RICHARD RUSH

(15 April 1929 - 8 April 2021)

The American film director, screenwriter and producer Richard Rush was something of a cinematic maverick. His films are an odd bunch, more independent than traditional Hollywood. As a child he was fanatical about Marcel Proust and Batman comics. He studied film at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and began making television programmes for the US Military about the Korean War. He created a company producing industrial and TV commercials before making his first feature, Too Soon to Love, in 1960. Considered to be the foundation of an America New Wave in cinema, the film was inspired by Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, and Jack Nicholson was among the cast. His next film, Of Love and Desire, starred Merle Oberon and Steve Cochran. Then came a clutch of exploitation movies including Hell’s Angels on Wheels and Psych-Out, both with Nicholson again. The Savage 7 was a sequel to Hell’s Angels on Wheels, and A Man Called Dagger was a spy thriller with Paul (Robinson Crusoe on Mars) Mantee. Getting Straight (1970) was a Hollywood studio movie, a political drama with Elliott Gould and Candice Bergen. Four years later Freebie and the Bean was a black comedy about San Francisco cops with James Caan and Alan Arkin, while another six years passed before the film that Rush will be best remembered for, The Stunt Man, hit the screens. It gained Academy Award nominations for Rush’s screenplay and direction and for the actor Peter O’Toole. Disagreements over Air America (1990) meant that Rush only provided the script, while Roger Spottiswoode took over the direction of a cast including Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. Color of Night (1994) with Bruce Willis was a flop and Rush ended his film career with a documentary on the making of The Stunt Man in 2001. Richard Rush, who has died aged 91, was married to the actress Claude Cuvereaux and they have a son, Anthony.

MICHAEL DARVELL