fiction.wikisort.org - Screenwriter

Search / Calendar

Mary Marr "Polly" Platt (January 29, 1939 – July 27, 2011) was an American film producer, production designer and screenwriter. She was the first female art director accepted into Hollywood's Art Director's Guild. In addition to her credited work, she was known as mentor (for which she was honored with Women in Film Crystal Award) as well as an uncredited collaborator and networker. In the case of the latter, she is credited with contributing to the success of ex-husband and director Peter Bogdanovich's early films; mentoring then, first-time director and writer Cameron Crowe, and discovering actors including Cybill Shepherd, Tatum O'Neal, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson and director Wes Anderson. Platt also suggested that director James L. Brooks meet artist and illustrator Matt Groening. Their subsequent meeting eventually resulted in the satiric animated television series The Simpsons.

For the author, see Polly Platt (author).

Polly Platt
Born
Mary Marr Platt

(1939-01-29)January 29, 1939
Fort Sheridan, Illinois, U.S.
DiedJuly 27, 2011(2011-07-27) (aged 72)
New York City, U.S.
OccupationFilm producer, production designer, screenwriter
Years active1966–2011
Spouse(s)Philip Klein
(m. 195?; died 1959)
​
​
(m. 1962; div. 1971)​

Tony Wade
(m. 1979; died 1985)
Children2

Early life


Platt was born Mary Marr Platt in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, on January 29, 1939, later choosing to be known as 'Polly'.[1][2] Her father, John, was a colonel in the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the United States Army, while her mother, Vivian, worked in advertising; she had a brother, John. She moved to Germany at the age of six when her father presided over the Dachau Trials.[1] Platt later returned to the US and attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology, now known as Carnegie Mellon University.[1][2] In 1960, Platt was married to Phillip Klein, who died in a car accident after eight months of marriage.


Career


Platt worked in summer stock theatre as a costume designer in New York and there met Peter Bogdanovich, whom she later married.[1][2] She co-wrote with him his first movie Targets (1968), conceiving the plot outline of a "Vietnam veteran-turned-sniper", and served as production designer on the film.[2] She repeated the latter role on his film The Last Picture Show (1971), having made the original suggestion to adapt Larry McMurtry's novel[2] and having recommended Cybill Shepherd for her first film role therein.[3] Despite the breakdown of her marriage to Bogdanovich, Platt was again production designer on What's Up, Doc? (1972) and Paper Moon (1973). Bogdanovich commented that: "She worked on important pictures and made major contributions. She was unique. There weren't many women doing that kind of work at that time, particularly not one as well versed as she was. She knew all the departments, on a workmanlike basis, as opposed to most producers who just know things in theory."[1] Platt was the first female member of the Art Directors Guild.[1] She was also production designer on A Star Is Born (1976).[2]

She wrote the screenplay for Pretty Baby (1978), for which she was also an associate producer,[2] as well as Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff (1979), and A Map of the World (1999).[4] She wrote the screenplay for the 1995 Academy Award-winning short film Lieberman in Love, based on a short story by W. P. Kinsella.

Platt worked extensively with James L. Brooks throughout her career. She was the executive vice president of his production company Gracie Films from 1985 to 1995.[1][2] Platt was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction for Brooks' film Terms of Endearment (1983). She co-produced many of the films he worked on, which Gracie made, including Broadcast News (1987), The War of the Roses (1989) and Bottle Rocket (1996), as well as producing Say Anything... (1989) [1][2] in which she also had a bit part.

Platt gave Brooks the nine-panel Life in Hell cartoon, "The Los Angeles Way of Death"[5][6][7] by cartoonist Matt Groening. She suggested that the two meet and that Brooks produce an animated TV version of Groening's characters; the meeting spawned a series of short cartoons about the Simpson family, which aired as part of The Tracey Ullman Show and later became The Simpsons.[1][2][8][9]

In 1994, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award.[10] Brooks said that Platt "couldn't walk into a gas station and get gas without mentoring somebody. Movies are a team sport, and she made teams function. She would assume a maternal role in terms of really being there. The film was everything, and ego just didn't exist." In 2003, she appeared in the BBC documentary film Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. Platt was working on a documentary about the filmmaker Roger Corman at the time of her death.[1] She was very involved with the Austin Film Festival up until her death, and mentored many filmmakers through her participation in the annual festival, which is geared toward screenwriting and production skill-sharing. According to her daughter, Antonia Bogdanovich, "She came every year, religiously, she was a huge supporter," of the Austin Film Festival, and Platt attended the very first festival.[11]


Filmography


(Source IMDB)[12]

FilmYearProducerProduction DesignerCostume DesignerWriterActressMiscellaneous CrewArt DirectorStuntsThanksSelfArchive Footage
The Other Side of the Wind (Posthumous)2018art director
The Grand Budapest Hotel2014special thanks: our old friends
The 84th Annual Academy Awards (TV Special)2012Archival Footage
Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (Documentary)2011executive producerSelf
The Girl in the Picture (TV Series)2011executive producer
The Making of Bottle Rocket (Documentary Short)2008special thanksSelf
Bean (short)2008thanks
A West Texas Children's Story2007executive producer
Muertas (Short)2007|executive producer
Asking for the Moon (Video Documentary Short)2003self: interviewedself
The Next Picture Show (Video Short)2003self: interviewedself
Women on Top: Hollywood and Power (TV Movie Documentary)2003self: interviewedself
A Decade Under the Influence (Documentary)2003self: interviewedself
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (Documentary)2003self: interviewedself
Headliners & Legends with Matt Lauer (TV Series documentary): Brook Shields2001self: interviewedself
E! True Hollywood Story: The O'Neals (TV Series documentary)2001self: interviewedself: interviewed
Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Power of Women in Hollywood (TV Movie documentary)2000self
Sugar Town1999Maggie
A Map of the World1999writer: screenplay
Dogtown1997the production wishes to thank
Getting the Goods on 'As Good As It Gets' (TV Movie documentary)1997self
The Evening Star1996producer
Bottle Rocket1996producer
Ben Johnson: Third Cowboy on the Right (Documentary)1996self
I'll Do Anything1994producer
Picture This: The Times of Peter Bogdanovich in Archer City, Texas (Documentary)1991self
Texasville1990special thanks
Let's Get Mom (TV Movie)1989producer
The War of the Roses1989executive producer
Say Anything...1989producerMrs Flood
Big1988special thanks
Broadcast News1987executive producer
The Witches of Eastwick1987production designer
Between Two Women (TV Movie)1986co-producerproduction designer
Terms of Endearment1983production designer
The Man with Two Brains1983production designer
Young Doctors in Love1982production designer
Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff1979writer: screenplay
Lieberman in Love (short)1979writer: teleplay
Pretty Baby1978associate producerwriter: screenplay/story
A Star Is Born1976production designer
The Bad News Bears1976production designer
Thieves Like Us1974costume designer (uncredited)
Paper Moon1973production designercostume designer (uncredited)
The Thief Who Came to Dinner1973production designercostume designer (uncredited)
What's Up, Doc?1972production designercostume designer (uncredited)
The Last Picture Show1972designcostume designer (uncredited)
Target: Harry1969costume designer (uncredited)
Targets1968production designercostume designer (uncredited)writer: story
Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women1968production coordinator
The Wild Angels1966costume designer (uncredited)stunt double: Nancy Sinatra (uncredited)

Personal life


Platt was married to Philip Klein until his death in a car accident in 1959, eight months after they married, and to director Peter Bogdanovich from 1962 to 1971.[2] They divorced after Bogdanovich left her during the filming of The Last Picture Show for its lead actress Cybill Shepherd. Platt and Bogdanovich had two children: Antonia and Sashy. Platt later married prop maker Tony Wade; they remained married until his death in 1985. She was stepmother to his two children, Kelly and Jon.[1][2]

The 1984 film Irreconcilable Differences, starring Ryan O'Neal, Shelley Long and Drew Barrymore, was reportedly loosely based on her marriage to Bogdanovich, and their divorce,[13] and Platt herself confirmed the film "got more right than wrong."[14]

Platt's talent as a mentor and film producer was deeply admired by her peers, who felt she should have become a director. She struggled with alcoholism for more than 25 years.[15] Additionally, sexism in the film industry made directing unlikely for her.[16]

Platt participated in a 2000 Texasville reunion of some of the cast and crew of The Last Picture Show. She and Cybill Shepherd had made peace and were on friendly terms. Platt and her children were reconciled with Bogdanovich when she died.[17]


Death


Platt died in Manhattan, on July 27, 2011, from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, aged 72.[1] She was survived by her brother John "Jack" Platt, her two daughters Antonia Bogdanovich and Sashy Bogdanovich, her son-in-law Pax Wassermann, and three grandchildren.


Legacy


Platt was the first female film art director to be accepted into the Art Director's Guild, a membership she required in order to receive credit on studio films.[1][18] In May 2020, film journalist and podcast producer/writer/host Karina Longworth began the sixth season of the podcast You Must Remember This with a focus on the significance of Polly Platt's work within the larger context of late 20th-century U.S. film history. The season, "Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman",[19] includes interviews with family, friends, and colleagues (as well as readings from Platt's unpublished memoir) documenting her (often uncredited) contributions to commercially and critically successful films of the late 1960s and into the early 2000s. Longworth argues that Platt played a pivotal role in the location, casting, and overall visual aesthetic of major films, including but not limited to Paper Moon, What's Up, Doc? and The Last Picture Show. Actress Maggie Siff voices Platt in the podcast.


References


  1. Keegan, Rebecca (July 28, 2011). "Polly Platt dies at 72; Oscar-nominated art director". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 28, 2011.
  2. Fox, Margalit (July 29, 2011). "Polly Platt, Producer and Production Designer, Dies at 72". The New York Times. Retrieved July 29, 2011.
  3. Interviewed in the documentary film Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (2002)
  4. Marks, Scott (July 29, 2011). "Dig A Hole: Polly Platt, Production Designer, Producer, and Screenwriter". San Diego Reader. Retrieved August 1, 2011.
  5. The Los Angeles Way of Death
  6. The Los Angeles Way of Death
  7. "The Los Angeles Way of Death". Archived from the original on June 16, 2013. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
  8. Daly, Steve (November 12, 2004). "What, Him Worry?". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 16, 2009.
  9. Ortved, John (2009). Simpsons Confidential: The uncensored, totally unauthorised history of the world's greatest TV show by the people that made it (UK ed.). Ebury Press. pp. 42–43. ISBN 978-0-09-192729-5.
  10. "Past Recipients: Crystal Award". Women in Film. Archived from the original on June 30, 2011. Retrieved May 10, 2011.
  11. Rice, Laura (October 28, 2014). ""Antonia Bogdanovich Opens Up About Her Famous Family and Her First Feature Film"". Retrieved March 27, 2019.
  12. "Polly Platt". IMDB. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  13. Emerson, Jim (November 13, 1992). "Hot Pick – Life of Peter Bogdanovich told in satire". The Orange County Register. p. P41.
  14. Reuters reference to Irreconcilable Differences
  15. "Credit Where Credit's Due: Polly Platt".
  16. "Polly Platt Broke Barriers While Dealing with Hollywood Harassment". July 15, 2020.
  17. "Behind the scenes of 'The Last Picture Show'". EW.com. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
  18. Longworth, Karina (June 15, 2020). "Orson Welles, What's Up Doc, Paper Moon (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 4)". You Must Remember This. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  19. Longworth, Karina. "Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman". You Must Remember This. Retrieved June 18, 2020.

Further reading



Books



Articles




  1. Longworth, Karina (May 25, 2020). "Polly Platt Season Sources". You Must Remember This. Retrieved June 18, 2020.


Текст в блоке "Читать" взят с сайта "Википедия" и доступен по лицензии Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike; в отдельных случаях могут действовать дополнительные условия.

Другой контент может иметь иную лицензию. Перед использованием материалов сайта WikiSort.org внимательно изучите правила лицензирования конкретных элементов наполнения сайта.

2019-2024
WikiSort.org - проект по пересортировке и дополнению контента Википедии