Bob RafelsonFilmography

Born:: February 21, 1933 in New York City, NY
Occupation:: Director, Producer, Screenwriter
Biography:: The nephew of famed playwright Samson Raphaelson, American director Bob Rafelson decided to forego the expensive education planned for him and take up cross-country vagabondage instead. He worked in a rodeo at 15, became an ocean-liner deckhand two years later, and a jazz drummer a year after...Read More

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No Good Deed

Crew: Director

Actors: Samuel L. Jackson, Milla Jovovich, Stellan Skarsgård, Doug Hutchison, Joss Ackland, Grace Zabriskie

Synopsis: Based on a story of the same name by Dashiell Hammett, the crime thriller The House on Turk Street was directed by veteran filmmaker Bob Rafelson. Cello-playing cop Jack Friar (Samuel L. Jackson) searches for a teenage runaway on Turk Street and ends up in the home of an elderly couple (Joss Read More

9/12/03
Erotic Tales

Crew: Director, Editor, Screenwriter

Actors: Silvina Buchbauer, Lasha Bakradze, Tobias Oertel, Bob Rafelson, Fabienne Babe

Synopsis: Erotic Tales offers three short films with strong sexual content. Dito Tsintsadze's An Erotic Tale is about a writer attempting to pick up a still-attached woman. Bob Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces is about a struggling filmmaker who is hired to make a Nazi-themed pornographic film. Fridrik Thor Fridriksson Read More

2002
Poodle Springs

Crew: Director

Actors: James Caan, Dina Meyer, David Keith, Tom Bower, Brian Cox

Synopsis: For this TV movie, Bob Rafelson directed James Caan as famous shamus Philip Marlowe. The novel Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) was writing during the year of his death remained unfinished until it was completed 30 years later by Spenser author Robert Parker. The British-based, Czech-born Read More

1998
Blood and Wine

Crew: Director, Screen Story

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Stephen Dorff, Jennifer Lopez, Judy Davis, Michael Caine

Synopsis: Jack Nicholson reunited with director Bob Rafelson, director of Five Easy Pieces and The King Of Marvin Gardens, for this violent, downbeat crime drama. Alex (Jack Nicholson) is a wine dealer whose business is going belly-up, along with his life. His step-son Jason (Stephen Dorff) hates him, his Read More

1996
Who is Henry Jaglom?

Synopsis: Henry Jaglom is a filmmaker who was a pioneer of the independent film movement long before it had a name. Jaglom began his Hollywood career in the mid-Sixties as an actor, but in 1971 he wrote and directed his first feature film, A Safe Place, which starred his friends Orson Welles and Jack Read More

1995
Leaving Las Vegas

Actors: Nicolas Cage, Elisabeth Shue, Julian Sands, Richard Lewis, Valeria Golino

Synopsis: Mike Figgis' grim drama documents a romantic triangle of sorts involving prostitute Sera (Elisabeth Shue), failed Hollywood screenwriter Ben (Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage), and the constant flow of booze which he loves more dearly than life itself. Arriving in Las Vegas with the intention of drinking Read More

1995
Wet

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Arliss Howard, Cynda Williams, Kathleen Wilhoite, John Toles-Bey, Lela Ivey

1995
Tales of Erotica

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Arliss Howard, Cynda Williams, Kathleen Wilhoite, John Toles-Bey, Mira Sorvino

Synopsis: This German film consists of six separate vignettes each created by a different international director, each challenged to create brief erotic scenarios. The first, named "Wet," was directed by Bob Rafelson and involves an encounter between a bathroom fixtures salesman and a customer who comes Read More

1994
Picture Windows

Crew: Director

Actors: Brooke Adams, Sally Kirkland, Michael Lerner, George Segal, Alan Arkin

Synopsis: In the television miniseries Picture Windows, a number of acclaimed Hollywood directors and top stars team up for short stories about love. In "Soir Bleu," directed by Norman Jewison, Tully (Alan Arkin) is a clown who has fallen in love with a married woman. To make matters more complex, her Read More

1994
Schneeweissrosenrot

Actors: Paul Getty III, Dennis Hooper, Leonard Cohen

Synopsis: By now, few will remember the tragic kidnapping of the grandson of the man who, in the '60s, was the world's richest man, J. Paul Getty. Getty, a paranoid and miserly man, refused to pay ransom for his handsome, ne'er do well grandson, J. Paul Getty III. He may have believed that the boy Read More

1993
Man Trouble

Crew: Director

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Ellen Barkin, Beverly D'Angelo, Paul Mazursky, Harry Dean Stanton, Michael McKean

Synopsis: Actor Jack Nicholson, writer Carole Eastman, and director Bob Rafelson re-team 22 years after their classic Five Easy Pieces, for this romantic comedy. Nicholson plays Harry Bliss, a small potatoes security expert unhappily married to a Japanese woman (he sarcastically calls her Iwo Jima during Read More

7/17/92
Mountains of the Moon

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Patrick Bergin, Iain Glen, Richard E. Grant, Fiona Shaw, Peter Vaughan, John Savident

Synopsis: Director Bob Rafelson fulfilled a lifelong dream when he finally received backing to complete Mountains of the Moon. The film recreates the exploratory adventures of 19th century visionaries Sir Richard Burton (Patrick Bergin) and John Henning Speke (Iain Glen). The heart of the film is the effort Read More

2/23/90
Black Widow

Crew: Director

Actors: Debra Winger, Theresa Russell, Sami Frey, Dennis Hopper, Nicol Williamson

Synopsis: Black Widow bears no relation to the 1954 film of the same name--beyond its characterization of the female as the deadlier of the species, that is. Debra Winger stars as a federal agent who has sworn to bring Theresa Russell to justice. Ms. Russell has married several millionaires who have all Read More

2/6/87
Always

Actors: Patrice Townsend, Henry Jaglom, Joanna Frank, Alan Rachins, Melissa Leo

Synopsis: Henry Jaglom, the best professional "home movie" maker in the business, produced, directed, wrote and starred in Always. Also appearing is Jaglom's ex-wife Patrice Townsend, here cast as...his ex-wife. Showing up one night at Jaglom's home to finalize the divorce decree, Townsend is persuaded to Read More

1985
The Postman Always Rings Twice

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Jessica Lange, John Colicos, Michael Lerner, John Ryan

Synopsis: Bob Rafelson's remake of 1946's The Postman Always Rings Twice, with a screenplay by the award-winning playwright David Mamet, stars Jack Nicholson as Frank Chambers, a depression-era drifter who ends up at a diner run by Nick Papadakis (John Colicos), who offers Frank a job. Frank takes him up on Read More

1981
Stay Hungry

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Jeff Bridges, Sally Field, Arnold Schwarzenegger, R.G. Armstrong, Robert Englund

Synopsis: In this offbeat comedy, Jeff Bridges plays Craig Blake, a rich kid who works with a group of hard-living Southern real-estate men led by Jabo (Joe Spinell), who are buying up a business district in Birmingham, Alabama in order to clear the space and put in a new project. Craig is supposed to work Read More

1976
The King of Marvin Gardens

Crew: Book Author, Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Henry Foehl, Frank Hatchett, Scott Howard, Wyetta Turner, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn, Julia Anne Robinson, Scatman Crothers

Synopsis: Dreams die hard in wintry Atlantic City in Bob Rafelson's downbeat character drama. Depressive deejay David Staebler (Jack Nicholson) tends to his grandfather as he philosophizes on late-night Philadelphia talk radio. When his huckster older brother Jason (Bruce Dern) calls out of the blue one Read More

1972
Five Easy Pieces

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Lois Smith, Susan Anspach, Billy Green Bush, Helena Kallianiotes, Sally Struthers, Richard Stahl

Synopsis: A disaffected man seeks a sense of identity in one of the key films of Hollywood's 1970s New Wave. Once a promising pianist from a family of classical musicians, Bobby Eroica Dupea (Jack Nicholson, in his first major starring role) leads a blue-collar life as an oil rigger, living with needy Read More

1970
Head

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Peter Tork, Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Annette Funicello

Synopsis: The Monkees -- Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones and Peter Tork -- didn't really enjoy being labelled the Prefab Four back when their TV series was all the rage in 1966. With the help and support of Bob Rafaelson (co-producer, co-writer and director) and Jack Nicholson (co-producer Read More

1968
The Monkees: Monkees in Paris

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith

Synopsis: Anticipating the Monkees' 1969 feature film Head, this episode begins on a Pirandellian note, as the "pre-fab four" walk off the set of their TV series, complaining about the lousy scripts (the boys' frequent director James Frawley appears as himself in this sequence). While the NBC and Screen Read More

1968
The Monkees: The Case of the Missing Monkee

Crew: Director

Actors: Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith

Synopsis: Peter stumbles onto a plot to kidnap distinguished nuclear scientist Professor Schnitzler (Norbert Schiller). Attempting to rescue the victim, Peter is himself kidnapped and spirited away to a sinister rest home run by the mad Dr. Markovich (Vito Scotti). Vincent Gardenia also appears as Read More

1967
The Monkees: The Monkees on Tour

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith

Synopsis: In a departure from The Monkees' usual format, this episode offers a fascinating collection of highlights from the group's recent concert tour. When they aren't performing before capacity crowds, the boys are seen relaxing backstage, commiserating with their fans, and kidding around during a radio Read More

1967
The Monkees: Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth

Crew: Director

Actors: Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith

Synopsis: One of a handful of Monkees episodes directed by Bob Rafaelson, "Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth" (aka "Gift Horse") is a heady combination of sentiment and silliness. To assure the happiness of a dewy-eyed little boy named Jonathan (Kerry MacLane), the Monkees become the reluctant owners of Read More

1966
The Monkees: Monkee vs. Machine

Crew: Director

Actors: Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith

Synopsis: Stan Freberg guest-stars as Daggart, the mean-spirited computer specialist at a huge toy factory. Applying for jobs at Daggart's factory, the Monkees end up trying to save the career of old-fashioned toymaker Pop Harper (Walter Janowitz). In addition to Freberg, this episode features another noted Read More

1966
The Monkees: The Spy Who Came In From the Cool

Crew: Director

Actors: Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith

Synopsis: The Monkees land in hot water when Davy purchases a pair of red maracas at a music store. Alas, the store is a front for a spy ring, and the boys are mistaken for enemy agents. Even worse: The maracas contain a spool of valuable microfilm. Arlene Martel guest-stars as the mysterious Madame Read More

1966