Michael Laughlin was born in 1938 in the USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Strange Invaders (1983), Strange Behavior (1981) and Mesmerized (1985). He was married to Leslie Caron. He died on 20 October 2021 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. In 2012, Two-Lane Blacktop was chosen as one of only 20 films to be housed in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress. Hailed as a minimalist classic, it was chosen as an example of the short-lived period of youth-oriented films following Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate and Easy Rider in the late 1960s. Producers such as Laughlin financed a spate of low-budget, innovative films by young "New Hollywood" filmmakers, with influences ranging from playwright Samuel Beckett to European filmmakers Robert Bresson, Jacques Rivette and Michelangelo Antonioni.[citation needed] In 1984, Strange Invaders was nominated for Saturn Award for Best Screenplay and for Best Film at the Avoriaz Fantasy Film Festival.