Arthur Penn, whose "Bonnie and Clyde" was a watershed in American film, died Tuesday night at 88. Gentle, much loved and widely gifted, he began life in poverty and turned World War Two acting experience in the Army into a career that led to directing in the earliest days of television and included much work on Broadway.
Our film critic, Roger Ebert, steps out into the light, blinks his eyes and shares some of the good memories.
"Hey, man, my wife and I were up until 7 this morning, rapping about things," Michael J. Pollard says, lighting a Camel and taking a mouthful of coffee.
Out on the Colorado locations for "Downhill Racer," Robert Redford was limping and wincing occasionally when his foot landed the wrong way. He had injured his knee in a snowmobile accident. It was bad enough to have your knee banged up, but when you were making a movie about skiers, and doing a lot of the skiing yourself, it was murder.
LONDON - It was lunch time, and the studio pub was crowded, so the director leaned close to Oliver Reed and whispered:
Great Movies
