Robert Aldrich

Overview

Robert Aldrich entered the film industry in 1941 when he got a job as a production clerk at RKO Radio Pictures. He soon worked his way up to script clerk, then became an assistant director, a production manager and an associate producer. He began writing and directing for TV series in the early 1950s, and directed his first feature in 1953 (Big Leaguer (1953)). Soon thereafter he established his own production company and produced most of his own films, collaborating in the writing of many of them. Among his best-known pictures are Kiss Me Deadly (1955), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and the muscular WW II mega-hit The Dirty Dozen (1967).
- IMDb mini biography by: frankfob2@yahoo.com

Frequently cast Richard Jaeckel, Ernest Borgnine and Wesley Addy.
Directed a plethora of genres but almost all of his films contained a subversive undertone
Extreme and often selfish leading characters
Lengthy pre-opening credit sequences (eg What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967)).

Directed five different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Victor Buono, Bette Davis, Agnes Moorehead, Ian Bannen and John Cassavetes.
Portrayed by Alfred Molina in Feud (2017), which chronicles the making of the film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).
Two of Aldrich's movies--Vera Cruz (1954) and Kiss Me Deadly (1955)--are considered to be among the most influential films of the 1950s.
Three films Aldrich directed were chosen for inclusion in the 10 best list in 1955 compiled by François Truffaut for "Cahiers du Cinema" magazine: Apache (1954), The Big Knife (1955) and Vera Cruz (1954).
From 1975-79 he was President of the Directors Guild of America (DGA).

A director is a ringmaster, a psychiatrist and a referee.
[on What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)] Judging by the initial press reaction. I wasn't sure whether I was going to produce and direct a motion picture or referee a fight.
The struggle for self-determination, the struggle for what a character wants his life to be . . . I look for characters who feel strongly enough about something not to be concerned with the prevailing odds, but to struggle against those odds.
The power is for the director to do what he wants to do. To achieve that he needs his own cutter, he needs his cameraman, he needs his own assistant and a strong voice in his choice of writer; a very, very strong voice on who's the actor. He needs the power not to be interfered with and the power to make the movie as he sees it.
I think I am a much more humorous and funny fellow, and I would like to do a comedy or a musical, and I think I could easily adapt to that because of my knowledge of music. But it has nothing to do with what you think of yourself, but only what others think of you.