Background
He is the son of filmmaker Robert Altman and Kathryn Reed.
He is the son of filmmaker Robert Altman and Kathryn Reed.
Altman began his career serving as focus puller and second assistant camera on the films such as: Nashville (1975), Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976), A Wedding (1978), Popeye (1980), Health (1982), Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982), Streamers (1983), and Fool for Love (1985). Altman shifted gears and gravitated to television where he served as camera operator on the television series Alien Nation (1989), Tales of the City (1993), Melrose Place (1992), and Robert Altman"s Gun (1997). Altman also served as second unit director of photography on the hit television series, The Wonder Years.
In 2004, Altman served as director of Photography on director Robert Altman and writer/cartoonist Garry Trudeau"s Tanner on Tanner.
Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, the film was a follow-up to their documentary-style Emmy-winning film, Tanner "88. The new "Tanner", a four-part series following the new adventures of fictional presidential nominee Tanner, was filmed to coincide with the Bush-Kerry elections.
In between his work for television, Altman continues to return to feature filmmaking as a camera operator or cinematographer. Credits include Looking for Trouble for Roger Corman.
Several projects directed by Robert Altman, Kansas City (1996), The Gingerbread Manitoba (1998), Cookie"s Fortune (1999) and Doctor T & the Women (2000), as well as Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) directed by Kevin Smith, and The Scorpion King (2002) starring The Rock.
Altman last worked with his father on A Prairie Home Companion. Recently, Altman has been working on the network shows Boston Legal, The O.C. and, as of 2010, Lost in Hawaii.