Director and screenwriter of The Last Picture Show, which earned him Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
He studied acting with Stella Adler in the 1950s.
He was an American film historian and a member of the New Hollywood wave of directors who came to prominence between the late 1960s and early 1980s.
He married Polly Platt in 1962 and
He was a close friend of Orson Welles.
