Aldrich reciprocated by expunging public records of his connection with the Aldrich-Rockefeller clan, while stoically accepting the breach. For this act of defiance, Aldrich was promptly disinherited. Aldrich, who got his 23-year-old nephew a job at RKO Studios as a production clerk at $25 a week. Having satisfactorily demonstrated his aptitude for a career in finance, Aldrich defied his father by dropping out of college in his senior year without taking a degree. Aldrich's disaffection from the Aldrich-Rockefeller right-wing social and political orientation contributed to a growing tension between father and son. ĭuring the Great Depression, the adolescent Aldrich began to question the justice of his family's "politics and power" which clashed with his growing sympathies with left-wing social and political movements of the 1930s. He continued to excel in sports and played a leading role in campus clubs and fraternities. There he served as captain of the track and football teams and was elected president of his senior class.įailing to matriculate to Yale due to mediocre grades, Aldrich attended the University of Virginia from 1937 to 1941, majoring in economics. įollowing family tradition and expectations, Aldrich was educated at Moses Brown School in Providence from 1933 to 1937. Education Īs the only male heir to the Lawson-Aldrich family line, Aldrich was under considerable pressure to compete successfully with his numerous cousins in a family of high achievers. vice-president under Gerald Ford, and Rockefeller's four brothers were the director's first cousins. Nelson Rockefeller, a four-term governor of New York State and U.S. Rockefeller Jr., scion of the Standard Oil fortune, and was a leading figure in the establishment of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. An aunt, Abigail Greene "Abby" Aldrich married John D. House of Representatives, and a chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank who also served as U.S. Ī number of Aldrich's paternal uncles had impressive careers, among them a successful investment banker, an architect and Harvard instructor, a member of the U.S. Senate for thirty years (1881–1911), he was dubbed "General Manager of the Nation" by the press for his dominant role in framing federal monetary policy. His grandfather, Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich, was a self-made millionaire and art investor. Īmong his notable ancestors were the American Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene and the theologian Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island Colony. Ruth Aldrich Kaufinger (1912–1987) was his elder sister and only sibling. His mother, Lora Elsie (née Lawson) of New Hampshire (1874–1931), died when Aldrich was 13 and was remembered with fondness by her son. His father, Edward Burgess Aldrich (1871–1957) was the publisher of The Times of Pawtucket and an influential operative in state Republican politics. Robert Burgess Aldrich was born in Cranston, Rhode Island, into a family of wealth and social prominence – "The Aldriches of Rhode Island". Īside from his directorial work, Aldrich was also noted for his advocacy as a member of the Directors Guild of America, serving as its President for two terms, and becoming the namesake for its Robert B. The British Film Institute wrote that Aldrich's films "subversive sensibility in thrall to the complexities of human behaviour." Several of his films later proved influential to members of the French New Wave. His most 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).Īldrich's directorial style combined "macho mise-en-scene and resonant reworkings of classic action genres," and were known for pushing the boundaries of violence in mainstream cinema, and for their psychologically-complex interpretations of genre film tropes.
An iconoclastic and maverick auteur working in many genres during the Golden Age of Hollywood, he directed mainly films noir, war movies, westerns and dark melodramas with Gothic overtones. Robert Burgess Aldrich (August 9, 1918 – December 5, 1983) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter.
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