(21 February 1933 – 23 July 2022)
The American film director, producer and screenwriter Bob Rafelson, who has died aged 89 from lung cancer, had an incredibly eclectic career. Write it down and you wouldn’t believe it. He was involved in one way or another in the New American Cinema of the 1970s and 1980s including Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show, The King of Marvin Gardens, The Postman Always Rings Twice and Mountains of the Moon among other productions. And, as if that were not enough, he also invented The Monkees, the boy band of that ilk.
Bob Rafelson was born Robert Jay Raphaelson in New York City to father Sydney, a Jewish hat ribbon manufacturer, and his wife Marjorie. He attended a New York boarding school but had an unhappy childhood – silent father, alcoholic mother – and often ran away to go rodeo riding or playing in a jazz band. He studied philosophy at Dartmouth, joined the US army and was posted to Japan, working as a DJ and translating Japanese films for the US. He admired the films of Ozu, Bergman and John Ford. His first job on TV was series story editor and then screenplay writing.
He formed a production company, Raybert, with producer Bert Schneider which gave rise to The Monkees, the Emmy Award-winning TV series that aired from 1966. The Monkees also starred in the feature film Head which Rafelson wrote (with Jack Nicholson) and which he directed. It was a totally mad idea but it led to Easy Rider in 1969, the famous road movie which Raybert co-produced, earning them Oscar nominations for director Dennis Hopper’s screenplay and for Nicholson as best supporting actor. Next came Five Easy Pieces (four Academy nominations) and The King of Marvin Gardens, both with Nicholson again. Rafelson and Nicholson were also instrumental in getting Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show completed in 1971. Thirty years later it was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
Rafelson directed Stay Hungry with Jeff Bridges, Sally Field and Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1976 and then started work on Brubaker with Robert Redford but got fired. Then came the remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice with Nicholson and Jessica Lange, and Black Widow with Debra Winger and Theresa Russell. During the 1990s, Rafelson made Mountains of the Moon, Man Trouble and Blood and Wine also with Nicholson. His last film was No Good Deed, a crime thriller with Samuel L. Jackson. He remained a maverick writer, producer and director to the end.
Bob Rafelson married Toby Carr Rafelson in 1955 and they were divorced in 1977 with one son, Peter. He then married Gabrielle Taurek in 1999 and they have two sons, Ethan and Harper.
MICHAEL DARVELL
