HAL ASHBY: FAQ

WHO WAS HAL ASHBY?

In short, an editor-turned-director. In long, one of the most important and relatively unheralded American directors of the 1970s.

WHAT FILMS DID HE DIRECT?

As well as Harold And Maude, he made The Last Detail (1973), Shampoo (1975), Bound For Glory (1976), Coming Home (1978), and Peter Sellers’ last film, the wonderful Being There (1979) [Ashby and Sellers pictured below]. His beautifully pitched comedydramas emphasised people over plot.

WHY SO UNHERALDED?

He never wanted for critical acclaim, is considered to be hugely influential on the likes of Richard Linklater, Judd Apatow and Adam Mckay, and even received an Oscar nomination for directing Coming Home (he’d earlier won one for editing Norman Jewison’s In The Heat Of The Night). Four of his movies were nominated for the Palme d’or. But, Shampoo aside, his movies busted few blocks. And perhaps, when assessing the 1970s, he gets lost amid talk of Spielberg, Scorsese, Coppola, De Palma et al. There was also, sadly, his decline in the 1980s.

WHAT HAPPENED?

Bad luck and trouble. Rumours of rampant cocaine use made it harder for him to get films off the ground. When he did, he either suffered tragic misfortune (Sellers died before the two could reteam for ‘Grossing Out’) or studio interference, bordering on obstruction. He was set to direct Tootsie, but was blocked by studio execs at Lorimar, with which he had a production deal. He was also fired the day after principal photography on 8 Million Ways To Die wrapped. Although he cleaned up his act, he made only a few TV pilots before dying of pancreatic cancer in 1988, aged just 59. But in the decades since, his work has been rediscovered and reevaluated by a new generation.