An Oscar-winning editor in the 1960s, Ashby then helmed some of the best American films of the 1970s including The Landlord, The Last Detail, Shampoo and received his sole Best Director Oscar nomination for Coming Home. He came a cropper in the 1980s, though, and sadly died in 1988 at the age of 59. He has come to represent the essence of the New Hollywood era of the late 1960s to the end of the 1970s.
FSMers overwhelm the internet (again) with their enthusiastic love of Hal Ashby films.
I remember seeing his obit in an issue of Rolling Stone magazine, and thinking that his career, even then, seemed like so long ago. I really should have a marathon of his films. He's so much of that time and that makes him all the more interesting to me.
