American film director, actor, writer, producer, film historian, and critic, of Serbian descent, who was among the filmmakers of the New Hollywood movement that began in the late sixties and early seventies with directors, such as Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma and Martin Scorsese. His most important works include The Last Picture Show (1971), for which he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Director and Oscar for Best Screenplay, and the series The Sopranos (1999).