ssexualandsocial moresthrough the life of a hairdresser modeled after such contemporaneous figures asJay SebringandJon Peters.Bound for Glory(1976), a muted biography ofWoody GuthriestarringDavid Carradine,was the first film to utilize theSteadicam.

In June 1973,Michael DouglasandSaul Zaentzhired Ashby to directOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,after the original directorMiloš Formanbecame unavailable due to the reimposition ofcensorshipin his nativeCzechoslovakiaafter theWarsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakiaand after Forman's initial replacementRichard Rushwas unable to secure studio funding.Ashby was responsible for castingJack Nicholsonas R.P. McMurphy, but this resulted in a nine-month delay during which Forman fled to the United States and was rehired as director.

Aside fromShampoo,Ashby's most commercially successful film was theVietnam WardramaComing Home(1978). StarringJane FondaandJon Voight,both inAcademy Award-winning performances, it was for this film that Ashby earned his only Best Director nomination from the Academy.Arriving in the post-JawsandStar Warsera,Coming Homewas one of the last films to encapsulate the modestly budgeted,socially realisticethos of the New Hollywood era, earning nearly $15 million in returns and rentals on a $3 million budget.

1979–1988: Later films

Because of his critical success and dependable profitability, shortly after the success ofComing Home,Ashby was able to form a production company, Northstar, under the auspices ofLorimar.AfterBeing There,Ashby became morereclusive,often retreating to his home inMalibu Colony,a gated enclave in the city. Later, it was widely rumored in a likelywhisper campaignfrom Lorimar (whose executives clashed with the director) that Ashby had become dependent uponcocaine,a drug that he only used intermittently after the production ofBound for Glory.As a consequence of these rumors, he slowly became unemployable.Eva Gardos, an editor who worked with Ashby during the period, has asserted that his drug intake remained largely confined tomarijuanaandpsilocybin.

FollowingBeing There,Ashby was provisionally set to reunite with Sellers and Terry Southern onGrossing Out,a black comedy inspired by the actor's chance meeting with an international arms dealer on an airplane. Although Southern (who had not had a screenplay go to production in a decade) was rejuvenated by the prospect of working with the duo and produced a script that was said to be on par with his 1960s oeuvre, the project went intodevelopment hellafter Sellers' sudden death from a heart attack in July 1980. During this period, the productionsofSecond-Hand HeartsandLookin' to Get Out—the latter aLas Vegascaper that reunited him with Voight and featured Voight's young daughter,Angelina Jolie—was plagued by the increasingly strained relationship between Ashby and Lorimar. Filmed in 1979,Second-Hand Heartsonly received a poorly reviewed limited release in 1981 before being pulled from circulation for nearly thirty years. Belatedly released in October 1982,Lookin' to Get Outearned a little under $1 million in returns and rentals on an estimated $17 million budget. During this period, Lorimar executives grew less tolerant of his increasingly perfectionist production (811,000 feet of film were used shootingLookin' to Get Out) and editing techniques; a montage in the latter film set toThe Police's "Message in a Bottle"took six months to perfect but proved to be logistically unusable due to a Lorimar agreement with theAmerican Federation of Musicians.

Initially set to helmTootsieafter two years of negotiations and Ashby-directed wig and makeup tests, Lorimar executives blocked him from working on the film because part of the preproduction period overlapped with final work on the long-gestatingLookin' to Get Out,which was eventually recut by the studio when Ashby's work was deemed to be unsatisfactory. (Decades later, Ashby's cut was rediscovered and released on DVD in 2009.) AsDustin Hoffmanhad not offered a "formal commitment" to the production at the time of Ashby's dismissal, the director forfeited his $1.5 million fee. While post-production ofLookin' to Get Outcontinued, Lorimar permitted Ashby to filmThe Rolling Stones'1981 American tourdocumentary,Let's Spend the Night Together;the director was a longtime fan of the group. He collapsed before the final filmed concert atSun Devil StadiuminTempe, Arizona,on December 13, 1981. AlthoughJeff Wexlersaid Ashby was "partying way beyond his capabilities with the Stones",Caleb Deschanelhas said that Ashby (who directed the concert shoot on a gurney) simply had the flu. The film was well-received but gained little traction during a limited theatrical release. In September 1983, Ashby directedSolo Trans,aNeil Youngconcert video that was released the following year.

The Slugger's Wife,with a screenplay written byNeil Simon,was a critical and commercial failure. Ashby (whose cocaine use had accelerated throughout the shoot)was fired after delivering a 20-minute rough cut of the beginning of the film that included almost no dialogue. When theOliver Stone-written8 Million Ways to Diefared similarly at the box office, Ashby's post-production process was considered to be such a liability that he was fired by the production company on the final day ofprincipal photography.

Attempting to turn a corner in his declining career, Ashby stopped using drugs, trimmed his hair and beard, and began to frequently attend Hollywood parties wearing a navy-blue blazer so as to suggest that he was once again employable. Despite these efforts, he could only find work as a television director, helming one of threepilotsforBeverly Hills Buntz,an unsuccessfulHill Street Bluesspinoff starringDennis Franz.He also directedJake's Journey,asword and sorceryfantasy conceived byGraham Chapman.

Unrealized projects

Main article:Hal Ashby's unrealized projects

Personal life and death

Longtime friend Warren Beatty advised Ashby to seek medical care after he complained of various ailments, including undiagnosedphlebitis.He was soon diagnosed withpancreatic cancerthat rapidly spread to his lungs, colon, and liver. Ashby died on December 27, 1988, at his home inMalibu, California.

Influence and legacy

The Last Detail,Bound for Glory,Coming Home,andBeing Therewere all nominated for thePalme d'Or.

American songwriter and guitarist Guthrie Thomas, who coordinated the music inBound for Gloryand acted in the film, called Ashby "one of the finest motion picture directors of the 20th century."

In the end credits of 1996'sThe Sunchaser,a film about a teenager with pancreatic cancer who refuses medical treatment, directorMichael Ciminodedicated it to Ashby.

For the 2012Sight & SoundDirectors Top Ten pollNiki Caro,Cyrus Frisch,andWanuri Kahiuvoted forHarold and Maude,with Frisch describing the film as "an encouragement to think beyond the obvious!"

A2018 documentaryabout the director was screened at theSundance Film Festival.The moving image collection of Hal Ashby is held at the Academy Film Archive. The material at the Academy Film Archive is also complemented by material in the Hal Ashby papers at the Academy's Margaret Herrick Library.

Filmography

Films

As director

Title	Year	Notes
The Landlord	1970	Cameo: Groom in opening shot
Harold and Maude	1971	Cameo: Man watching model train
The Last Detail	1973	Cameo: Man at a bar
Shampoo	1975
Bound for Glory	1976
Coming Home	1978	Cameo: Man doing a peace sign
Being There	1979	Cameo:Washington Postworker
Second-Hand Hearts	1981
Lookin' to Get Out	1982	Cameo: Man on television
Let's Spend the Night Together	1983	Concert film
Solo Trans	1984
The Slugger's Wife	1985
8 Million Ways to Die	1986

Other film work

Title	Year	Credited as		Notes
		Editor	Other
Friendly Persuasion	1956		Yes	Uncredited assistant editor
The Big Country	1958		Yes
Tokyo After Dark	1959		Yes
The Diary of Anne Frank			Yes
The Young Doctors	1961		Yes	Editorial consultant
The Children's Hour			Yes	Assistant editor
Captain Sindbad	1963		Yes
The Best Man	1964		Yes	Editorial consultant
The Greatest Story Ever Told	1965		Yes	Uncredited assistant editor
The Loved One		Yes
The Cincinnati Kid		Yes		With Brian Smedley-Aston
The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming	1966	Yes		WithJ. Terry Williams
In the Heat of the Night	1967	Yes
The Thomas Crown Affair	1968	Yes	Yes	WithRalph E. Winters& Byron Brandt Also associate producer
Gaily, Gaily	1969	Yes	Yes

Television

Title	Year	Credited as	Notes
		Director
Beverly Hills Buntz	1987	Yes	Episode: "Pilot"
Jake's Journey	1988	Yes	Television pilot

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Project	Result	Ref.
1966	Academy Awards	Best Film Editing	The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming	Nominated
1967			In the Heat of the Night	Won
1978		Best Director	Coming Home	Nominated
1976	Golden Globe Awards	Best Director	Bound for Glory	Nominated
1978			Coming Home	Nominated
1979			Being There	Nominated
1973	Cannes Film Festival	Palme d'Or	The Last Detail	Nominated
1976			Bound for Glory	Nominated
1978			Coming Home	Nominated
1979			Being There	Nominated

References

Citations

General and cited sources

• Dawson, Nick (2009).Being Hal Ashby: Life of a Hollywood Rebel.Le xing ton, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky.ISBN978-0-813-17334-4.

External links

• Hal AshbyatIMDb
• Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
• The Director's Director– discussion by directors Ashby influenced
• Literature on Hal Ashby
• Hal Ashby in Images Film Journal– Article summarizing Ashby's career in Images Film Journal
• Hal Ashby papers,Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences