Hal Hartley Birthday & Fun Facts

Hal Hartley Birthday Highlights

Birth Name

Hal Hartley

Place Of Birth

New York, USA

Age

64 years old

Birth Date

November 3 1959

Hal Hartley Facts

Child Star?

no

Occupation

Film maker, Director, Screen Writer, Composer, Producer.

Education & Qualifications

Lindenhurst High School, Massachusetts College of Art, State University of New York Purchase Film School.

Net Worth

$3,000,000

Current Partner

Miho Nikaido

Hal Hartley was born on November 3, 1959, in New York, and is a notable American film director, independent film screenwriter, and producer.

Since 1988, he has directed 14 feature films. Hal Hartley is famous for his movies 'The Unbelievable Truth', 'Trust', 'Simple Men', 'Amateur', and 'Henry Fool'.

Many of Hal Hartley's films are credited as a career launch for many actors, including Robert John Burke, Edie Falco (famous for her role as Nurse Jackie on Showtime), Adrienne Shelly, Parker Posey, Martin Donovan, Elina Löwensohn, and Karen Sillas. In addition, he remains one of American cinema's foremost historians of wayward malaise; his empirical pictures focus on their artifice while plumbing concrete emotional heights.

What is Hal Hartley's net worth?

Hal Hartley's net worth is estimated to be between $1-5 million. He earned money by being a professional screenwriter in addition to his other careers.

How much does Hal Hartley earn per year?

It is unknown how much Hal Hartley earns per year.

How tall is Hal Hartley?

Hal Hartley is 6 ft 6 in (198 cm) tall.

How old is Hal Hartley?

Hal Hartley is 63 years old as of 2022.

Hal Hartley was born in 1959 and raised on the outskirts of New York with two older brothers and one younger sister. In 1977, Hal Hartley graduated from Lindenhurst High School. Later on, he became interested in making films while studying at Massachusetts College of Art, and he left college and learned the filmmaking program at the State University of New York at Purchase Film School. After graduation from there, he completed three short films-'Kid', 'The Cartographer's Girlfriend', and 'Dogs'.

Who is Hal Hartley's partner?

Hartley married Miho Nikaido, a Japanese dancer and actress who appeared in his film 'Flirt'.

Best known for...

Hartley's feature film directing career began in earnest in the late ’80s with 'The Unbelievable Truth', which was nominated at the Sundance Film Festival for the Grand Jury Prize in 1990 to usher in what would turn out to be the best decade of Hartley's career. Hal Hartley proved himself as a noted and prolific filmmaker in the first decade of his career, making many films in very quick succession.

Hal Hartley's second feature film, 'Trust', starring Adrienne Shelley and Martin Donovan, debuted in 1990 at the Toronto Film Festival. Hal Hartley continued making films at a prolific rate throughout the first decade of his career, films which include 'Surviving Desire', 'Simple Men', 'Amateur', 'Flirt', and 'Henry Fool', which are notable for deadpan humor and offbeat characters quoting philosophical dialogue. In 1992, Hal Hartley directed a short romantic comedy 'Surviving Desire' about a college professor who had an affair with a student. Hal Hartley's 'Henry Fool', the 1998 winner of the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival, is broader in scope than his previous works. Hartley achieved his most significant commercial and critical success with 'Henry Fool'. 'Henry Fool', a darkly comic drama, is about an introverted garbage man, Simon Grim, his sister Fay, and their depressed mother, Maria Porter, who meets Henry Fool, an aspiring novelist and ex-con who prompts Simon to write his thoughts. Ultimately, the two characters switch places, with Simon winning the Nobel Prize for his poem.

Hal Hartley was invited to contribute to the US entry in a series of films funded by French television to celebrate the millennium. His film for this entry, a black comedy entitled 'The Book of Life', was shot entirely in digital video in New York in 1998. The story envisions Jesus (Martin Donovan) going back to Earth on the eve of 2000 to open the Book of Life. Jesus, along with Mary Magdalene, loved humanity and argued with Satan over whether to put an end to human civilization.

Between 2001 and 2004, Hartley was a guest lecturer at Harvard University. In 2004, Hal Hartley moved to Berlin, where he made a sequel to 'Henry Fool', naming it 'Fay Grim'. The film, which starred Parker Posey, James Urbaniak, and Thomas Jay Ryan, reprising their roles from 'Henry Fool', was a comedy-drama that won the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival. Hal Hartley's memorable characters are bitter romanticisms that embrace many contradictions: sincere and ironical, passionate yet apathetic, conscientious but inevitably compromised. To put it another way, they are real human beings. Hartley frequently makes his movies under the pseudonym Ned Rifle, and his soundtracks regularly present music from indie rock bands Yo La Tengo and PJ Harvey.

Hartley has directed dozens of short films, several of which are available in an anthological form, such as Hal Hartley's Possible Films' 'Short Works' (2004) and 'PF2' (2010). Hal Hartley's last directorial project was 'Meanwhile', which had its world premiere at the Plus Camerimage festival in Bydgoszcz, Poland. In addition, Hartley directed eight episodes of Red Oaks, an Amazon Studios comedy streaming television series, between 2015 and 2017. In New York City, he runs a production company called Possible Films.

He is primarily known for his films 'Trust', 'Amateur', and 'Henry Fool', characterized by offbeat humor and quirky characters citing philosophical dialogue.

What awards has Hal Hartley won?

Hal Hartley won several awards at Cannes and Sundance for his work. They include awards from the Houston Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, both in 1991, for 'Trust'; an award from the Deauville Film Festival; and Best Screenplay Award, Cannes Film Festival, 1997, for 'Henry Fool'.

Hal Hartley was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the Republic of France in 1996, one of the highest civilian distinctions by the French government.

The American Academy awarded Hal Hartley a fellowship in Berlin in late 2004, where he researched a proposed large-scale project concerning the life of French educator and social activist Simone Weil.

Hal Hartley's Hobbies And Interests

In his youth, Hal Hartley was keen on painting and filmmaking.

• He studied film at Purchase College, New York State University, and met Robert John Burke. Robert John Burke later starred in 'The Unbelievable New York' (1989).
• Hartley paid for his education by working alongside his father, uncles, cousins, and brother as a steelworker apprentice on new construction sites.
• Robert Musil (especially The Man Without Qualities), Montaigne (essays), Beckett (novels), Moliere, Joseph Roth, and Thomas Hardy are among his most frequently read authors.

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