The résumé that led him to “M*A*S*H” included duty as an Army pilot during World War II; the better part of a decade spent grinding out industrial films in his native Kansas City, Mo. ; and close to another 10 years shooting episodic television shows like “Combat!” and “Bonanza.” After his breakthrough — the movie Pauline Kael hyperbolized as “the best American war comedy since sound came in” — Aljean Harmetz captured the contradiction neatly in The New York Times: "At 46, Robert Altman is Hollywood’s newest 26-year-old genius." But it’s hard waiting those extra 20 years for someone to call you a wunderkind. Full Article at The New York Times