Director Behind ‘First Blood’ And The Birth Of Rambo Passes Away At 94
Ted Kotcheff, who directed Weekend at Bernie’s and First Blood, died at the age of 94.
The Canadian director, whose 1982 picture First Blood introduced audiences to Sylvester Stallone’s Vietnam War veteran John Rambo, died Friday.
Ted, Kotcheff’s son, told TMZ that his father passed away in the company of his family at Hospital Joya in Nuevo Nayarit, Mexico.
The cause of death has not yet been revealed by the family.
In addition, Kotcheff served as executive producer for 13 seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and director of Fun With Dick and Jane and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.
His most well-known role was that of Stallone as Rambo, a damaged soldier who, following a run-in with the local police, introduces guerrilla warfare to a sleepy Pacific Northwest hamlet. Even though the franchise was successful, Kotcheff declined to be involved in the follow-ups.
Alongside Rocky Balboa, First Blood gave Stallone (who also co-wrote the screenplay) another iconic role and solidified his status as an American action star.
Additionally, the movie became Kotcheff’s highest box office success.
First Blood, which was made for about $16 million, made over $125 million worldwide.
It became the 13th highest-grossing film of the year and launched a lucrative action franchise with four sequels, the most recent of which came out in 2019.
Kotcheff, however, decided not to participate in the follow-ups.
They offered me the first sequel, and after I read the script I said, “In the first film he doesn’t kill anybody. In this film he kills 75 people,” Kotcheff said in a 2016 interview with Filmmaker magazine.
“It seemed to be celebrating the Vietnam War, which I thought was one of the stupidest wars in history.”
“Fifty-five-thousand young Americans died and so many veterans committed suicide. I couldn’t turn myself inside out like that and make that kind of picture. Of course, I could have been a rich man today — that sequel made $300 million,” he added.
Rambo: First Blood Part II, the first sequel, came out in 1985. Rambo III (1988), Rambo (2008), and Rambo: Last Blood (2019) came after it.
The director was the son of Bulgarian immigrants and was born William Theodore Kotcheff in Toronto.
He earned a degree in English literature from University College, University of Toronto.
At the age of 24, Kotcheff began working in television for the newly established Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
He worked on early television shows such General Motors Theatre, Encounter, First Performance, and On Camera for two years as the youngest director at the CBC.
Later, Kotcheff moved to the UK to follow his dream of becoming a director, and in 1962 he made his directorial debut with the comedy Tiara Tahiti.
Wake in Fright (1971), an Australian thriller, was his breakthrough hit.
Richard Dreyfuss acted in his follow-up film, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, released in 1974.
The film launched Kotcheff’s career in the American film industry, winning the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and earning a nomination for an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay.
With box office successes like the football drama North Dallas Forty (1979), starring Nick Nolte, and the George Segal and Jane Fonda-led marital satire Fun With Dick and Jane (1977), Kotcheff gained success in Hollywood.
After the late Gene Hackman starred in another Vietnam-themed movie, Uncommon Valor (1983), Kotcheff returned to humor and achieved another hit with Weekend at Bernie’s (1989).
He declined to be involved in the 1993 sequel, which was unexpectedly prompted by the film’s remarkable premise and starred Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman as two employees who manipulate the body of their murdered CEO.
In 1960, Kotcheff wed British actress Sylvia Kay. They had three children before divorcing in 1972. At the age of 82, Kay, who had starred in Wake in Fright, passed away in January 2019.
Laifun Chun, whom he later remarried, joined him as a producer on a number of his productions. Alexandra and Thomas were their two children.
Despite slowing down his filmmaking in the 1990s, Kotcheff made the switch to television, executive producing Law & Order: SVU for more than a decade and directing TV films.
In 2011, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Director Guild of Canada. In 1972, he also received a BAFTA award for his work as director of Edna, the Inebriate Woman.
Dreyfuss is now narrating a documentary about Kotcheff’s life called The Apprenticeship of Ted Kotcheff.