Robert "Bob" Rafelson (born February 21, 1933) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film directorA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
,
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
and
producerA film producer or movie producer is someone who creates the scenes and conditions for making movies. The producer initiates, co-ordinates, supervises and controls matters such as fund-raising, hiring key personnel and arranging for distributors...
. He is most famous for directing and co-writing the film
Five Easy PiecesFive Easy Pieces is a 1970 film written by Carole Eastman and Bob Rafelson, and directed by Rafelson. The film stars Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, and Susan Anspach. The cast also includes Billy Green Bush, Fannie Flagg, Ralph Waite, Sally Struthers, Lois Smith, and Toni Basil...
, starring
Jack NicholsonJohn Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director and producer. He is renowned for his often dark-themed portrayals of neurotic characters....
, as well as being one of the creators of the pop group and TV series,
The MonkeesThe Monkees were a pop rock quartet assembled by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider in Los Angeles in 1966 for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968...
(with
Raybert/BBS ProductionsRaybert Productions was a 1960s production company, founded by Robert Rafelson and Bert Schneider. Its principal works were the wildly successful situation comedy The Monkees, and the 1969 movie Easy Rider .Wishing to break into movie production, but lacking experience, Rafelson and Schneider...
partner
Bert SchneiderBerton "Bert" Schneider is an American movie producer, who was behind a number of important and topical films of the late-1960s and early-1970s. The son of Abraham Schneider, onetime president of Columbia Pictures, the younger Schneider tended toward the rebellious. He briefly attended Cornell...
).
Rafelson was born in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, the son of a hat manufacturer. His uncle was screenwriter and playwright
Samson RaphaelsonSamson Raphaelson was an American screenwriter and playwright.Born in New York City, he worked on nine films with Ernst Lubitsch, including Trouble in Paradise , The Shop Around the Corner , Heaven Can Wait , and That Lady in Ermine . He also collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on Hitchcock's...
.
Rafelson and Nicholson have been collaborators for over thirty years.
Robert "Bob" Rafelson (born February 21, 1933) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film directorA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
,
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
and
producerA film producer or movie producer is someone who creates the scenes and conditions for making movies. The producer initiates, co-ordinates, supervises and controls matters such as fund-raising, hiring key personnel and arranging for distributors...
. He is most famous for directing and co-writing the film
Five Easy PiecesFive Easy Pieces is a 1970 film written by Carole Eastman and Bob Rafelson, and directed by Rafelson. The film stars Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, and Susan Anspach. The cast also includes Billy Green Bush, Fannie Flagg, Ralph Waite, Sally Struthers, Lois Smith, and Toni Basil...
, starring
Jack NicholsonJohn Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director and producer. He is renowned for his often dark-themed portrayals of neurotic characters....
, as well as being one of the creators of the pop group and TV series,
The MonkeesThe Monkees were a pop rock quartet assembled by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider in Los Angeles in 1966 for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968...
(with
Raybert/BBS ProductionsRaybert Productions was a 1960s production company, founded by Robert Rafelson and Bert Schneider. Its principal works were the wildly successful situation comedy The Monkees, and the 1969 movie Easy Rider .Wishing to break into movie production, but lacking experience, Rafelson and Schneider...
partner
Bert SchneiderBerton "Bert" Schneider is an American movie producer, who was behind a number of important and topical films of the late-1960s and early-1970s. The son of Abraham Schneider, onetime president of Columbia Pictures, the younger Schneider tended toward the rebellious. He briefly attended Cornell...
).
Rafelson was born in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, the son of a hat manufacturer. His uncle was screenwriter and playwright
Samson RaphaelsonSamson Raphaelson was an American screenwriter and playwright.Born in New York City, he worked on nine films with Ernst Lubitsch, including Trouble in Paradise , The Shop Around the Corner , Heaven Can Wait , and That Lady in Ermine . He also collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on Hitchcock's...
.
Rafelson and Nicholson have been collaborators for over thirty years. Nicholson and Rafelson wrote and produced and Rafelson directed
HeadHead is a psychedelic motion picture released in 1968, starring TV group The Monkees , and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It was written and produced by Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson, and directed by Rafelson.The name seems to be a sort of joke...
, starring the Monkees, in 1968, followed by
Five Easy PiecesFive Easy Pieces is a 1970 film written by Carole Eastman and Bob Rafelson, and directed by Rafelson. The film stars Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, and Susan Anspach. The cast also includes Billy Green Bush, Fannie Flagg, Ralph Waite, Sally Struthers, Lois Smith, and Toni Basil...
. In subsequent years, Rafelson directed Nicholson in four more films, including
The King of Marvin GardensThe King of Marvin Gardens is a 1972 American drama film. It stars Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn and Scatman Crothers. It is one of several collaborations between Nicholson and director Bob Rafelson. It features one of Nicholson's best and most understated performances...
(1972),
The Postman Always Rings TwiceThe Postman Always Rings Twice is a 1981 film adaptation of a novel by James M. Cain. This version, based on a screenplay by David Mamet and directed by Bob Rafelson, starred Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange...
(1981),
Man TroubleMan Trouble is a 1992 romantic comedy starring Jack Nicholson and Ellen Barkin. It was directed by Bob Rafelson, and written by Carole Eastman, who together had been responsible for 1970's Five Easy Pieces...
(1992), and
Blood and WineBlood and Wine is a crime drama film directed by Bob Rafelson and screenplay written by Nick Villiers and Alison Cross. It features Jack Nicholson, Jennifer Lopez, Stephen Dorff, Michael Caine, and others...
(1996).
Rafelson has adapted the works of legendary noir authors
James M. CainJames Mallahan Cain was an American author and journalist. Although Cain himself vehemently opposed labelling, he is usually associated with the hardboiled school of American crime fiction and seen as one of the creators of the roman noir...
,
Raymond ChandlerRaymond Thornton Chandler was an Anglo-American novelist and screenwriter who had an immense stylistic influence upon the modern private detective story, especially in the style of the writing and the attitudes now characteristic of the genre...
, and
Dashiell HammettSamuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , the newspaper comic strip Secret Agent X-9 and the Continental Op...
.
Filmography
- Head
Head is a psychedelic motion picture released in 1968, starring TV group The Monkees , and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It was written and produced by Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson, and directed by Rafelson.The name seems to be a sort of joke...
(1968)
- Five Easy Pieces
Five Easy Pieces is a 1970 film written by Carole Eastman and Bob Rafelson, and directed by Rafelson. The film stars Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, and Susan Anspach. The cast also includes Billy Green Bush, Fannie Flagg, Ralph Waite, Sally Struthers, Lois Smith, and Toni Basil...
(1970)
- The King of Marvin Gardens
The King of Marvin Gardens is a 1972 American drama film. It stars Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn and Scatman Crothers. It is one of several collaborations between Nicholson and director Bob Rafelson. It features one of Nicholson's best and most understated performances...
(1972)
- Stay Hungry
Stay Hungry is a 1976 dramatic comedy film by director Bob Rafelson from a screenplay by Charles Gaines . The story centers on a young Birmingham, Alabama, scion, played by Jeff Bridges, who gets involved in a shady real-estate deal. In order to close the deal, he needs to buy a gym building to...
(1976)
- The Postman Always Rings Twice
The Postman Always Rings Twice is a 1981 film adaptation of a novel by James M. Cain. This version, based on a screenplay by David Mamet and directed by Bob Rafelson, starred Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange...
(1981)
- Black Widow
Black Widow is a 1987 Neo-noir film starring Debra Winger, Theresa Russell, Sami Frey, and Dennis Hopper, about two women: one who murders wealthy men whom she marries for their money, and the other an agent with the Department of Justice who grows obsessed with bringing her to justice...
(1987)
- Mountains of the Moon
Mountains of the Moon is a 1990 theatrical film depicting the 1857-58 journey of Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke in their expedition to central Africa — the project that culminated in Speke's discovery of the source of the Nile River. The expedition led to a bitter rivalry between the...
(1990)
- Man Trouble
Man Trouble is a 1992 romantic comedy starring Jack Nicholson and Ellen Barkin. It was directed by Bob Rafelson, and written by Carole Eastman, who together had been responsible for 1970's Five Easy Pieces...
(1992)
- Wet (1995) short film released in Tales of Erotica
- Shorts featured :* The Dutch Master *The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch *Vroom Vroom Vroom *Wet...
- Blood and Wine
Blood and Wine is a crime drama film directed by Bob Rafelson and screenplay written by Nick Villiers and Alison Cross. It features Jack Nicholson, Jennifer Lopez, Stephen Dorff, Michael Caine, and others...
(1996)
- Poodle Springs
Poodle Springs is the eighth Philip Marlowe novel. It was started in 1958 by Raymond Chandler, who left it unfinished at his death in 1959. The four chapters he had completed, which bore the working title "The Poodle Springs Story", were subsequently published in Raymond Chandler Speaking , a...
(1998) (TV Movie)
- No Good Deed
No Good Deed is a 2002 drama film/thriller film, directed by Bob Rafelson. It starred Samuel L. Jackson, Milla Jovovich, Stellan Skarsgård and Doug Hutchison. The screenplay by Christopher Cannan and Steve Barancik is based on the short story The House on Turk Street by Dashiell Hammett. The...
(2002)
External links