Polly Platt

Mary Marr "Polly" Platt (January 29, 1939 – July 27, 2011) was an American film producer, production designer, and screenwriter. She was the first woman accepted into the Art Directors Guild, in 1971. In addition to her credited work, she was known as a mentor (for which she was honored with Women in Film Crystal Award) as well as an uncredited collaborator and networker. In the case of the latter, she is credited with contributing to the success of ex-husband and director Peter Bogdanovich's early films; mentoring then first-time director and writer Cameron Crowe, and discovering actors including Cybill Shepherd, Tatum O'Neal, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, and director Wes Anderson. Platt also suggested that director James L. Brooks meet artist and illustrator Matt Groening, a meeting that led to their collaboration on The Simpsons.

Early life Platt was born Mary Marr Platt in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, on January 29, 1939, later choosing to be known as 'Polly'. Her father, John, was a colonel in the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the United States Army, while her mother, Vivian, worked in advertising; she had a brother, John. She moved to Germany at the age of six when her father presided over the Dachau Trials. Despite the breakdown of her marriage to Bogdanovich, Platt was again production designer on What's Up, Doc? (1972) and Paper Moon (1973). Bogdanovich commented that: "She worked on important pictures and made major contributions. She was unique. There weren't many women doing that kind of work at that time, particularly not one as well versed as she was. She knew all the departments, on a workmanlike basis, as opposed to most producers who just know things in theory." and A Map of the World (1999). She wrote the screenplay for the 1995 Academy Award-winning short film Lieberman in Love, based on a short story by W. P. Kinsella.

Platt worked extensively with James L. Brooks throughout her career. She was the executive vice president of his production company Gracie Films from 1985 to 1995. by cartoonist Matt Groening. She suggested that the two meet and that Brooks produce an animated TV version of Groening's characters; the meeting spawned a series of short cartoons about the Simpson family, which aired as part of The Tracey Ullman Show and later became The Simpsons.

In 1994, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award. Brooks said that Platt "couldn't walk into a gas station and get gas without mentoring somebody. Movies are a team sport, and she made teams function. She would assume a maternal role in terms of really being there. The film was everything, and ego just didn't exist." In 2003, she appeared in the BBC documentary film Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. Platt was working on a documentary about the filmmaker Roger Corman at the time of her death.

Personal life Platt was married to Philip Klein until his death in a car crash in 1959, eight months after they married, and to director Peter Bogdanovich from 1962 to 1971. and Platt herself confirmed the film "got more right than wrong."

Platt's talent as a mentor and film producer was deeply admired by her peers, who felt she should have become a director. She struggled with alcoholism for more than 25 years. Additionally, sexism in the film industry made directing unlikely for her.

Platt participated in a 2000 Texasville reunion of some of the cast and crew of The Last Picture Show. She and Cybill Shepherd had made peace and were on friendly terms. Platt and her children were reconciled with Bogdanovich when she died.

Death Platt died in Manhattan, on July 27, 2011, from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, aged 72. In May 2020, film journalist and podcast producer/writer/host Karina Longworth began the fifteenth season of the podcast You Must Remember This with a focus on the significance of Polly Platt's work within the larger context of late 20th-century U.S. film history. The season, "Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman", includes interviews with family, friends, and colleagues (as well as readings from Platt's unpublished memoir) documenting her (often uncredited) contributions to commercially and critically successful films of the late 1960s and into the early 2000s. Longworth argues that Platt played a pivotal role in the location, casting, and overall visual aesthetic of major films, including but not limited to Paper Moon, What's Up, Doc? and The Last Picture Show. Actress Maggie Siff voices Platt in the podcast.

Filmography (Source: IMDB)

As actor

As herself Film !! Year !! Notes

Documentary