Robert Altman

Robert Bernard Altman (February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director  Altman was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Altman was a soldier in world war 2 then joined the film industry in 1948.

several films he was involved in were; M*A*S*H, Popeye, The Player and Gosforth park.

Altman was known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective.

When he directed M*A*S*H he was 45.

Prior to M*A*S*H Altman had only directed short movies such as; The perfect crime and The magic Bond.

There was a lot of tension between the cast and Altman. During princial photography, Sutherland and Gould spent a third of their time trying to get Altman fired; Altman, relatively new to the filmmaking establishment, at that time lacked the credentials to justify his unorthodox filmmaking process and had a history of turning down work rather than creating a poor-quality product. Altman: "I had practice working for people who don't care about quality, and I learned how to sneak it in."Altman later commented that if he had known about Gould and Sutherland, he would have resigned.

M*A*S*H was produced by 20th century fox and had an estimated budget of  $3.5 million.