Photo: Rob Nowell (Rob625 at en.wikipedia) / CC BY-SA 2.5 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Bob Rafelson is one of those names cinephiles say with reverence, and I count myself among them. As a co-founder of BBS Productions and a key architect of New Hollywood, he helped wrest American film away from studio formula and toward something rawer and more personal. Five Easy Pieces and The King of Marvin Gardens still ache with the alienation of men who cannot sit still in their own lives. There is real irony in an Ivy-educated New Yorker making such dusty, unvarnished portraits of drift. Rafelson passed in 2022, but the heat of that era lives on in his frames, and I will keep returning to them.
Overview
Robert Jay Rafelson (February 21, 1933 – July 23, 2022) was an American film director, writer, and producer. He is regarded as one of the key figures in the founding of the New Hollywood movement of the 1970s. Among his best-known films as a director include those made as part of the company he co-founded, Raybert/BBS Productions, Five Easy Pieces (1970) and The King of Marvin Gardens (1972) as well as acclaimed late…
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Bob Rafelson
- Name (Japanese)
- ボブ・ラフェルソン
- Reading
- ぼぶ・らふぇるそん
- Born
- February 21, 1933 – July 23, 2022
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Pisces / Rooster
- Origin
- New York City, New York, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- film director / screenwriter / film producer / writer / director
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Dartmouth College
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Film director — see all → · Screenwriter — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.