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Michael Ritchie 1938-2001 Michael Ritchie's first five films are: Downhill Racer (1969), Prime Cut (1972), The Candidate (1972), Smile (1975), The Bad News Bears (1976). After that his films started getting worse. But those films are great. Below is his complete filmography, an obit from MYRNA OLIVER at the times, and a Reuters obit . Thursday, April 19,
2001 Michael Ritchie, who became known in his youth as Hollywood's boy wonder of low-budget spectaculars and went on to direct hits--including arguably his best, "The Candidate"--and a few box office misses, has died. He was 62. Ritchie, who directed Robert Redford in "Downhill Racer" and in "The Candidate," died Monday in New York of prostate cancer. Among Ritchie's other well-known and financially successful motion pictures were Chevy Chase's "Fletch" films, "Prime Cut," "The Bad News Bears," "Semi-Tough," "The Golden Child" and "Diggstown." His 1975 dark satire of beauty pageants, "Smile," with Bruce Dern and Barbara Feldon, was critically acclaimed but a box office bomb. Film historian Leonard Maltin has called it one of the decade's best unsung films, and one national critic cited it last year along with the two Redford films as three of the best modern American films. Ritchie's edgy 1970s features were echoed in the top-quality cable television show "The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom," starring Holly Hunter, in 1993. Entertainment insiders rarely mentioned Ritchie without adding accolades about his intelligence and ability to complete productions efficiently and economically. He stuck to budgets, Ritchie once told The Times, because that usually could be traded for creative control. Yet, never one to follow any Hollywood mold, he welcomed a re-editing by Francis Ford Coppola, which finally brought his four-decade-old dream to theaters last year. The film was "The Fantasticks," Ritchie's adaptation of the long-running stage musical he first saw shortly after it opened in New York's Greenwich Village in 1960. Ritchie filmed it in 1995, and bucked the Hollywood anti-musical tide to win release after Coppola volunteered to help five years later. "The delay was worth it," said Times film writer Kevin Thomas, "because the result is pure enchantment that emerges as an inspired transposition of a musical to the screen." Born in Waukesha, Wis., Ritchie grew up in Berkeley, where his mother was a librarian and his father taught experimental psychology at UC Berkeley. Young Ritchie, who spent a couple of summers working for the San Francisco Chronicle, went off to Harvard to study history and literature, planning to become a teacher. But there he got into producing and directing--and began building his reputation for low-cost-for-top-quality work. He produced one play for $7.50, and then, for only $500, made a hit out of a fellow student's script, "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad." Ritchie not only directed, but staged a dazzling publicity campaign, inviting President Dwight D. Eisenhower (who regretted) and Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev (who failed to respond) to the premiere. Ritchie reaped sold-out performances, attention from Boston critics, eventual productions in New York and London, a motion picture and two post-graduation job offers--one from a top New York publicist and one from Robert Saudek, producer of television's "Omnibus." He chose the latter. Ritchie worked on cinema-verite documentaries, a style he would later adapt into his fictional films, and came to Hollywood as Saudek's associate producer of the "Profiles in Courage" series. His first solo directorial effort aired in 1965, with "John Quincy Adams," in which he managed to stage a spectacular sea battle for only $250. As a freelance television director, Ritchie took jobs others refused--like a four-part "Dr. Kildare," which had no script or cast three days before shooting. He honed his skills with segments of "Route 66," "Run for Your Life" and "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." When Redford decided to do a film about a self-focused Olympic skier, he came to Ritchie to direct what would be his first feature, "Downhill Racer." Redford liked the creative and collaborative effect so much he again enlisted Ritchie for the more successful "The Candidate," a film about how the campaign process changes a person seeking public office. Ritchie told The Times presciently when the political film opened in 1972: "The statement the picture makes is that if Ralph Nader ran for president, he would no longer be Ralph Nader. The process changes and corrupts, and I believe this is something the people are responsible for. Not the machine, and not the media." When told a few weeks later that both Republicans and Democrats were complaining of the film's portrayal of American politics, Ritchie said, "Why not? It's a pox on both their houses." Ritchie is survived by his wife, Jimmie; five children, Steven of Berkeley, Lauren of Los Angeles, Jessica of San Anselmo and Lillian and Miriam of New York; two stepchildren, Nelly and Billy Bly; a brother, John, and a sister, Elsie. "Downhill Racer"
director Ritchie dead at 62 HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Michael Ritchie, who made his feature directing debut in 1969 with "Downhill Racer" and then shot a string of perceptive, sardonic spoofs, died Monday from complications of prostate cancer. The Manhattan resident was 62. Ritchie hit his stride in the 1970s, with piercing, often humorous looks at American institutions such as politics ("The Candidate," 1972), beauty pageants ("Smile," 1975) and sports ("The Bad News Bears," 1976, and "Semi-Tough," 1978). Other films include the Bette Midler concert picture "Divine Madness!" (1980), "Fletch" (1985) and its sequel "Fletch Lives" four years later, and "Diggstown" (1992). Ritchie's sharp, satiric sensibilities were also well displayed in the 1993 TV movie "The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom," for which he won a Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award for TV movie. Last year, MGM released "The Fantasticks," which Ritchie had produced and directed in 1995. His last big screen feature was the 1997 "A Simple Wish"; after that, he worked on such TV shows as Showtime's "Beggars and Choosers." Ritchie was a DGA board member; in a statement, guild president Jack Shea said: "We are deeply saddened by the loss of Michael Ritchie. His standard of excellence was exhibited not only in his work but also in his active service to the guild. Both we and the film community at large are left poorer by his passing." Ritchie was born Nov. 28, 1938, in Wisconsin, and debuted in the business in 1960, directing Arthur Kopit's play "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad." He broke into TV as an assistant producer on "Omnibus," and went on to direct episodes of such series as "Dr. Kildare," "The Big Valley" and "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." He made his feature debut in 1969, with Robert Redford starrer "Downhill Racer," and re-teamed with the actor three years later on "The Candidate." At a discussion following a recent DGA screening, Ritchie noted, "It really was our intention to make a film that was about the political process rather than one which said you should pick this way or that." His other feature credits included "Prime Cut," "The Island," "The Golden Child" and "The Scout." He is survived by his wife, Jimmie B. Ritchie, one son, four daughters, two stepchildren and a brother and sister. The family has asked that in lieu of flowers, contributions be sent to the California-based Center for Discovery, which assists adolescents with emotional and drug problems. Reuters/Variety
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