Known for Directing
Hal Ashby (September 2, 1929 – December 27, 1988) was an American film director and editor associated with the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking. Before his career as a director, Ashby edited films for Norman Jewison, notably The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966), which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Editing, and In the Heat of the Night (1967), which earned him an Oscar for the same category. Ashby received a third Oscar nomination, this time for Best Director, for Coming Home (1978). Other films directed by Ashby include The Landlord (1970), Harold and Maude (1971), The Last Detail (1973), Shampoo (1975), Bound for Glory (1976) and Being There (1979). Born William Hal Ashby in Ogden, Utah, he grew up in a Mormon household. His tumultuous childhood as part of a dysfunctional family included the divorce of his parents, his father's suicide, and dropping out of high school. Ashby was married and divorced by the time he was 19. As Ashby was entering adult life, he moved from Utah to California where he soon became an assistant film editor. After being nominated for the Academy Award for Film Editing in 1967 for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, his big break occurred in 1968 when he won the award for In the Heat of the Night. At the urging of producer Norman Jewison, Ashby directed his first film The Landlord in 1970. While his birth date placed him squarely within the realm of the prewar generation, the filmmaker quickly embraced the hippie lifestyle, adopting vegetarianism and growing his hair long. In 1970 he married actress Joan Marshall. While they remained married until his death in 1988, the two had separated by the mid-seventies, with Marshall never forgiving Ashby, along with Warren Beatty and Robert Towne, for dramatizing certain unflattering elements of her life in Shampoo. Over the next 16 years, Ashby directed several acclaimed and popular films, many were about outsiders and adventurers traversing the pathways of life. Aside from Shampoo, Ashby's most commercially successful film was the Vietnam War drama Coming Home (1978). Starring Jane Fonda and Jon Voight, both in Academy Award-winning performances, it was for this film that Ashby earned his only Best Director nomination from the Academy for his work. After Being There (his last film to achieve widespread attention), Ashby became notoriously reclusive and eccentric, retreating to his home in Malibu Colony. Later it was learned that Ashby was using drugs, and he slowly became difficult and unemployable. Attempting to turn a corner in his declining career, Ashby stopped using drugs, trimmed his hair and beard, and began to frequently attend Hollywood parties wearing a navy blue blazer so as to suggest that he was once again employable. Despite these efforts, he could only find work as a television director. Ashby died on December 27, 1988 at his home in Malibu, California. The Last Detail, Bound for Glory, Coming Home, and Being There were all nominated for the Palme d'Or.
Born
September 2, 1929
Died
December 27, 1988 (age 59)
Birthplace
Ogden, Utah, USA
Filmography
33 films, 4 shows


The Rolling Stones: Satisfaction Interviews
2007 · 1h 44m
country: Unknown
This film contains interview material and archival footage presented all on one film. It begins with very rare black and white Australian documentary from the 60s with Jagger looking like the rebel, and Keith, looking somewhat wasted, talking about Brian Jones in some depth. Also featured are press conferences, a classic interview with Mick, Ronnie and a hung over Charlie Watts, the Life Time Achievements awards, Bill Wyman interview, Keith on why he loves the Stones, Charlie speaking about touring etc, and a long Australian interview to finish.


Jake's Journey
1988 · 25m
country: United Kingdom
A normal teenager is transported to a Monty Pythonesque medieval fantasy land where an odd, adamant knight takes him on a quest.


8 Million Ways to Die
1986 · 1h 55m
country: United States
Scudder is a detective with the Sheriff's Department who is forced to shoot a violent suspect during a narcotics raid. The ensuing psychological aftermath of this shooting worsens his drinking problem and this alcoholism causes him to lose his job, as well as his marriage.


The Slugger's Wife
1985 · 1h 44m
country: United States
Darryl Palmer is a major league baseball player who meets and pursues an attractive singer. After some setbacks, the two are married and sent on an emotional journey that sees his career take off, while hers doesn't. She can't escape unhappiness when she gives up her dreams to support her husband. With a separation on the horizon, Darryl must choose between his big-league life and his one true love.


Neil Young: Solo Trans
1984 · 1h
country: Unknown
Solo Trans is a concert film by Neil Young, released in 1984. It was recorded at the Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio on September 18, 1983 during Young's Solo Trans tour.


Let's Spend the Night Together
1982 · 1h 34m
country: United States
The Rolling Stones' record-breaking 1981 North American arena tour documented by director Hal Ashby. Featuring the biggest Rolling Stones songs from the first 20 years - in the words of Mick Jagger, "a feel of what it's like to be there", as 20 cameras take you onstage with the band in this groundbreaking, dynamic tour.


Lookin' to Get Out
1982 · 1h 45m
country: United States
Two gamblers must leave New York City after one loses a lot of money. Doing what all gamblers in trouble would do, they hurry to the gambling capital Las Vegas to turn their luck around.


The Rolling Stones: Hampton Coliseum (Live 1981)
1981 · 2h 30m
country: Unknown
It was recorded at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia on 18 December 1981, for what was the penultimate show of the band's U.S. tour that year. The show was the first-ever live pay-per-view broadcast of a music concert.


Second-Hand Hearts
1981 · 1h 42m
country: United States
A boozy drifter tries to get to know the widow he married while on a bender.


Being There
1979 · 2h 10m
country: United States
A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television.


Coming Home
1978 · 2h 7m
country: United States
In 1968 California, a Marine officer's wife falls in love with a former high school classmate who suffered a paralyzing combat injury in the war.


Bound for Glory
1976 · 2h 28m
country: United States
A biography of Woody Guthrie, one of America's greatest folk singers. He left his dust-devastated Texas home in the 1930s to find work, discovering the suffering and strength of America's working class.


Shampoo
1975 · 1h 50m
country: United States
On Election Day, 1968, irresponsible hairdresser and ladies' man George Roundy is too busy cutting hair and dealing with his girlfriends and mistress Felicia Karpf, whose husband Lester is having an affair with his ex-girlfriend Jackie.


The Last Detail
1973 · 1h 44m
country: United States
Two Navy men are ordered to bring a young offender to prison, but decide to show him one last good time along the way.


Harold and Maude
1971 · 1h 32m
country: United States
A deadpan young man obsessed with death meets an eccentric septuagenarian who teaches him to live life to the fullest.


The Landlord
1970 · 1h 52m
country: United States
At the age of twenty-nine, Elgar Enders "runs away" from home. This running away consists of buying a building in a black ghetto in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Initially, his intention is to evict the black tenants and convert the building into a posh flat. But Elgar is not one to be bound by yesterday's urges, and soon he has other thoughts on his mind.