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Monte Hellman, the director know for spare, probing genre movies such as “The Shooting,” “Two-Lane Blacktop” and “Road To Nowhere,” has died at age 91.
Hellman died Tuesday at Eisenhower Medical Center in Palm Desert, following a fall in his home, his daughter Melissa Hellman said.
Writing about Hellman in 1970, The Times’ Kevin Thomas referred to the filmmaker as “just about the best-kept secret in Hollywood.”
“When you see how great Monte’s films are, you’re amazed that he didn’t get to make three or four times as many, but then when you see how they did at the box office, it’s a miracle that he got to make the films he did,” said Dennis Bartok, former head of programming at the American Cinematheque and a longtime friend and collaborator with Hellman. “And I think part of it was that Monte never had that one defining hit that would carry him through the rest of his career. That film was supposed to be ‘Two-Lane Blacktop.’ I think it was just 25 years too early.”