Director Peter Bogdanovich dies at 82

Oscar-nominated director Peter Bogdanovich, best known for 1971′s “The Last Picture Show” and 1973′s “Paper Moon,” among other films, has died, according to multiple reports. He was 82.

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His daughter, Antonia Bogdanovich, told The Hollywood Reporter that her father died early Thursday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles. His manager also confirmed his death to Deadline.

Bogdanovich’s coming-of-age drama “The Last Picture Show” garnered eight Oscar nominations in 1972, including one for best director and one for best adaptated screenplay. The film was adapted from the semi-autobiographical novel “The Last Picture” by Larry McMurtry.

Ben Johnson won best actor in a supporting role for his portrayal of Sam the Lion in the film, while Cloris Leachman won an Oscar for best actress in a supporting role for her portrayal of Ruth Popper.

The film, which also starred Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstein and Cybill Shepherd, was inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 1998.

In a statement posted on Twitter, director Guillermo del Toro remembered Bogdanovich as “a dear friend and a champion of cinema.”

“He birthed masterpieces as a director and was a most genial human,” he wrote. “He single-handedly interviewed and enshrined the lives and work of more classic filmmakers than almost anyone else in his generation.”

In a statement obtained by The Associated Press, director Francis Ford Coppola said he was shocked and devastated to learn of Bogdanovich’s death.

“He was a wonderful and great artist,” Coppola told the AP in an email. “I’ll never forgot attending a premiere for ‘The Last Picture Show.’ I remember at its end, the audience leaped up all around me, bursting into applause lasting easily 15 minutes. I’ll never forget, although I felt I had never myself experienced a reaction like that, that Peter and his film deserved it. May he sleep in bliss for eternity, enjoying the thrill of our applause forever.”

Bogdanovich was critically acclaimed early in his career and lauded as one of the most sought-after talents in the New Hollywood film movement, but he was later mired in scandal after becoming involved with two of his leading ladies – Shepherd and Dorothy Stratten, Variety reported. His relationship with Shepherd ended in 1978, while his relationship with Stratten ended when she was murdered by her husband in 1980, according to the entertainment news site.

Born in Kingston, New York, on July 30, 1939, Bogdanovich did some acting before directing his first feature film, the 1968 crime thriller “Targets,” according to Deadline. Over the course of his career, he directed nearly three dozen films and television episodes, including a 2004 episode of HBO’s “The Sopranos” called “Sentimental Education” and the 2007 documentary “Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream.”

Bogdanovich married Hollywood producer, designer and screenwriter Polly Platt in 1962, according to The New York Times. The couple divorced in 1971, after Bogdanovich had begun a relationship with Shepherd, according to the newspaper.

In 1989, Bogdanovich married Stratten’s younger sister, Louise Hoogstraten, also known as L.B. Stratten, according to the AP. The couple divorced in 2001, according to Vulture.

Bogdanovich is survived by his children, Antonia and Sashy, with Platt, Variety reported.

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