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.