Henry Jaglom Courtesy Everett Collection Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Henry Jaglom, the maverick auteur who crafted deeply intimate and unconventional films that explored the intricacies of relationships and the quirkiness of human behavior, has died. He was 87. Jaglom died Monday night at his home in Santa Monica, his daughter, Sabrina Jaglom, also a filmmaker, told The Hollywood Reporter. "My dad was the most loving, fun, entertaining and unique father and the biggest cheerleader and champion anyone could be lucky enough to have," she said. Related Stories Movies Claudia Cardinale, Enchantress of Italian Cinema, Dies at 87 TV Ron Friedman, Screenwriter Who Killed Off Optimus Prime, Dies at 93 The writer-director of such films as A Safe Place (1971), Sitting Ducks (1980), Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (1983), New Year's Day (1989), Eating (1990), Last Summer in the Hamptons (1995) and Déjà Vu (1997), Jaglom drew from experience to make his work feel all the more personal and true to life. Though he never achieved the star status of some of his contemporaries, Jaglom was celebrated as an original. His films, though often meandering, were rich with intricate dialogue and deeply woven characters and emphasized people over plots. He often did without a script or rehearsals. Some considered him a genius; others thought he had no talent at all. Who Is Henry Jaglom? was the title of a 1995 documentary that attempted to get to the heart of the matter. "Ultimately, whether you love or hate him or his films," Who Is Henry Jaglom? co-director H. Alex Rubin once said, "you've got to give him credit for his stubborn commitment to remain outside of the mainstream and his refusal to compromise." In a 2012 interview with Slant magazine, Jaglom said he loved Hollywood movies as a youngster but "always felt there was a wall between me and them." "I wanted to make films where people felt that the line was blurred," he added. "People have told me that they somehow feel less lonely by [watching] my films, because my films reveal that we're all 'bozos on this bus,' if you know that expression. And, somehow, to share that fact, that we're all going through these things, people feel they're less in trouble. I try to break through that wall by showing our self-involvement while at the same time entertaining them." Straight out of college, Jaglom studied acting under Lee Strasberg at The Actors Studio in New York, then appeared opposite Jack Nicholson in Psych-Out (1968) and in the actor's directorial debut, Drive, He Said (1971). He also cast himself in many of his films. He was a great friend of Orson Welles, one of his stars in A Safe Place. For about two years before Welles' death, the two would meet for a weekly lunch at Ma Maison in Hollywood, and Jaglom recorded their lengthy exchanges as they dined. Those became the basis for Peter Biskind's 2013 book, My Lunches With Orson. Welles' final acting appearance came in Jaglom's Someone to Love (1987), and Jaglom showed up in Welles' last film, The Other Side of the Wind, released in 2018 after 40 years in development. Henry David Jaglom was born in London on Jan. 26, 1938. His father, Simon, was from Russia - he was jailed during the Russian Revolution in 1917 for being a capitalist - and his mother, Marie, was a descendant of German philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. Both came from wealthy families. Jaglom was raised in New York City after his family moved there to escape the Nazis. He attended the University of Pennsylvania to study acting (Bruce Dern was a classmate), then returned to New York after graduation to work with Strasberg. Peter Bogdanovich, preparing to direct his first film, Targets (1968), convinced Jaglom to move to Hollywood. He wanted him to star in his movie as a journalist but ultimately decided to play the role himself. Jaglom landed guest spots on the Sally Field sitcoms Gidget and The Flying Nun and in the feature The 1000 Plane Raid (1969). He had been in the running to portray Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate (1967) but lost out to Dustin Hoffman. His friendship with Nicholson gave Jaglom an opportunity to help edit Easy Rider (1969) - Jaglom would go on to edit several of his own features - and a chance to pitch producer Bert Schneider a script he had written and wanted to direct. That was A Safe Place, which starred Tuesday Weld as a mentally unstable flower child torn between a steady boyfriend, Fred (Phil Procter), and the sexy, dangerous Mitch (Nicholson). The film opened the New York Film Festival but was poorly received, and it would take Jaglom another five years before he could get financing to make his second movie, the Dennis Hopper-starring Tracks (1976). It followed a Vietnam veteran as he takes the coffin of a fellow soldier on a cross-country trip to make sure hi