Robert Altman's films were different from the usual methods of Hollywood movie storytelling. In the 1940s, he started his film career directing industrial movies in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. Later, he moved to Hollywood, California, to make television shows. His first major film, MASH, was released in 1970. It tells about a group of American medical workers in an army hospital in Korea during the Korean War in the 1950s. The movie was a great success. It questioned the rules of the military in a way that was sharply funny and clever. Robert Altman continued to make movies with strong political and social points. His next major movie, Nashville, came out in 1975. This movie provides a complex (not simple) look at changes in the country music industry. Robert Altman's movies have a very special style. Often, his actors speak so naturally that it is hard to believe they are performing. Altman liked his actors to be free to make up their own lines. Altman wanted to copy the way people talked and acted in real life. And he was willing to fight with movie studio businessmen to make sure that he had total creative   control over his work. Even as an old man, Robert Altman continued to make movies. Many of his 33 films were nominated   for Academy Awards, including The Player and Gosford Park. Robert Altman died in November in Los Angeles, California. He was 81 years old. Robert Altman began to make films   _  .
in the 1940s in the 1950s in 1970 in 1975