Monte Hellman was born in New York City and grew up in Los Angeles . He received a degree in drama from Stanford University and did graduate work in film at UCLA. After an early career as a portrait photographer and stage director, he began directing films in 1960.

Hellman has been the subject of major retrospectives at the London , Rotterdam , Hof , Edinburgh , Antwerp , Amiens , Amsterdam , Bergamo , Belfort , South By Southwest and Buenos Aires film festivals, and at the Cinemathèque Française in Paris and the American Cinemathèque in Los Angeles . He has been a special guest at the Moscow, Cannes, San Francisco, Telluride, Santa Fe, Dallas and Vienna film festivals, and served on the jury at Montreal, San Sebastian, Park City, Turin, Pesaro, Geneva, Gijon, and Sitges, and was President of the Jury at the Festival of Film Schools in Munich and the Amiens Festival. He also received Career Achievement Awards from the Chicago Film Festival, Cinema Tout Ecran in Geneva , and the Sergio Leone Film Festival in Torella dei Lombardi.

His westerns THE SHOOTING and RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND, produced with and starring Jack Nicholson, played for one year continuously in Paris , where they began a revival on June 15, 2005 . TWO-LANE BLACKTOP with James Taylor and Warren Oates has become a cult classic, and also recently enjoyed a successful revival in France . CHINA 9 LIBERTY 37 has been restored by Warner's, and has been distributed throughout the world.

Hellman has directed 11 theatrical features, including IGUANA, an Official Selection at the 1988 Venice Film Festival, and SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT III: BETTER WATCH OUT, which premiered at the Barcelona Film Festival, and shown at the Brussels Festival of Fantastic Films in 1989. He executive produced Quentin Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS, an Official Selection at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.

His most recent work as a director, the “ Stanley 's Girlfriend” segment of TRAPPED ASHES, written and produced by Dennis Bartok, was an Official Selection of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. He also served the same year as President of the Jury of Un Certain Regard in Cannes .

There was a major retrospective of Monte Hellman's work at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in October 2006, and there will be another at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival in Korea , in July 2007.

There have also been exhibits of his still photography in Los Angeles ; Austin , Texas ; Portland , Oregon ; and Gijon , Spain . He is currently working on a book of portraits, to be followed by one of “peoplescapes.”