AUGUST 11 • 2022 | 69

OBITUARY 
CHARGES

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Shayna Silverman; many 
cousins and friends. 
Interment was at 
Machpelah Cemetery. 
Contributions may be 
made to a charity of one’s 
choice. Arrangements by Ira 
Kaufman Chapel.

BARRY SIEGEL, 
78, of West 
Bloomfield, died 
July 31,
2022. 
He is survived 
by his wife of 54 years, Karen 
Siegel; daughter, Lisa Siegel; 
son and daughter-in-law, 
Jonathan and Danielle Siegel; 
grandchildren, Zachary and 
Karen Santosuosso, Benjamin 
Siegel and Noah Siegel; broth-
er, William Siegel. 
Mr. Siegel was the dear 
brother of the late Robert 
Siegel. 
Interment was at Clover Hill 
Park Cemetery. Contributions 
may be made to a charity of 
one’s choice. Arrangements by 
Ira Kaufman Chapel.

GARY SNYDER, 
76, of West 
Bloomfield, died 
Aug. 3, 2022. 
He is survived 
by his wife of 
almost 50 years, Francine 
Snyder; sons and daughters-in-
law, Mark and Hayley Snyder, 
and Joel Snyder and Betsy 
Uhrman; grandchildren, Leila, 
Sophia, Ora and Solomon 
Snyder; other loving relatives 
and a world of friends.
Mr. Snyder was the devoted 
son of the late Harry and the 
late Zola Snyder.
Interment was at 
Beth El Memorial Park. 
Contributions may be made 
to Walk4Friendship-The 
Helpers, walk4friendship.com/

Hayley-Snyder; Hillel of Metro 
Detroit, 5221 Gullen Mall, 
Student Center, Suite 667, 
Detroit, MI 48202, 
hillel-detroit.org/donate; 
Gary Snyder Memorial 
Scholarship Fund at California 
State University-Northridge, 
grapevine.org/giving-circle. 
Arrangements by Ira Kaufman 
Chapel.

MARVIN 
STOLLER, 78, of 
West Bloomfield, 
died July 29, 2022.
He is survived 
by his brother 
and sister-in-
law, Jeffrey Stoller and Carol 
Eichenhorn Stoller; nephews 
and niece, David and Jeremy 
Stoller, and Erica Mitchell; 
great-nephews and great-
niece, Dawson Stoller, Dennis 
Mitchell, Jared Stoller, and 
Annie Mitchell. 
Interment was at Adat 
Shalom Memorial Park. 
Contributions may be made to 
Jewish Hospice & Chaplaincy 
Network, 6555 W. Maple, West 
Bloomfield, MI 48322, jewish-
hospice.org. Arrangements by 
Ira Kaufman Chapel.

c. 1996

C

hildren of the Sixties 
knew him for a 
beloved boy-band 
sitcom. Children of 
the Seventies knew 
him for upending 
Hollywood.
Bob Rafelson, 
89, died on July 
23, 2022, from 
lung cancer. He 
was a titan of New 
Hollywood, a reg-
ular collaborator of 
Jack Nicholson and a director 
and producer who would 
influence a new generation of 
filmmakers. 
Rafelson bridged the 
gap between mainstream 
Hollywood and the country’s 
then-thriving counterculture, 
introducing various bad-boy 
free spirits to the masses with 
cutting-edge fare like Five 
Easy Pieces, Easy Rider and 
The King of Marvin Gardens.
Born in New York to a 
Jewish family of hatmakers, 
Rafelson was a nephew of 
Samson Raphaelson, the 
playwright who authored The 
Jazz Singer — the story of a 
cantor’s son who becomes a 
nightclub singer which would 
later become the basis of the 
first movie with sound.
Rafelson developed the 
original concept for the 
Monkees, a fictional rock 
band closely modeled on 
the Beatles that formed the 
basis of a mega-popular 1966 
sitcom and series of albums. 
The success of the show won 
its creator an Emmy.
With the proceeds from the 
Monkees, Rafelson entered a 
period of wild experimenta-
tion that would form the basis 
of what would become New 

Hollywood — creator-driven 
low-budget films, often fea-
turing loose free-associative 
plots and made 
in a collaborative 
setting.
He and 
Nicholson teamed 
up to make Head, 
a 1968 film star-
ring the Monkees 
that was far-out, 
plotless and trippy. 
Audiences hated 
it, but Rafelson found his 
calling.
With his friend Bert 
Schneider (with whom he 
worked on the Monkees) 
and childhood friend Steve 
Blauner, he formed a produc-
tion studio, BBS Productions, 
and helped to produce Peter 
Fonda and Dennis Hopper’s 
1969 classic Easy Rider, 
about two motorcyclists on a 
cross-country road trip.
The following year Rafelson 
co-wrote and directed Five 
Easy Pieces, another era-de-
fining road movie starring 
Nicholson as a former piano 
prodigy turned drifter who 
works in an oil field. The 
film was nominated for four 
Oscars, and helped make 
Nicholson a major star.
Rafelson next produced 
Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last 
Picture Show, and would 
direct Nicholson again in The 
King of Marvin Gardens.
BBS faded after the mid-
1970s, but Rafelson contin-
ued to direct into his later 
decades, including a 1981 
remake of noir classic The 
Postman Always Rings Twice 
that was the screenwriting 
debut of Jewish playwright 
David Mamet. 

Bob Rafelson

Creative Filmmaker 
Bob Rafelson, 89

ANDREW LAPIN JTA

