The prolific filmmaker of Canadian origin Ted Kotcheff, who made the films “First Blood”, “Weekend at Bernie's”, “Wake in Fright”, “Learning Duddy Kravitz”, “Fun with Dick and Jane” and “North Dallas Forty”, in more than a long term as an executive producer “. He was 94 years old.
Kotcheff's daughter Kate Kotcheff, said by e-mail that he died peacefully during her sedation Thursday evening in a hospital in Nuevo Nayarit, Mexico.
In an interview of 1975 with The Times, Kotcheff said: “The feeling of being outside the dominant current of the community has always attracted me. All my photos deal with people outside or people who don't know what motivates them. ”
Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo in “First Blood” of 1982, directed by Ted Kotcheff.
(CBS Archive Photo / CBS via Getty Images)
Born in Toronto on April 7, 1931 from Bulgarian immigrants, Kotcheff began working on television in the early 1950s. Later, he moved to the United Kingdom, leading both stage and television. In 1971, he directed “Wake up in fear” In Australia, which returned to Times during its 2012 revival called “brute, disturbing and fascinating”.
Back in Canada in the early 1970s, Kotcheff led the 1974 adaptation of “Learning Duddy Kravitz” by Mordecai Richler with Richard Dreyfuss. He won the first prize at Berlin Film Festival and won the writer Lionel Chetwynd a nomination for the Oscars for the suitable scenario.
Kotcheff was a huge success in Hollywood with “First Blood” from 1982, which introduced the traumatized veteran of Vietnam John Rambo, played by Sylvester Stallone.
By examining “First Blood”, Times Sheila Benson's criticism wrote: “This violent and disturbing film is exceptionally well done.” She added: “If it is possible not to love and admire a film to an almost equal extent, then” First Blood “would win on this divided post. … Kotcheff has grasped so many persistent examples of nihilism exulting in our brains that the words with action are so frightening.”
Andrew McCarthy, on the left, and Jonathan Silverman in a scene from “Weekend at Bernie” by Ted Kotcheff (1989).
(Phil Caruso / 20th Century Fox)
If the “First Blood” has exploited the despair and anxiety of post-Vietnam America, “Weekend at Bernie's” of 1989 has become an improbable cultural touch for its carefree and free play, displaying the versatility of Kotcheff.
The film follows two ambitious young men (played by Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman) who create a series of rus developed during an eventful weekend to prove that their summary boss (Terry Kiser) is in fact not dead. In a “Bernie's” review, The critic of Times Kevin Thomas wrote: “A weekend among the rich, the jaded and the corrupt is just the good cup of tea for an acidic social satirist like Kotcheff”, also noting the filmmaker's little cameo in the film as the father of one of the young men.
Finally, Kotcheff returned to television, working for more than 10 years and on nearly 300 episodes of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”.
In 2011, Kotcheff received a life production prize from Directors Guild of Canada. He published a memoir, “Director's Cut: My Life in Film”, in 2017.
Kotcheff is survived by his wife Laifun Chung; Brother Tim; children Aaron, Kate, Joshua, Alexandra and Thomas; And grandchildren Isabella, Dante, Dorian and Elsie. He is preceded by his first wife, actor Sylvia Kay, and her granddaughter Matilda. Private funerals have taken place in Mexico and a memorial will take place on a later date.
