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Hal Ashby

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Hal Ashby: Biography

Birth Name: William Hal Ashby
Birth Place: Ogden, UT
Date of Birth / Zodiac Sign: 09/02/1929, Virgo
Date of Death: 12/27/1988
Profession: Director; editor

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Hal Ashby Fast Facts:

While growing up in a Mormon household, the challenges associated with his parents divorce and father's suicide led to difficulty in school and his dropping out during senior year.
Hitchhiked to Los Angeles in 1953.
Began Hollywood career working as an office clerk at Universal Studios in 1957. While there, learned film editing with the goal of becoming a director.
After an Oscar win for editing In the Heat of the Night, partnered with graphic artist Pablo Ferro as supervising editor and helped design the multiple-screen sequencing in The Thomas Crown Affair to much acclaim.
Mentor Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night) removed himself as director of The Landlord and recommended this as Ashby's first directing gig.
Wife and actress Joan Marshall supposedly separated from him when outraged that personal details were used in the film Shampoo.
The controversial political and sexual choices Ashby made in the Vietnam War-themed Coming Home (1978) did not please the distributors at United Artists who deemed it anti-American and opened it in February, generally not a good time for Oscar consideration. Despite the association with "Hanoi Jane" Fonda and the reclusive hippie director, the film ultimately earned eight Academy Award nominations including Best Director, Best Picture and a Best Actress win for Fonda.
Though his films in the 1980s were mostly unmemorable, the 1979 black comedy Being There was the last of his films to receive positive recognition.
His compulsive work ethic and successful directorial efforts in the 1970s did nothing to curtail his notorious abuse of drugs.
Died of liver and colon cancer in 1988.