Hal Ashby set the standard for subsequent independent filmmakers by crafting unique, thoughtful, and challenging films that continue to influence new generations of directors. Initially finding success as an editor, Ashby won an Academy Award for editing In the Heat of the Night (1967), and he translated his skills as an editor into a career as one of the quintessential directors of 1970s.

Perhaps best remembered for the enduring cult classic Harold and Maude (1971), Ashby quickly became known for melding quirky comedy and intense drama with performances from A-list actors such as Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail (1973), Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn in Shampoo (1975), Jon Voight and Jane Fonda in Coming Home (1978), and Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine in Being There (1979). Ashby's personal life was difficult. He endured his parents' divorce, his father's suicide, and his own failed marriage all before the age of nineteen, and his notorious drug abuse contributed to the decline of his career near the end of his life.

Ashby always operated outside Hollywood's conventions, and though his output was tragically limited, the quality of his films continues to inspire modern directors as varied and talented as Judd Apatow and Wes Anderson, both of whom acknowledge Ashby as a primary influence. In Being Hal Ashby: Life of a Hollywood Rebel, the first full-length biography of the maverick filmmaker, author Nick Dawson masterfully tells the turbulent story of Ashby's life and career.

Nick Dawson is editor at FilmInFocus.com and writes a weekly interview column, The Director Interviews, for Filmmaker magazine. Originally from the UK, he has written on film for Empire, Uncut, the London Times, and the Scotsman. For more information, see the YouTube interview

Reviews:

"Finally, a book-and a very good one indeed-on Hal Ashby, the neglected, least appreciated director of the 1970s. Hopefully, Dawson's excellent volume will revive Ashby's reputation and get him the attention he deserves."-Peter Biskind, author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock -N- Roll Generation Saved Hollywood

"Ashby's quiet genius brought us some of the best American films of the 1970s-Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, Coming Home, and Being There-movies that have not lost their compassion, relevance, or unforced artfulness with the passage of time. Dawson's biography provides a thorough and insightful overview of why Ashby was so highly regarded by friends and colleagues, not just as a filmmaker, but as a remarkable human being."-Lee Hill, author of A Grand Guy: The Art and Life of Terry Southern

"Film scholars have frequently lamented the lack of a Hal Ashby biography. Now there is one, and it will long remain the definitive study."-David Parkinson, author of History of Film

"Scrupulously researched and sensitively rendered, Being Hal Ashby is the definitive biography of a protean, gone-too-soon talent."-David Stenn, author of Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow

"Dawson's brilliantly-written biography will long remain the definitive literary exploration of Ashby's work."-Hugh Lilly, Insequential: A Weblog, www.craccum.co.nz

"Dawson's prose is functional, though the anecdotes&make an Ashby biopic seem possible and desirable."-Ryan Gilby

?Films and books strive toward a common goal: telling a story. And very few modern filmmakers are as good at spinning a yard as the late Ashby was, the subject of a penetrating and applause-worthy biography written by film journalist Nick Dawson."-Rodger Jacobs, www.popmatters.com

"Rebel is a biography that finally tells the full story of Ashby's unlikely journey from Ogden, Utah to Hollywood."-Dan Mucha, Facets Features (facetsfeatures.blogspot.com)

"Nick Dawson should be teaching a course in how to write a Hollywood biography. Being Hal Ashby is note perfect, with the appropriate attention paid to the art and to the artist's messy life."-William McKeen, Creative Loafing (blogs.creativiveloafing.com)

"The legendary director&has finally become the subject of a long-overdue biography."-John Lingan, Splice Today (splicetoday.com)

[Ashby's] speedy rise and spectacular swan dive from Tinseltown's high board is an old story, but a fascinating read as relayed by Nick Dawson in his scrupulously researched "Being Hal Ashby: Life of a Hollywood Rebel."-Sunday Star Ledger

"Dawson [excels] when reporting on film, and both Beatty and Ashby remain object lessons of filmmakers taking chances at the top, not simply as first-timers with nothing to lose."-Bookforum

"Nick Dawson has written the first biography of Ashby, a work that examines the directors tormented personal life and childhood, and traces the troubled personal skein into an exemplary body of work in motion pictures."-Editors Guild Magazine