Bob Rafelson, the Oscar-nominated director of Five Easy Pieces and co-creator of The Monkees TV show, is dead at age 89
- Rafelson died of natural causes at his home in Aspen, Colorado
- He’s best known for directing Five Easy Pieces, which stars Jack Nicholson
- Rafelson also co-created The Monkees and their TV show
- He was an icon of independent film production in the 1960s and ’70s
Bob Rafelson, the filmmaker who earned an Oscar nomination for his classic film Five Easy Pieces, has died at 89.
The director died at his home in Aspen, Colorado, of natural causes, according to Deadline.
In addition to his many collaborations with actor Jack Nicholson — who earned his own Academy Award nomination for Five Easy Pieces — Rafelson was known for co-creating The Monkees and their eponymous TV show with his producing partner Bert Schneider.
Bob Rafelson, the Oscar-nominated director of Five Easy Pieces, has died at his Aspen, Colorado, home of natural causes at 89, according to Deadline; pictured in 1990
Rafelson began his career in the 1950s as a story editor for televised plays, and by the early 1960s he had moved up to producing.
By the middle of the decade, he met his future work partner Bert Schneider, and the two created BBS Productions, along with Schneider’s friend Stephen Blauner.
The company’s first TV show was the Monkees, and Rafelson would later claim that he had come up for the idea of a show about a rock band even before the release of A Hard Day’s Night, or even before The Beatles came into existence.

The beginning: Rafelson co-created The Monkees with his producing partner Bert Schneider; seen in 1970

Getting serious: Rafelson directed the band’s cult classic film Head in 1968, which was co-written by Jack Nicholson, who had a brief cameo; The Monkees seen in 1967 in Los Angeles
After failing to attract existing rock bands, he and Schneider created the group that would become known as The Monkees in order for them to star on the series of the same name, which ran from 1966 to 1968.
In 1968, BBS produced the film Head, which starred The Monkees and had a zany, surreal style that was indebted to European art films.
The film wasn’t well received by critics or audiences at the time — though it has subsequently been reevaluated as a cult classic — but it cemented a working relationship with Rafelson’s friend Jack Nicholson, who co-wrote the movie and makes a brief fourth wall–breaking appearance in the film.
Rafelson and BBS had their first big success with 1969’s Easy Rider, which was directed by Dennis Hopper and produced by Peter Fonda, with both starring in the leads along with a major supporting role by Nicholson.
Rafelson served as an uncredited advisor on the movie, and it went on to become a major critical and commercial success.

Rafelson and BBS had their first big success with 1969’s Easy Rider, on which he served as an uncredited advisor; (L–R) director and star Dennis Hopper, producer and star Peter Fonda and actor Jack Nicholson pictured in the film
He followed it up by directing 1970s Five Easy Pieces, which featured Nicholson as an oil rig laborer who can’t seem to find peace at his job or with his girlfriend (Karen Black).
He heads out west for a visit with his sister, shedding his accent and revealing that he is a piano virtuoso who left his old life behind.
Rafelson was nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Picture for producing, along with Best Original Screenplay for co-writing it with Adrien Joyce. Nicholson and Black also received Best Actor and Supporting Actress nominations.

American classic: Rafelson was nominated for Oscars for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for Five Easy Pieces (1970), while Nicholson was nominated for Best Actor and Karen Black (pictured) was nominated for Best Supporting Actress
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk