Artist and filmmaker. Born in in McPherson, Kansas, he was world renowned as a pioneering collage filmmaker and Beat-era assemblage artist,  recognized for his work in many creative disciplines. His gauzy assemblages of scraps salvaged from abandoned buildings, nylon stockings, doll parts, and other found materials initially gained him art-world attention. Best remembered for his experimental cut-up films made from found footage and TV advertisements. His first and most remembered film, “A Movie” (1958), melded his thrift store finds with his still photography and is considered to be the piece that brought him notoriety and recognition in the art world. His skillfull editing of stock footage resulted in abstract metaphors of mankind’s violence in some two dozen non-narrative experimental films. His most recent film, “Easter Morning: 1966 to 2008”, was a cinema short he originally filmed in the 1960s as “Easter Morning Raga” that he reworked and released in May 2008 to celebrate his 50th anniversary in the film industry; it premiered internationally at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Died in San Francisco of complications from a liver condition. (bio by: Fred Beisser)