Robert Aldrich
For the 16th century bishop, see Robert Aldrich (bishop).Robert Aldrich (
August 9,
1918–
December 5,
1983) was a
United States film director,
writer and
producer notable for a number of films including
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?,
Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte, and
The Dirty Dozen.
Robert Burgess Aldrich was born in
Cranston, Rhode Island, the son of
Lora Lawson and newspaper publisher
Edward B. Aldrich, and grandson of US Senator
Nelson W. Aldrich. Robert was educated at
Moses Brown School in
Providence, Rhode Island and went to the
University of Virginia to study
economics. He dropped out in
1941 to begin his film industry career with a minor job at
RKO.
He quickly worked his way up the production ladder, as an assistant director he worked with men including
Jean Renoir,
Abraham Polonsky,
Joseph Losey and
Charlie Chaplin. He moved into television direction in the 1950s and directed his first feature film,
The Big Leaguer, in 1954. In the 1950s Aldrich was a rare American example of the
auteur, enforcing his own vision across a wide thematic range, with films like the
noir classic
Kiss Me Deadly, the adaptation of Clifford Odets' play about Hollywood
The Big Knife (both 1955) and the war film
Attack! (1956).
In the 1960s he went on to direct a number of major commercial successes, such as the gothic
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, in which he teamed two of the greatest Hollywood rivals,
Bette Davis and
Joan Crawford, the controversial
The Killing of Sister George (1968) and the exemplar for many later
war films,
The Dirty Dozen (1967). The success of
Dozen allowed him to set up his own studio and finance his own films for a few years, but a series of flops returned him to Hollywood and a series of more commercial films, such as
The Longest Yard (1974). His stunning Western from 1972
Ulzana's Raid is among the very best of his works.
He had four children with his first wife
Harriet Foster, all of whom became involved in the movie business:
Adell Aldrich,
William Aldrich,
Alida Aldrich, and
Kelly Aldrich. Robert and Harriet later divorced, and he married model
Sybille Siegfried in
1965.
*
Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database*
Find-A-Grave profile for Robert Aldrich
