Natural within Ogden, Utah, Ashby grew up inside the Mormon household and got the disruptive childhood when the portion of a dysfunctional family which included a divorcement of his parents, his father's suicide and dropping out of senior high school. Around his late teens, Ashby married however presently when divorced.

When Ashby was typing big life, he moved from either Utah to California where he quickly became an assistant film editor. His large break occurred around 1967 when he won the Academy Award for Film Editing for In the Heat of the Night.

At a urging of its director, Norman Jewison, Ashby directed his first film, The Landlord, in 1970. All over a next Sixteen years, Ashby directed many acclaimed & popular films, including a off-far-out romance Harold and Maude and the social satire Being There with Peter Sellers.

Hal Ashby died of cancer in December 27, 1988 in Malibu, California.

Filmography (as director)
The Landlord (1970) Harold and Maude (1971) The Last Detail (1973) Shampoo (1975) Bound for Glory (1976) Coming Home (1978) Being There (1979) Second-Hand Hearts (1981) ''Lookin' to Get Out (1982) Let's Spend the Night Together (1982) The Slugger's Wife (1985) 8 Million Ways to Die (1986) Jake's Journey'' (1988) (TV)