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SARAFIAN INSPIRED NEW GENERATION
The Courier Mail (Australia)
September 30, 2013 Monday
RICHARD CASPAR SARAFIAN Film director Born : April 28, 1930 New York
City Died : September 18, 2013 Santa Monica, California
RICHARD Sarafian was an influential film director whose 1971
countercultural car-chase thriller Vanishing Point brought him a
decades-long cult following.
Sarafian worked primarily in television in his early career, directing
episodes of '60s shows such as Gunsmoke , I Spy and 77 Sunset Strip .
He also directed 1963's Living Doll episode of The Twilight Zone ,
a chilling tale whose demonic main character Talky Tina terrified
children, including his own.
Deran Sarafian said as a boy he thought the episode was "the most
horrible thing I've ever seen" before learning his father had made it.
Richard Sarafian's directing credits also included episodes of Batman
on television and feature films including Run Wild, Run Free in 1969,
Man in the Wilderness in 1971, and The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing
in 1973.
But Sarafian was best known for Vanishing Point , a dark story of a
drug-fuelled auto pursuit through the Nevada desert brought on by a
bet between a Vietnam vet and his drug dealer.
The film and director had a major influence on the generation of
maverick moviemakers and actors, often referred to as "Easy Riders,
Raging Bulls", who would come to dominate Hollywood in the 1970s.
"He's considered one of the original Raging Bulls, that's why Warren
Beatty and Sean Penn and people like that absolutely adore him,"
Deran Sarafian said.
Beatty was a particularly devoted fan, casting Sarafian in roles in
two of his own films, Bugsy and Bulworth .
He played a gangster in Bugsy in 1991 and a hitman in Bulworth in
1998. And in 2001, he voiced the animated God Beaver character in Dr
Dolittle 2 .
On television, he played a coffee shop owner as a regular member
of the cast of the 1985-1986 CBS situation comedy Foley Square ,
starring Margaret Colin.
He also had a big influence on later directors such as Quentin
Tarantino, who gave him a "special thanks" credit at the end of one
of his films.
In 1997, the Scottish rock band Primal Scream paid tribute to the
director by naming an album Vanishing Point .
"It's always been a favourite of the band," leader Bobby Gillespie
said. "We love the air of paranoia and speed-freak righteousness."
Sarafian was born in New York City to Armenian immigrants. He studied
pre-law/pre-med at New York University and was a poor student but
changed to studying film, at which he excelled.
He left college to join the US Army, in which he served as a reporter
for an army news service.
While stationed in Kansas City, Missouri, during the Korean War
(1950-1953) he met the future Hollywood director Robert Altman, who
went on to direct M*A*S*H , and the two became friends.Sarafian twice
married Altman's sister Helen Joan Altman, who died in 2011. He is
survived by their four sons and a daughter.
From: Baghdasarian
The Courier Mail (Australia)
September 30, 2013 Monday
RICHARD CASPAR SARAFIAN Film director Born : April 28, 1930 New York
City Died : September 18, 2013 Santa Monica, California
RICHARD Sarafian was an influential film director whose 1971
countercultural car-chase thriller Vanishing Point brought him a
decades-long cult following.
Sarafian worked primarily in television in his early career, directing
episodes of '60s shows such as Gunsmoke , I Spy and 77 Sunset Strip .
He also directed 1963's Living Doll episode of The Twilight Zone ,
a chilling tale whose demonic main character Talky Tina terrified
children, including his own.
Deran Sarafian said as a boy he thought the episode was "the most
horrible thing I've ever seen" before learning his father had made it.
Richard Sarafian's directing credits also included episodes of Batman
on television and feature films including Run Wild, Run Free in 1969,
Man in the Wilderness in 1971, and The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing
in 1973.
But Sarafian was best known for Vanishing Point , a dark story of a
drug-fuelled auto pursuit through the Nevada desert brought on by a
bet between a Vietnam vet and his drug dealer.
The film and director had a major influence on the generation of
maverick moviemakers and actors, often referred to as "Easy Riders,
Raging Bulls", who would come to dominate Hollywood in the 1970s.
"He's considered one of the original Raging Bulls, that's why Warren
Beatty and Sean Penn and people like that absolutely adore him,"
Deran Sarafian said.
Beatty was a particularly devoted fan, casting Sarafian in roles in
two of his own films, Bugsy and Bulworth .
He played a gangster in Bugsy in 1991 and a hitman in Bulworth in
1998. And in 2001, he voiced the animated God Beaver character in Dr
Dolittle 2 .
On television, he played a coffee shop owner as a regular member
of the cast of the 1985-1986 CBS situation comedy Foley Square ,
starring Margaret Colin.
He also had a big influence on later directors such as Quentin
Tarantino, who gave him a "special thanks" credit at the end of one
of his films.
In 1997, the Scottish rock band Primal Scream paid tribute to the
director by naming an album Vanishing Point .
"It's always been a favourite of the band," leader Bobby Gillespie
said. "We love the air of paranoia and speed-freak righteousness."
Sarafian was born in New York City to Armenian immigrants. He studied
pre-law/pre-med at New York University and was a poor student but
changed to studying film, at which he excelled.
He left college to join the US Army, in which he served as a reporter
for an army news service.
While stationed in Kansas City, Missouri, during the Korean War
(1950-1953) he met the future Hollywood director Robert Altman, who
went on to direct M*A*S*H , and the two became friends.Sarafian twice
married Altman's sister Helen Joan Altman, who died in 2011. He is
survived by their four sons and a daughter.
From: Baghdasarian