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Mr.
Altman was born on February 20th, 1925 in Kansas City.
He entered St. Peters Catholic school at the age six,
and spent a short time at a Catholic high school. From
there he went to Rockhurst high school. It was then
that he started exploring the art of exploring sound
with the cheap tape recorders available at the time.
He
was then sent to Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington,
MO where he attended through Junior College. In 1945,
he enlisted in the Air Force and became a copilot of
a B-24. After his discharge from the military, he went
to work for the Calvin Co. It was here that he learned
much about film making. By 1955 he had left the Calvin
Co. After a series of unnoticed independent films, he
was given his first directorial break by Alfred Hitchcock.
From
here he went on to direct a large number of television
shows, until he was offered the script for MASH (1970)
in 1969. He was hardly the producer's first choice -
more than fifteen other directors had already turned
it down. This wasn't his first movie, but it was his
first success.
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