Peter Bogdanovich, Oscar-nominated director for ‘The Last Picture Show’, dies at 82

(CNN) – Peter Bogdanovich, the director nominated for an Oscar for such films as “The Last Picture Show” and “Paper Moon,” and whose off-screen life was as colorful as his films, has died, according to multiple reports citing his daughter Antonia Bogdanovich.

He was 82 years old.

Bogdanovich died of natural causes at his Los Angeles home, his daughter told The Hollywood Reporter, which his agent later confirmed to CNN.

Peter Bogdanovich, a renowned film historian, was writing about movies when he made the leap to directing, moving to Los Angeles in the 1960s and getting his break from producer Roger Corman.

This was the takeoff of Bogdanovich’s career as a director

However, his career took off with his black-and-white adaptation of author Larry McMurtry’s “The Last Picture Show,” set in a Texas town, which premiered in 1971. This was followed by movies like “What’s Up, Doc? “, a comedy with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal, and” Paper Moon “(also with O’Neal and his young daughter Tatum, who won the Oscar for best supporting actress at age 10).

Peter Bogdanovich also made headlines off-screen for his various relationships, including one with “Last Picture Show” co-star Cybill Shepherd, who later starred in his film “Daisy Miller.”

The director also dated Playboy model-turned-actress Dorothy Stratten, who appeared in his 1981 film “They All Laughed,” before being murdered by her husband, Paul Snider. Later Bogdanovich wrote a book on Stratten’s death.

Bogdanovich’s admiration for great filmmaking talent led him to befriend figures like Orson Welles, and one of his more recent projects involved helping to edit and release the “Citizen Kane” director’s incomplete film, “The Other. Side of the Wind, “which Welles had worked on intermittently from 1970 until his death in 1985.

Peter Bogdanovich had a small role in the film and also acted in other projects, perhaps the most memorable playing a therapist in “The Sopranos.”

Tributes

Mexican director Guillermo del Toro praised Bogdanovich on Twitter, calling him a “defender of cinema” who “only interviewed and consecrated the lives and work of more classic filmmakers than almost anyone else of his generation.”

Born in New York, Bogdanovich’s interest in chronicling the works of great filmmakers included the book “Who the Devil Made It: Conversations With Legendary Directors” and, more recently, “The Plot Thickens,” a podcast dedicated to the movies “and the people who make them” for Turner Classic Movies, CNN’s sister network.

TCM noted that Peter Bogdanovich’s passion for the medium “inspired generations of filmmakers.”