Robert Altman - Oscar winner Meryl Streep, who stars in Altman's latest movie, A Prairie Home Companion, said he had given no clue of his ailing health when they spoke recently. 'Bob's restless spirit has moved on,' Streep said. 'I have to say, when I spoke with him last week, he seemed impatient for the future. 'He still had the generous, optimistic appetite for the next thing, and we planned the next film laughing in anticipation of the laughs we'd have. 'What a gent, what a guy, what a great heart.' Richard Gere, the lead in 2000's Dr T and the Women, called the director unprecedented, hailing his ability to capture the ever-changing face of contemporary America. 'There's no one I'm prouder to have worked with,' Gere said. 'He was an ecstatic . . . a magician . . . a conjurer . . . a mischievous boy. Perhaps unprecedented. 'He understood and could express that uniquely American shape-shifting goofiness more than anyone.' Sophia Loren, who worked with Altman in his 1994 fashion industry satire Pret-a-Porter, said cinema