Biography

The Peter Bogdanovich story is a Hollywood tale through and through, replete with memorable associations and fantastic success, along with dramatic ups and downs.

Bogdanovich was a teenage actor in New York City who directed and produced an Off-Broadway production of Clifford Odets’ The Big Knife at age 20. He worked as a film critic for such magazines as Film Culture, Movie and Esquire and began interviewing directors in the early ’60s, writing features on Howard Hawks, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Fritz Lang, Allan Dwan and more.

He moved to Hollywood in his 20s with no contacts and very little money, but quickly found work with the king of low-budget cinema, Roger Corman. His first major success came in 1971 with The Last Picture Show, which he quickly followed with two more hits, What’s Up, Doc? (1972) and Paper Moon (1973). But then a string of flops tarnished his reputation, even as his skills as a writer and director grew sharper.

Throughout his career, he became close friends with many of his filmmaking idols, and never stopped interviewing and learning from the great directors of the Golden Age of Hollywood. And his love life became tabloid fodder, moving in and out of passionate affairs with close collaborators and leading ladies – the last of which ended in unspeakable tragedy.

In the words of critic Todd McCarthy, “Peter’s career was kind of the ultimate triumph of the film critic, film nerd, and film buff.” His own story is as bold and surprising as any of his movies, and he takes us behind the scenes of both his work and his personal life in Season One of The Plot Thickens.