Tributes to Peter Bogdanovich poured in following the death of the filmmaker, writer, critic and film historian. Bogdanovich, whose films included āThe Last Picture Showā and āPaper Moon,ā died Thursday at the age of 82.
___
Recommended Videos
āPeter always made me laugh! Heāll keep making them laugh up there too. May he rest in peace.ā ā Barbra Streisand, on Twitter.
āOh dear, a shock. I am devastated. He was a wonderful and great artist. Iāll never forgot attending a premiere for āThe Last Picture Show.ā I remember at its end, the audience leaped up all around me bursting into applause lasting easily 15 minutes. Iāll never forget although I felt I had never myself experienced a reaction like that, that Peter and his film deserved it. May he sleep in bliss for eternity, enjoying the thrill of our applause forever.ā ā Francis Ford Coppola, by email.
āPeter was my heaven & earth. A father figure. A friend. From āPaper Moonā to āNickelodeonā he always made me feel safe. I love you, Peter.ā ā Tatum O'Neal, on Instagram.
āIn the 60s, at a crucial moment in the history of the movie business and the art of cinema, Peter Bogdanovich was right there at the crossroads of the Old Hollywood and the New. Curator, critic, historian, actor, director, popular entertainer ... Peter did it all. As a programmer here in New York, he put together essential retrospectives of then still overlooked masters from the glory days of the studio system; as a journalist he got to know almost everybody, from John Ford and Howard Hawks to Marlene Dietrich and Cary Grant. Like many of us, he made his way into directing pictures by way of Roger Corman, and he and Francis Coppola broke into the system early on: Peterās debut, āTargets,ā is still one of his very best films. With āThe Last Picture Show,ā he made a movie that seemed to look backward and forward at the same time as well as a phenomenal success, followed quickly by āWhatās Up Docā and āPaper Moon.ā In the years that followed, Peter had setbacks and tragedies, and he just kept going on, constantly reinventing himself. The last time I saw Peter was in 2018 at The New York Film Festival, where we appeared together on a panel discussion of his old friend Orson Wellesā āThe Other Side of the Windā (in which Peter gives a great performance, and to which he dedicated a lot of time and energy throughout many years). Right up to the end, he was fighting for the art of cinema and the people who created it.ā ā Martin Scorsese, via email.
āHe was a dear friend and a champion of cinema. He birthed masterpieces as a director and was a most genial human. He single-handedly interviewed and enshrined the lives and work of more classic filmmakers than almost anyone else in his generation.ā ā Guillermo del Toro, on Twitter.
āWe are saddened to hear about the passing of prolific director and a dear friend of ours, Peter Bogdanovich. A leading voice of ā70s Hollywood and a champion of Classic Hollywood, his passion inspired generations of filmmakers.ā ā Turner Classic Movies, on Twitter.
āSuch a great film appreciator & creator, taught a lot of us where to look.ā ā writer-director Whit Stillman