Film director Peter Bogdanovich dies at 82

American film director Peter Bogdanovich, creator of the Oscar-winning classic “The Last Picture Show” (1971), passed away at 82 years old, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday.

His daughter, Antonia Bogdanovich, told that outlet that the half-century-old filmmaker died today shortly after midnight, of natural causes, at his home in Los Angeles.

Bogdanovich, born 1939 in New York (USA), was one of the most important directors of New Hollywood in the 1970s and leaves a legacy with a score of recognized titles, including “What’s Up, Doc?” (1972) and “Paper Moon” (1973).

Movie fan since he was a child, began his artistic career at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), where he prepared an anthology of films on Orson Welles and Howard Hawks and at the same time he was forging himself as a prestigious film critic.

In 1964 he moved to Los Angeles and made his foray into filmmaking as an assistant director to Robert Corman, who would produce his first feature film, “Targets,” followed by documentaries about filmmakers Howard Hawkes and John Ford.

In 1971 he began filming “The Last Picture Show,” a black and white drama set in Texas that won Oscars for Best Supporting Actor (Ben Johnson) and Best Supporting Actress (Cloris Leachman), as well as six nominations.

That was the prelude to a prolific career in which Titles such as “At Long Last Love” (1975), “Cohen and Tate” (1984) and “The Thing Called Love” (1993) appear, and it lasted until 2014, when he released his last film, “She’s Funny that Way ”.

The award-winning director was recognized several times in Spain, highlighting the Silver Shell at the San Sebastián Festival and the jury award in 1973 for “Paper Moon” and “Noises Off” (1992), which in 1994 won him the audience award at the Peñíscola Festival. (I)