Hollywood lost a true maverick with the passing last month of Bob Rafelson. Beginning his professional career in television at the end of the 1950s, Rafelson hit paydirt with Emmy-winning series The Monkees in 1966. Created with partner Bert Schneider, the show made it to the big screen two years later with HEAD. Jack Nicholson penned the screenplay to that feature, but the Raybert team soon put him to better use; following Nicholson’s breakthrough turn in EASY RIDER, he starred as a pianist-oil rigger in FIVE EASY PIECES and as Bruce Dern’s depressive brother in THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS, both directed by Rafelson. No one knew it at the time, but these films helped lay the cornerstone for what would later be referred to as “New Hollywood.” Rafelson continued making films for three decades, though his last as writer, director and producer was cult favorite STAY HUNGRY, which helped launch Arnold Schwarzenegger as an actor. That title offers an appropriate description of Bob Rafelson’s life-long appetite for innovative storytelling that captured the cultural moment.