During the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, Robert Aldrich was one of the most interesting and iconoclastic directors in Hollywood. Starting as an assistant director, Aldrich moved into directing for TV, then caught the eye of Burt Lancaster in the early 1950s. From there he alternated between independent production and studio work, working with bigger names and bigger budgets through the 1960s. He fell out of favor in the 1970s, and his career was finished by 1981. Plagued by ill health , he died in 1983. Best remembered for "The Dirty Dozen", "The Longest Yard", and "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane", Aldrich has been unfairly dismissed as a Hollywood hack who got lucky at key points in his career. His entire oeuvre contradicts this notion; in many ways he was a true original.
