William Theodore Kotcheff (; April 7, 1931 – April 10, 2025) was a Canadian<!--Do NOT add "Bulgarian" per WP:ETHNICITY.--> director and producer of film, television, and theatre. He worked at various times in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. the Mordecai Richler adaptations The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974) and Joshua Then and Now (1985), the original Rambo film First Blood (1982), and the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's Board of Directors' Tribute Award in 2014.

He was described by the Toronto International Film Festival as a "talented, multi-faceted journeyman director in the tradition of Leo McCarey or Robert Wise".

Early life

William Theodore Kotcheff was born in Toronto in 1931, into a family of Bulgarian immigrants. His father was born in Plovdiv, and his mother was of Macedonian Bulgarian background, from a Vambel, Ottoman Empire (present-day Greece), but grew up in Varna, Bulgaria. The family's original surname was 'Tsochev' (), but was later anglicized to Kotcheff.

During high school, Kotcheff worked at a Goodyear factory and in a slaughterhouse. He studied at University College, Toronto, graduating with a degree in English Literature in 1952. He directed the original 1964–65 West End production of the musical Maggie May at the Adelphi Theatre, which won the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Score of the Year and the Critics' Poll as Best New British Musical.

British feature films

Kotcheff made his first film with Tiara Tahiti (1962). He directed other features during the decade, including Life at the Top (1965) and Two Gentlemen Sharing (1969).

He also directed The Human Voice (1967) for British television, starring Ingrid Bergman from a story by Jean Cocteau and TV remakes of The Desperate Hours (1967) and Of Mice and Men (1968). He directed the concert At the Drop of Another Hat for TV.

Kotcheff directed the Australian film Wake in Fright It won much critical acclaim in Europe, and was Australia's entry at the Cannes Film Festival. (In 2009, Wake in Fright was re-released on DVD and Blu-ray disc in a fully restored version.)

Kotcheff returned to television, directing the Play for Today production Edna, the Inebriate Woman (1971) for the BBC, which won him a British Academy Television Award for Best Director. In 2000, the play was voted one of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century in a poll of industry professionals conducted by the British Film Institute.

Return to Canada

Kotcheff returned home to Canada, where he directed an adaptation of his friend and one-time housemate Mordecai Richler's novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974) which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival making it the first English Canadian dramatic feature film to win an international award. In 1975 the movie won the Canadian Film Awards' belated Film of the Year award (as the 1974 ceremony was not held). The film has since been recognized as a classic of Canadian cinema, with the Toronto International Film Festival ranking it in the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time twice, in 1984 and 1993.

He wrote and directed The Trial of Sinyavsky and Daniel (1975) for Canadian television and was a production consultant on Why Shoot the Teacher? (1977).

Hollywood

In Hollywood, he directed Fun with Dick and Jane (1977) which was a big hit. He followed it with the comedy Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978) then wrote and directed North Dallas Forty (1979) which was critically acclaimed.

Kotcheff directed the Canadian film Split Image (1982), then had his biggest success to date with the Sylvester Stallone movie First Blood (1982), the first in the Rambo series. (He speaks about the ideas behind this film in Andrea Luka Zimmerman's 2017 film Erase and Forget.) Kotcheff then worked on another Vietnam-themed action movie Uncommon Valor (1983), then returned to Canada to make Joshua Then and Now (1985), from the novel by Mordecai Richler.

Kotcheff directed Switching Channels (1988) and Winter People (1989), then had a big hit with Weekend at Bernie's (1989).

Television

In the 1990s, Kotcheff returned to directing for TV, working on various American series such as Red Shoe Diaries, and Buddy Faro as well as Casualty in the UK.

He did the occasional feature film such as Folks! (1992) and The Shooter (1995). He did TV movies like What Are Families for? (1993), Love on the Run (1994), Family of Cops (1995), A Husband, a Wife and a Lover (1996), Borrowed Hearts (1997), Cry Rape (1999). He joined the staff of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where he worked as an executive producer and director through 2012.

Personal life

Kotcheff lived in Beverly Hills with his wife Laifun (nee Chung). They had two children: Alexandra, a filmmaker, and Thomas, a composer and pianist. He had three children from his previous marriage to actress Sylvia Kay: Aaron, Katrina and Joshua. Ted Kotcheff was a vegetarian.

In May and June 2013, he was invited to the Film Forum in New York City for a re-release of his film The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, restored by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.

In February 2016, Kotcheff applied for Bulgarian citizenship via the Bulgarian consulate in Los Angeles, and was granted this during a visit to Bulgaria in March.

Death

Kotcheff died from heart failure in Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit, Mexico, on April 10, 2025,

Filmography

Director (Film)

  • Tiara Tahiti (1962)
  • Life at the Top (1965)
  • Two Gentlemen Sharing (1969)
  • Wake in Fright (1971)
  • The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974)
  • Billy Two Hats (1974)
  • Fun with Dick and Jane (1977)
  • Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978)
  • North Dallas Forty (1979)
  • Split Image (1982)
  • First Blood (1982)
  • Uncommon Valor (1983)
  • Joshua Then and Now (1985)
  • Switching Channels (1988)
  • Weekend at Bernie's (1989)
  • Winter People (1989)
  • Folks! (1992)
  • The Shooter (1995)

Director (Television)

  • On Camera (1956) - <small>as W.T. Kotcheff</small>
  • Hour of Mystery (1957)
  • Underground (1958)
  • No Trams to Lime Street (1959)
  • After the Funeral (1960)
  • Lena, O My Lena (1960)
  • I'll Have You Remember (1961)
  • BBC Sunday-Night Play (1962-1963)
  • ITV Television Playhouse (1963)
  • Espionage (1963)
  • Land of My Dreams (1964)
  • First Night (1963–1964)
  • Drama 64 (1964)
  • Armchair Theatre (1958-1964)
  • The Human Voice (1967)
  • The Desperate Hours (1967)
  • Edna, the Inebriate Woman (1971)
  • What Are Families for? (1993)
  • Red Shoe Diaries 3: Another Woman's Lipstick (1993)
  • Love on the Run (1994)
  • A Family of Cops (1995)
  • Red Shoe Diaries 5: Weekend Pass (1995)
  • A Husband, a Wife and a Lover (1996)
  • Borrowed Hearts (1997)
  • Buddy Faro (1998)
  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999-2012)
  • Crime in Connecticut: The Story of Alex Kelly (1999)

Awards and honours

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Year !! Award !! Category !! Film !! Result

|-

| 1971 || Cannes Film Festival || Grand Prix du Festival International du Film || Wake in Fright ||

|-

| 1972 || British Academy Television Awards || Best Drama Production || Play for Today: "Edna, the Inebriate Woman" || rowspan=3

|-

| 1974 || Berlin International Film Festival || Golden Bear || rowspan=2|The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

|-

| 1975 || Canadian Film Awards || Film of the Year

|-

| 1985 || Cannes Film Festival || Palme d'Or || rowspan=2|Joshua Then and Now ||rowspan=4

|-

| 1986 || Genie Awards || Best Director

|-

| 1989 || Deauville Film Festival || Critics Award || Weekend at Bernie's

|-

| 1998 || Gemini Awards || Best TV Movie or Dramatic Mini-Series || Borrowed Hearts

|-

| rowspan="2"|2011 || Directors Guild of Canada || Lifetime Achievement Award || rowspan=2 ||rowspan=2

|-

| Oldenburg International Film Festival || German Independence Honorary Award

|-

| rowspan=2|2014 || Chicago International Film Festival || Gold Hugo for Best Short Film || Fearless ||

|-

| Canadian Screen Awards || Academy Board of Directors' Tribute || ||rowspan=2

|-

| 2018 || 22nd Independent Publisher Book Awards || Performing Arts (Silver) || Director's Cut: My Life in Film

|}

References

  • Canadian Film Encyclopedia
  • Ted Kotcheff's appearances on Combat Radio
  • Article at thecanadianencyclopedia.ca