Bob Rafelson, an influential determine within the New Hollywood period of the 1970s who was nominated for 2 Oscars for “5 Simple Items,” has died. He was 89.

Rafelson died at his dwelling in Aspen Saturday evening surrounded by his household, stated his spouse, Gabrielle Taurek Rafelson.

Rafelson was liable for co-creating the fictional pop music group and tv collection “The Monkees” alongside the late Bert Schneider, which received him an Emmy for excellent comedy collection in 1967.

However he was maybe finest recognized for his work throughout the New Hollywood period, which noticed a classical studio system giving technique to a batch of rebellious younger voices and recent filmmaking types, and helped usher in abilities like Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg.

Rafelson directed and co-wrote “5 Simple Items,” about an upper-class pianist who yearns for a extra blue-collar life, and “The King of Marvin Gardens,” a few depressed late-night-radio discuss present host. Each movies starred Jack Nicholson and explored themes of the American dream gone haywire. “5 Simple Items” acquired Rafelson two Oscar nominations in 1971, for finest image and screenplay.

He additionally produced seminal New Hollywood classics together with Peter Bogdanovich’s “The Final Image Present” and Dennis Hopper’s “Simple Rider.”

Coppola as soon as referred to as him “one of the crucial essential cinematic artists of his period” and his followers embody Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson.

Rafelson was born in New York Metropolis and was a distant relative of “The Jazz Singer” screenwriter Samson Raphaelson, who he stated took an curiosity in his work. At Dartmouth he additionally grew to become pals with legendary screenwriter Buck Henry.

He developed an curiosity in Japanese cinema and the movies of Yasujiro Ounces, particularly “Tokyo Story,” whereas serving within the U.S. Military in Japan.

After school, Rafelson married his highschool sweetheart, who would work as a manufacturing designer on his movies and others. He acquired his begin within the leisure enterprise in tv, writing for reveals like “The Witness” and “The Best Present on Earth.”

However “The Monkees” was his first large success. The concept for The Monkees, he stated, predated The Beatles and the musical comedy “A Exhausting Day’s Night time,” however it hit the second properly when it premiered on NBC in 1966. It ran for 2 years and allowed Rafelson to take a stab at directing himself.

The Monkees additionally appeared in his characteristic directorial debut, “Head,” which might be the primary of many collaborations with Nicholson.

“I’ll have thought I began his profession,” Nicholson advised Esquire in 2019, “however I feel he began my profession.”

Rafelson was proudest of the 1990 movie he directed, “Mountains of the Moon,” a biographical film that advised the story of two explorers, Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, as they looked for the supply of the Nile, his spouse stated.

Rafelson’s personal adventures to locations like Morocco, India, southeast Asia, Mexico and Guatemala influenced his work, she stated.

“He cherished nothing greater than disappearing into unusual pockets of the world,” Taurek Rafelson stated.

Rafelson left Hollywood 20 years in the past to give attention to elevating two sons with Taurek Rafelson, Ethan and Harper, in Aspen. He and his first spouse, Toby Rafelson, additionally had two youngsters, Peter, and Julie, who died in 1973 when she was 10 years outdated.