Altman has served as a camera operator and director of photography on
an impressive number of award-winning feature films and television
series since the maverick days of American filmmaking in the 1970s.
The son of legendary filmmaker
Robert Altman and Kathryn Reed,
Robert Reed Altman grew up with a passion for film in his blood. Altman
began his career serving as assistant camera on the films that would
catapult the elder Altman into the pantheon of great American
directors: Nashville (1975),
Buffallo Bill und die Indianer (1976),
A Wedding
(1978)_, _Popeye (1979)_,
Der Gesundheits-Kongreß (1980),
Komm' zurück, Jimmy Dean (1982),
Windhunde (1983), and
Fool for Love - Verrückt vor Liebe (1985). Many of these
films, now considered classics, also garnered critical praise,
including numerous Academy Awards for
Nashville (1975).
Following this succession of Hollywood hits, Altman shifted gears and
gravitated to television, where he served as camera operator on the
acclaimed TV series
Spacecop L.A. (1989),
Armistead Maupin's Geschichten aus San Franzisko (1993),
Melrose Place (1992), and
Robert Altman's Gun - Kaliber 45 (1997). Robert Reed
Altman also served as second unit DP on the hit TV series
Wunderbare Jahre (1988).
In 2004, Altman made his mark as director of photography on director
Robert Altman's and writer/cartoonist
Garry Trudeau's
Tanner on Tanner (2004). A
hit at the Sundance Film Festival, the film was a follow-up to Altman
and Trudeau's documentary-style Emmy-winning masterpiece
Tanner for President (1988). The new Tanner,
a four-part series following the new adventures of frictional
presidential nominee Tanner, was filmed to coincide with the Bush-Kerry
elections.
In between his work for television, Robert Reed Altman continues to
return to feature filmmaking as a camera operator or cinematographer.
Other credits include "Looking for Trouble"
(1996)_ for Roger Corman; several projects directed by Robert Altman, Kansas City (1996),
The Gingerbread Man (1998),
Cookies Fortune - Aufruhr in Holly Springs (1999),
Dr. T and the Women (2000);
as well as the more recent films
Jay und Silent Bob schlagen zurück (2001),
directed by Kevin Smith, and
The Scorpion King (2002),
starring Dwayne Johnson, AKA The
Rock.
