Bob Rafelson, who co-created The Monkees and helped turn Jack Nicholson into a star with Five Easy Pieces, has died. He was 89. He died Saturday night of natural causes at his Aspen, Colorado home, his wife, Gabrielle, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Rafelson was born in New York City on Feb. 21, 1933. He began his Hollywood career as a television writer in the early 1960s before he joined Bert Schneider to co-create Raybert Productions. Their first project was The Monkees, which earned the two the Emmy for Oustanding Comedy Series. Although The Monkees was seen as a teen fad at the time, the show was groundbreaking for a sitcom, with its energetic editing and music sequences that predated music videos. There were only 58 episodes produced, but The Monkees‘ influence continues to live on and its success helped Rafelson and Schneider successfully transition to movies.
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The first movie Rafelson directed was the Monkees-starring Head, co-written with Nicholson. Head was famously a flop, but it became a cult classic and established Rafelson’s successful collaboration with Nicholson. They worked together again on Five Easy Pieces, which earned Rafelson Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay and established Nicholson as a star.
Between Head and Five Easy Pieces, Raybert also produced Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider, which became a cultural phenomenon. Raybert became BBS Productions when Stephen Blauner joinedand Five Easy Pieces was their first big project. BBS also went on to produce Peter Bogdanovich‘s The Last Picture Show, Rafelson’s vastly underrated The King of Marvin Gardens, and the Nicholson-directed Drive, He Said. The company’s last film was the controversial Oscar-winning Vietnam War documentary Hearts and Minds.
Rafelson’s post-BBS work wasn’t always successful, but he continued making interesting movies through 2002. In 1976, he directed Arnold Schwarzenegger in Stay Hungry with Jeff Bridges and Sally Field. He worked with Nicholson again on The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), as well as Man Trouble (1992) and Blood and Wine (1997). His last movie was No Good Deed, a 2002 thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson and Milla Jovovich. In 1986, he directed Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” music video.
Rafelson’s first wife was Toby Carr Rafelson, a production designer on Five Easy Pieces and Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. He is survived by his second wife Gabrielle, their sons Ethan and Harper, daughter-in-law Karen, and a nephew.
