Movie Star Mystery Photo

Los Angeles Times file photo Update: Hall Bartlett in an unidentified photo published in 1954. Update: As many people guessed from a certain picture with a seagull, this is Hall Bartlett. Hall Bartlett; Wrote, Directed Offbeat Films September 16, 1993 By BURT A. FOLKART, TIMES STAFF WRITER Hall Bartlett, whose films generally proved to be imaginative and provocative, if not commercially successful, has died. A family spokesman said Wednesday that the writer-producer-director of such cult favorites as "Changes" and "The Children of Sanchez" was 71 when he died Sept. 8 en route to UCLA Medical Center from his home in Los Angeles. Bartlett had undergone hip surgery and the spokesman said he may have died of complications. An autopsy is pending. Born to a wealthy family, Bartlett was a Yale graduate and member of Phi Beta Kappa who challenged film with mystic notions. He developed a reputation for small, often experimental, pictures that transcended their low-budget formats. His first was "Navajo" in 1952. The feature-length documentary was credited as the first sensitive scrutiny of the plight of the modern American Indian. It was nominated for an Academy Award. He told Paris Match in 1992 that he had been influenced by films since his boyhood in Kansas City, Mo., and first fell under the spell of "Les Miserables." His self-described "passion for pictures" ran a wide gamut; from "Crazylegs," a biographical film about football running back Elroy Hirsch, to "Unchained," an examination of life inside the California Institution for Men at Chino (the film's leitmotif, "Unchained Melody," became a popular song of the day and won new fans when it was later featured in the film "Ghost.") Bartlett also produced the film of Arthur Haley's novel "Zero Hour," a melodrama whose theme was widely imitated; "Drango," a study of the struggle for power in a small, post-Civil War Southern town, and "All the Young Men," a Sidney Poitier vehicle about racial tension at the Korean front. In 1966 he married actress Rhonda Fleming and two years later starred his stepson, Kent Lane, as a troubled youth undergoing a spiritual odyssey in the Big Sur area of California. "Changes" received sympathetic reviews for effort but many critics found fault with Bartlett's results. "The Children of Sanchez," starring Anthony Quinn and Delores del Rio, was released in 1978. It was an adaptation of the award-winning study of a Mexican family by an American couple who lived with them for five years. Again, the reviews were mixed, but the picture was highly praised by such diverse viewers as former President Jimmy Carter and syndicated film critic Rex Reed. Bartlett's adventurous spirit was more widely appreciated overseas, and he won several awards at international film festivals. He also was a widely felt presence on the Los Angeles civic scene, where he was a supporter of the Music Center, the James Doolittle Theater, a patron of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and an organizer of support clubs for the Rams and Lakers. In 1992, the Boy Scouts of America honored him with their Jimmy Stewart Good Turn Award. Of his life's work, Bartlett told an interviewer: "I hope to continue to make films relatively small in cost but hopefully of some matter." He was divorced from Fleming in 1972. His survivors include two daughters and five grandchildren. A funeral service is scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m. at Bel-Air Presbyterian Church. Donations in Bartlett's memory may be made to the Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women and Children, 267 N. Belmont Ave., Los Angeles 90026. Just a reminder on how this works: I post the mystery photo on Monday and reveal the answer on Friday ... or on Saturday if I have a hard time picking only five pictures; sometimes it's difficult to choose. To keep the mystery photo from getting lost in the other entries, I move it from Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday, etc., adding a photo every day. I have to approve all comments, so if your guess is posted immediately, that means you're wrong. (And if a wrong guess has already been submitted by someone else, there's no point in submitting it again). If you're right, you will have to wait until Friday. There's no need to submit your guess five times. Once is enough. The only prize is bragging rights.  The answer to last week's mystery star: Esther Ralston. Photograph with Marianna Diamos / Los Angeles Times  Update: Nov. 2, 1973: Hall Bartlett with "Mmes Robert O'Meara, Don Fedderson and Larry Greene at the International Orphans Ball." This is from the era when The Times thought married women had no first name other than "Mrs."  Here's another photo of our mystery guest with some mystery companions. Los Angeles Times file photo Update: Jan. 3, 1974, Producer-director Hall Bartlett on the set of "Jonathan Livingston Seagull." Here's another photo of our mystery guest with a mystery friend. Los Angeles Times file photo Update: Hall Bartlett in an unidentified photo, Aug. 12, 1982. Here's another photo of our mystery guest. Please congratulate Mary Mallory, Pamela Porter, Stacia, Edward Cradduck, JT, Dr. Fudd, Christa, Richard Heft, Margie, Zabadu, William and Evelyn for identifying him. Photograph by Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Los Angeles Times March 10, 1988. Hall Bartlett poses outside Hunter's Books with copies of his novel "The Rest of Our Lives." Please congratulate Greg Clancey and Dewey Webb for identifying him (and Dewey recognized Yvonne Lime).

Comments

[william]

Richard David Bach

[zabadu]

Hall Bartlett?

[Arye Michael Bender]

Still don't know, but if it ever comes up for auction, I'll take his hair.

[juile]

The mystery friend in the third picture, I believe I am right in saying, was Celia Gull, whose early high-flying career was grounded after Studio bosses failed to cover up several scurrilous scandals.

[margie]

Hall Bartlett

[James Curtis]

Actor-director Don Taylor?

[Richard Heft]

Hall Bartlett?

[Christa]

Hall Bartlett?

[Dr. Fudd]

Hal Bartlett

[JT]

deducing that it's Hall Bartlett

[Edward Cradduck]

Okey, with that last photo, I'm guessing it's Hall Bartlett, although, I've never seen a picture of him.

[Pamela Porter]

Producer/Director Hall Bartlett

[Stacia]

Hall Bartlett? I didn't recognize him, I recognized the seagull.

[Pamela Porter]

Director/Producer/former actor Hall Bartlett on the set of "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"

[Dewey Webb]

Hall Bartlett--blonde gal in party pic is former starlet Yvonne Lime (wife of TV producer Don Fedderson)

[Mike Hawks]

I hope the mystery man is Ken Loach.

[Greg Clancey]

Should have got this yesterday...Hal Bartlett.

[Arye Michael Bender]

Franklin Schaffner. He was head of the DGA for a time. If so, the first shot in the series was of him while he was in the military... a reminder that many of a certain generation's finest filmmakers also participated in WWII.

[Megan]

The lady on the right looks like Veronica Cartwright.

[Flo Myers]

Thanks for taping "jonathan's" eyes. I would have guessed it for sure!!!!!!for sshure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Josh Bramhall]

That is Hall Bartlett all right. My grandfather, mentor, and hero. Great person and awesome guy. I own the rights to 2 of those pics. And have the originals in my house. He was a great guy. Thanks for the pics and the article.