Robert Burgess Aldrich (August 9, 1918 – December 5, 1983) He was a film director, producer, and screenwriter. His notable credits include Vera Cruz (1954), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Big Knife (1955), Autumn Leaves (1956), Attack (1956), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967) and The Longest Yard (1974). Aldrich was fortunate to serve as an assistant director to many notable and talented Hollywood filmmakers. During these assignments which spanned nine years, Aldrich gained both practical and aesthetic fundamentals of filmmaking: “set location and atmosphere” (Jean Renoir, The Southerner, 1945), the “techniques of pre-planning a shot” (Lewis Milestone’s The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, 1946), “action scenes” (William Wellman’s The Story of G.I. Joe, 1946), the “importance of communication with actors” (Joseph Losey’s The Prowler, 1951) and “establishing visual empathy between camera a...