MILOŠ FORMAN

(18 February 1932 - 13 April 2018)

Czechoslovakian film director, writer and actor Miloš Forman, who has died age 86, following a short illness, had international success in the mid-1960s with his quirky Czech comedies A Blonde in Love and The Fireman’s Ball. Both were nominated for Academy Awards. When his country was invaded in 1968 he fled to the US and was embraced by Hollywood and eventually became a naturalised American citizen. His Cannes festival winner, Taking Off (1971), was a satire on American parents trying to understand their kids by getting stoned. Between 1975 and 2006 he made One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (five Oscars and a Bafta), Hair, Ragtime (eight Oscar nominations), Amadeus (eight Oscar wins), Valmont, The People vs Larry Flint (two Oscar nominations), Man on the Moon and Goya’s Ghosts. Forman’s last film was the Czech musical A Walk Worthwhile in 2009. He was married three times and had four children.

MICHAEL DARVELL