Ted Kotcheff | |
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Born | William Theodore Kotcheff April 7, 1931 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Other names | William T. Kotcheff Velichko Todorov Tsochev |
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Years active | 1956–present |
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Children | 5, including Thomas |
William Theodore Kotcheff (born April 7, 1931) is a Canadian director and producer of film and television.[1] He is known for directing such films as the seminal Australian New Wave picture Wake in Fright (1971), the Mordechai Richler adaptations The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974) and Joshua Then and Now (1985), the original Rambo film First Blood (1982), and the comedies Fun with Dick and Jane (1977), North Dallas Forty (1979), and Weekend at Bernie's (1989).
Kotcheff has been nominated for a Genie Award for Best Achievement in Direction, a Gemini Award for Best Direction in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series, and twice for the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or. He won the Golden Bear at the 1974 Berlin International Film Festival for The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, and the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series for his work on Play for Today. He received the Directors Guild of Canada's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011,[2] and the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's Board of Directors' Tribute Award in 2014.[3]
He has been described by the Toronto International Film Festival as a "talented, multi-faceted journeyman director in the tradition of Leo McCarey or Robert Wise."[4]