Robert Burgess Aldrich was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter.
64 Facts About Robert Aldrich
2.
Ruth Robert Aldrich Kaufinger was his elder sister and only sibling.
3.
Robert Aldrich's grandfather, Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich, was a self-made millionaire and art investor.
4.
An aunt, Abigail Greene "Abby" Aldrich married John D Rockefeller Jr.
5.
Robert Aldrich continued to excel in sports and played a leading role in campus clubs and fraternities.
6.
Robert Aldrich reciprocated by expunging public records of his connection with the Robert Aldrich-Rockefeller clan, while stoically accepting the breach.
7.
At the age of 23, Robert Aldrich began work at RKO Pictures as a production clerk, an entry-level position, after declining an offer through his Rockefeller connections to enter the studio as an associate producer.
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Robert Aldrich married his first wife, Harriet Foster, a childhood sweetheart, shortly before he departed for Hollywood in May 1941.
9.
The 23-year-old Robert Aldrich assumed his duties shortly after Orson Welles, at 26, signed a six-movie contract with RKO after the release of the widely acclaimed Citizen Kane.
10.
Towards the end of the war, Robert Aldrich had risen to first assistant director making comedy shorts with director Leslie Goodwins.
11.
In 1944, Robert Aldrich departed RKO to begin free-lancing on feature films at other major studios, including Columbia, United Artists, and Paramount.
12.
Robert Aldrich was fortunate to serve as an assistant director to many notable and talented Hollywood filmmakers.
13.
Robert Aldrich worked on Pardon My Past and The Private Affairs of Bel Ami.
14.
Robert Aldrich approached these projects and directors with a fine discrimination, enabling him to learn from both their strengths and weaknesses.
15.
Robert Aldrich would revisit Body and Soul throughout his career when seeking guidance on how to convey the progressive ideals of the 1930s while working in the reactionary political atmosphere of the Cold War era.
16.
In 1948 Robert Aldrich joined Polonsky and Garfield on the early noir film Force of Evil.
17.
Robert Aldrich was never targeted by the authorities, despite his collaborations with these artists.
18.
Nonetheless, Robert Aldrich remained a champion for the victims of the Red Scare.
19.
At Enterprise, Robert Aldrich worked as an assistant director on Arch of Triumph and No Minor Vices for Lewis Milestone, So This Is New York for director Richard Fleischer and producer Stanley Kramer, and Caught for Max Ophuls.
20.
Robert Aldrich worked again for Lewis Milestone on The Red Pony at Republic and did Red Light for Roy Del Ruth, A Kiss for Corliss for Richard Wallace, The White Tower for Ted Tetzlaff, M and The Prowler for Joseph Losey, and New Mexico for Reis.
21.
Robert Aldrich was assistant to producer Harold Hecht on Ten Tall Men, a French Foreign Legion action film starring Burt Lancaster.
22.
Robert Aldrich worked as production manager on When I Grow Up for Sam Spiegel and as production manager on The Steel Trap for Andrew L Stone.
23.
Robert Aldrich was assistant on Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd.
24.
Robert Aldrich filled in as director on TV's Four Star Playhouse and the Schlitz Playhouse of Stars.
25.
Robert Aldrich described the early TV industry as a "director's crash course" where, unlike feature film production, the overall quality of the series outweighed the success or failure of an individual episode.
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Robert Aldrich intended to make The Gamma People with Robert Aldrich.
27.
Robert Aldrich broke into feature films as a director when Herbert Baker, who had worked with Robert Aldrich on So This is New York, recommended the director to MGM, which was looking for someone with a background in sports for a low-budget baseball film, Big Leaguer.
28.
The film was not particularly successful, so Robert Aldrich returned to television, doing episodes of Four Star Playhouse, several of which were written by Blake Edwards.
29.
Robert Aldrich remained ambitious to work in features and raised money for a low-budget action film using many of the same sets and cast members of China Smith, including star Dan Duryea, called World for Ransom.
30.
The success of these movies enabled Robert Aldrich to set up his own company, The Associates and Robert Aldrich, and sign a deal with United Artists.
31.
Robert Aldrich directed and produced this film about a movie star played by Jack Palance.
32.
The Associates and Robert Aldrich Company made a second film, based on a play and released through United Artists, Attack, starring Palance and Lee Marvin.
33.
The Associates and Robert Aldrich Company expanded to offer financing and distribution for other films.
34.
In between making Big Knife and Attack, Robert Aldrich directed the Joan Crawford melodrama Autumn Leaves, which was a minor hit.
35.
Robert Aldrich worked on the original story for the thriller The Gamma People, made for Columbia and Warwick Productions in England.
36.
In July 1956 Robert Aldrich signed a two-picture deal with Columbia to make films through his own company.
37.
Robert Aldrich acquired the John O'Hara story Now We Know.
38.
Robert Aldrich started directing Garment but was fired towards the end of filming and replaced by Vincent Sherman.
39.
In March 1957 Robert Aldrich sued Columbia for reneging on a promise to make a film of the play Storm in the Sun, which he wanted to do with Crawford.
40.
The Associates and Robert Aldrich had the rights to the script for 3:10 to Yuma but ended up selling the project outright to Columbia.
41.
Robert Aldrich was unable to get a job until he had an offer from Hammer Films and Seven Arts to write and direct Ten Seconds to Hell, starring Palance and Jeff Chandler, in Germany.
42.
Robert Aldrich had the film rewritten by Bezzerides, but then his cut of the film was re-edited by Stross.
43.
Robert Aldrich returned to Hollywood to direct episodes of Hotel de Paree, and Adventures in Paradise.
44.
Robert Aldrich directed a western, The Last Sunset, starring Kirk Douglas and Rock Hudson, made for Douglas's company at Universal.
45.
Robert Aldrich tried to make Cross of Iron with John Mills but could not get financing.
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Robert Aldrich disparaged the final film, which ended up costing $6 million.
47.
Robert Aldrich signed Bette Davis and Joan Crawford as stars, got Lukas Heller to write the script, and raised financing through Warner Bros.
48.
Still at Warners, Robert Aldrich wrote, produced and directed a comic western with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, 4 for Texas.
49.
The film was reasonably popular at the box office, but Robert Aldrich disliked working with Sinatra and the resulting film.
50.
Robert Aldrich had prepared scripts on Now We Know, Vengeance Is Mine, Potluck for Pomeroy and Too Late the Hero.
51.
Robert Aldrich started with a follow up to Baby Jane, Hush.
52.
Robert Aldrich stayed at Fox for his next film, the all-male action story The Flight of the Phoenix, with James Stewart, Richard Attenborough and Peter Finch.
53.
Robert Aldrich had his biggest hit to date with The Dirty Dozen, produced by Kenneth Hyman's Seven Arts Productions and released through MGM.
54.
Robert Aldrich stayed at MGM for The Legend of Lylah Clare starring Finch and Kim Novak, made for Robert Aldrich's own company.
55.
Robert Aldrich picked a facility at 201 North Occidental Boulevard, which had been in existence as a film studio since 1913, making Mary Pickford movies, and had recently been the basis of Sutherland Productions.
56.
Robert Aldrich announced they would be The Killing of Sister George, The Greatest Mother of Them All, Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice and Too Late the Hero.
57.
Robert Aldrich made a 20-minute demo film, "The Greatest Mother of Them All", in an attempt to raise money for a feature-length version, but was unable to attract interest from ABC.
58.
ABC wanted Robert Aldrich to make a war film in the vein of The Dirty Dozen so he produced and directed Too Late the Hero, a "patrol" film, which he had been developing since 1959.
59.
Films Robert Aldrich announced but did not make around this time included Rebellion, a western about Victoriano Huerta with Ernest Borgnine and George Kennedy;, The Movement, about student protest;.
60.
Robert Aldrich parted company with ABC and in January 1972 put his studios up for sale.
61.
Robert Aldrich followed it with Emperor of the North Pole, a story of railway hobos in the 1930s starring Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine.
62.
In 1975 Robert Aldrich was elected president of the Directors Guild of America and served two two-year terms.
63.
Robert Aldrich died of kidney failure on December 5,1983, in a Los Angeles hospital.
64.
Robert Aldrich is buried in Lot 5153 of the Whispering Trees Section of Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills.