Entertainment
Legendary Director Passes Away At 94
Box office bigwig Ted Kotcheff, the director behind some of the 1970s and 80s blowout hits like “Rambo: First Blood” and “Weekend and Bernie’s,” succumbed to a brief illness and passed away at 94.
The Canadian filmmaker’s death was made known to a national outlet which first received a statement from his family confirming he died on Thursday, April 10th. The cause of Kotcheff’s illness was not identified.
Born April 7th, 1931, Kotcheff grew up in the Toronto neighborhood of Cabbagetown where he recalled the hardships faced by his parents, two impoverished Bulgerian immigrants who at times couldn’t afford their $2 monthly rent.
“I remember thinking, at four, ‘What sort of world would do that? It shaped me, made me compassionate about other people’s stories,” the director said in a previous interview about his upbringing.
After graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in English, Kotcheff took his first professional role with the Canadian Broadcasting Company in the early 1950s, as the station was first finding its footing. He helped produce some early hit shows, including “General Motors Theatre” and “First Performance,” before moving to the U.K. to pursue his career in film and television.
He made his directorial debut with the 1962 British comedy “Tiara Tahiti” starring James Mason.
It wasn’t until the 1970s when Kotcheff earned his big break upon returning to Canada and directing 1973’s “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz” starring Richard Dreyfuss. The film was an immediate hit with critics and won the Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay on its way to becoming the best-performing English-language Canadian screenplay at the domestic box office.
Inside the U.S. studio system, Kotcheff earned a reputation for churning out hits across any genre thrown at him. His 1977 direction of “Fun with Dick and Jane” starring George Segal and Jane Fonda was one of Columbia Pictures’ highest-grossing films of the year, and his 1979 Nick Nolte film “North Dallas Forty” earned a rave review in the New York Times and sparked widespread discussion about the NFL’s treatment of its players.
His legacy, however, was shaped by his relationship with actor Sylvester Stallone. Together, the two found inspiration for Stallone’s Rambo character, who proved so popular that their initial film spawned four sequels and revolutionized the industry’s use of pyrotechnics on the big screen.
During the promotion of “First Blood,” Kotcheff spoke about his intention to originally write Rambo as a sullen soldier, not unlike those returning home from the Vietnam War and struggling with PTSD and other lifelong ailments.
“In 1980, 1,000 Vietnam vets per month tried to kill themselves, and over 300 succeeded. Per month. That was our starting point,” he said about writing the film’s screenplay. “The statistics were horrifying.”
Through the 80s and 90s, Kotcheff continued notching box office wins with films like 1988’s “Switching Channels” with Burt Reynolds, followed by 1989’s surprise hit “Weekend at Bernie’s.”
Speaking with Canada’s Globe and Mail in 2017, Kotcheff said he often found himself through discovering his own characters.
“The pictures were voyages of discovery. I said to myself, ‘Ted, you must be uncertain about who you are,'” he recalled.
Asked whether the search helped point out what his own motivations may be, the director replied with a smile, “I may have. But I’m not going to tell you.”
