Robert Altman

Born: February 1925
Where: Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Died: November 20 2006 in Los Angeles.

After five Academy Award nominations for directing, Robert Altman was finally awarded an Oscar after a hugely respected half century in the business.

Long recognized in Europe as a true auteur, he brought an ironic, spare, irreverent gaze to bear on many long-standing American values.

Critically acclaimed movies included the anti-war satire M*A*S*H, the Hollywood parody The Player and British country house whodunnit Gosford Park.

The son of an insurance salesman, he was educated as a Catholic and it was while he was at Rockhurst High School that he first took an interest in cinema.

Using cheap tape recorders, he began exploring the possibilities of sound before that experiment was disrupted when he was sent to Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri.

In 1945, he enlisted in the Air Force and became a co-pilot of a B-24 before he was discharged and went to work for industrial film producer the Calvin Co.

The Delinquents, his first feature, was followed by The James Dean Story, a docudrama that mapped out his intentions of using film to explore the harsh reality behind pop culture icons.

From 1957 to 1965, Altman worked in Hollywood on a wide variety of television programs including Combat, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Bonanza.

His career took a dramatic turn with the dark Oscar-nominated Korean War comedy "M*A*S*H", a box-office and critical smash which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

Altman's ensuing films, Brewster McCloud, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Long Goodbye and Thieves Like Us added to his reputation as an artist, but were all disappointments at the box-office.

Country music drama Nashville won back the audience, was nominated for five Oscars (it won one for best song), and invariably appears on critics' Best of the 1970s lists for its layered narrative, breezy character treatment and witty use of music.

The accolades stopped, however, with the still underrated Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, Altman's Bicentennial film which explored the marketing of American history.

Altman debuted as a producer with Welcome to L.A. by his protege Alan Rudolph, and The Late Show, by screenwriter Robert Benton, both films echoing his fondness for quirky characters and situations.

His own directorial style continued to evolve and diversify with Three Women, A Wedding and Quintet.

Popeye, starring Robin Williams, was a curious but off-the-mark cartoon re-creation that, like all Altman films, has its champions.

In 1981, Altman sold his Lion's Gate production company and turned his attention to the theatre before returning with the intense portrait of Van Gogh in Vincent and Theo in 1990.

He followed up with his most acclaimed film in years and one of his most commercially successful ever, The Player, a bravura, scathing look at Hollywood opportunism.

Apparently reinvigorated by success, Altman followed up with Short Cuts only to falter with the less-than-insightful Pret-a-Porter in 1994 about the fashion industry.

In 1998 the John Grisham-scripted thriller The Gingerbread Man was followed by the Southern Gothic Cookie's Fortune and the satirical Dr. T and the Women.

Next came one of Altman's most successful and accessible movies - Gosford Park, which played to the strengths of an all-star ensemble, including Sir Michael Gambon, Dame Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren as well as rising talents like Clive Owen and Kelly Macdonald.

The film earned seven Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Director.

Capitalizing on his renewed success, Altman followed it with the well-received ballet drama The Company with Neve Campbell.

In 2006, after a career during which he had directed 86 films and written 39. he was awarded an honorary Academy Award.

He died aged 81 in Los Angeles of undisclosed causes on November 20 2006.

"He is a master film maker and well deserves this honour," said Academy President Sid Ganis.