Robert Aldrich

Director, Productor, Escritor, Actor

9 de agosto de 1918 — 5 de diciembre de 1983 (65 años)
Robert Aldrich was an American film director, writer and producer, notable for such films as Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Big Knife (1955), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), The Dirty Dozen (1967).

Born in Cranston, Rhode Island, the son of Lora Lawson and newspaper publisher Edward Burgess Aldrich. He was a grandson of U.S. Senator Nelson W. Aldrich and a cousin of Nelson Rockefeller. He studied economics at the University of Virginia. In 1941, he dropped out of college for a $50-a-week job at RKO Radio Pictures. In doing so, he was also dropped by his family, losing a potential stake in Chase Bank he would have inherited. It's been said that "No American film director was born as wealthy as Aldrich—and then so thoroughly cut off from family money."

He quickly rose in film production as an assistant director, and worked with Jean Renoir, Abraham Polonsky, Robert Rossen, Joseph Losey and Charlie Chaplin as an assistant on Limelight. He became a television director in the 1950s, directing his first feature film, Big Leaguer, in 1953. During the 1950s, Aldrich directed mostly action films like Apache and Vera Cruz with Burt Lancaster. Aldrich soon gained recognition as an auteur filmmaker, depicting his liberal humanist thematic vision in many genres, in films such as Kiss Me Deadly (1955), a film noir classic, The Big Knife (1955), an adaptation of Clifford Odets's play about Hollywood business, and Attack (1956), a WWII infantry combat film exploring how U.S. Army careerism determined who attacked and who ordered the attack.

In the 1960s, he directed several commercially successful films, such as the gothic horror stories What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford as spiteful sisters and faded child-actresses, Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte, with Bette Davis as a Southern woman who lives in a mansion and thinks she is going insane (both Joan Crawford and Davis were to appear, but Crawford left the film); the controversial The Killing of Sister George (1968); and the hugely popular war film The Dirty Dozen (1967).

The success of The Dirty Dozen allowed him to establish his own production studio for some time, but several failures forced his return to conventionally commercial Hollywood films. Nevertheless, his humanism is evident in The Longest Yard (1974), about the rigged-game politics, and Ulzana's Raid (1972) an uncompromising film based on the real life break-out from an Indian reservation of a band led by chief Ulzana, the extreme violence and torture they exacted upon isolated pioneer families in the Arizona territory, and their pursuit by the US cavalry.

From his marriage to Harriet Foster (1941–65), Robert Aldrich had four children, all of whom work in the film business: Adell, William, Alida and Kelly. Aldrich died of kidney failure on December 5, 1983 in a Los Angeles hospital. Film critic John Patterson summarized his career in 2012: "He was a punchy, caustic, macho and pessimistic director, who depicted corruption and evil unflinchingly, and pushed limits on violence throughout his career. His aggressive and pugnacious film-making style, often crass and crude, but never less than utterly vital and alive, warrants – and will richly reward – your immediate attention."

Películas y series en Plex

  • ¿Qué fue de Baby Jane?
    ¿Qué fue de Baby Jane?1962
  • Candilejas
    Candilejas1952
  • Cuerpo y alma
    Cuerpo y alma1947
  • Apache
    Apache1954
  • El sureño (El hombre del sur)
    El sureño (El hombre del sur)1945
  • El pony rojo
    El pony rojo1949
  • Four Star Playhouse
    Four Star Playhouse4 seasons
  • New Mexico
    New Mexico1951

Conocido por

  • El vuelo del Fénix
    El vuelo del Fénix1965
  • El beso mortal
    El beso mortal1955
  • Rompehuesos
    Rompehuesos1974
  • Canción de cuna para un cadáver
    Canción de cuna para un cadáver1964
  • El rabino y el pistolero
    El rabino y el pistolero1979
  • Candilejas
    Candilejas1952
  • Ataque
    Ataque1956
  • El emperador del norte
    El emperador del norte1973
  • La podadora (El gran cuchillo)
    La podadora (El gran cuchillo)1955
  • La venganza de Ulzana
    La venganza de Ulzana1972
  • Apache
    Apache1954
  • Hojas de otoño
    Hojas de otoño1956
  • Comando en el mar de China
    Comando en el mar de China1970
  • Alerta: Misiles
    Alerta: Misiles1977
  • La fuerza del destino
    La fuerza del destino1948
  • El último atardecer
    El último atardecer1961
  • Destino fatal
    Destino fatal1975
  • Cuerpo y alma
    Cuerpo y alma1947
  • El asesinato de la hermana George
    El asesinato de la hermana George1968
  • Chicas con gancho
    Chicas con gancho1981

Filmography

1963
4 for Texas · as Screenplay
1959
Ten Seconds to Hell · as Screenplay

2023
Remembering Gene Wilder · as Self - Director, The Frisco Kid
2020
2019
2002
1963
1956
Cinépanorama · as Self

1951
The Big Night · as Ringsider At Fight

1970
Too Late the Hero · as Story
1956
The Gamma People · as Original Story
1952
The Steel Trap · as Production Supervisor
1952
Limelight · as Assistant DirectorEn Plex
1952
The Doctor (1952) · as Written By
1951
The Prowler · as Assistant Director
1951
New Mexico · as Assistant DirectorEn Plex
1951
M · as Assistant Director
1949
Red Light · as Second Unit First Assistant Director
1949
The Red Pony · as Assistant DirectorEn Plex
1949
Caught · as Assistant Director
1948
Force of Evil · as Assistant Director
1948
No Minor Vices · as Assistant Director
1948
So This Is New York · as Assistant Director
1947
Body and Soul · as Assistant DirectorEn Plex
1947
The Private Affairs of Bel Ami · as Assistant Director
1945
Pardon My Past · as Assistant Director
1945
The Southerner · as Assistant DirectorEn Plex
1943
Gangway for Tomorrow · as Second Assistant Director
1943
Bombardier · as Second Assistant Director
1942
The Big Street · as Second Assistant Director
1942
The Falcon Takes Over · as Second Assistant Director
1942
Joan of Paris · as Second Assistant Director