M*A*S*H 1970 A closer look at Robert Altman

1. Robert Altman was born in Kansas City, Missouri (February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006), the son of Helen (née Matthews), a Mayflower descendant from Nebraska, and Bernard Clement Altman, a wealthy insurance salesman and amateur gambler who came from an upper-class family. Altman's ancestry was German, English and Irish; his paternal grandfather, Frank Altman, Sr., changed the family name from "Altmann" to "Altman". He was educated in Jesuit schools prior to joining the Army at the age of 18; over the course of World War II, Altman flew over 50 bombing missions in Borneo and the Dutch East Indies.
2. Bodyguard, space film called Countdown- he was fired, 1969's That Cold Day in the Park, a critical and box-office disaster.
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4.In 1969 Altman was offered the script for MASH, an adaptation of a little-known Korean War-era novel satirizing life in the armed services, which had already been passed over by over a dozen other filmmakers. Altman agreed to direct the project.
5. He was 44 when he directed MASH.
6. In 1949 he returned to Kansas City, accepting a job as a director and writer of industrial films for the Calvin Company. Here he had his first experiences working with film technology, as well as with actors.1956 Altman was hired by a local businessman to write and direct a feature film in Kansas City on juvenile delinquency. The finished product, titled The Delinquents, made for $60,000, was purchased by United Artists for $150,000, and released in 1957.Altman's first two features brought him to the attention of Alfred Hitchcock, who tapped him as a director for his CBS anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. After just two episodes, Altman resigned due to differences with a producer, but the exposure enabled him to mount a successful TV career in series including Bonanza, Combat!, and the Kraft Television Theater. Altman was also one of the directors of the DuMont drama series Pulse of the City (1953–1954). In 1964, one of his episodes for the Kraft Television Theatre was expanded for commercial release under the name Nightmare in Chicago. Two years later he accepted the invitation to direct the low-budget space travel feature Countdown, but was fired within days of the project's conclusion because of his refusal to edit the film down to a manageable length. Altman did not direct another movie until 1969's That Cold Day in the Park, a critical and box-office disaster.
7. Though production was so tumultuous that stars Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland even attempted to have Altman fired over his unorthodox filming methods.
8. Produced by Aspen Productions Ingo Preminger Productions, distributed by 20th Century Fox. Estimated Budget of $3.5 million.
Reference- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Altman