Oscar-winning filmmaker Milos Forman has passed away aged 86, his agent Dennis Aspland has revealed.
Born in Caslav, Czechoslovakia in 1932, Forman emerged as one of he leading figures of the Czechoslovak New Wave during the late 1950s and early 1960s, where his credits included Loves of a Blonde (1964) and The Fireman’s Ball (1967), both of which were nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.
Forman made his Hollywood debut with 1971’s Taking Off, which received the Grand Priz at the Cannes Film Festival but was critically panned and failed at the box office.
After struggling to find further work in the U.S., he was eventually hired by producers Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz to direct their 1975 adaptation of Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The film was a huge success, earning nine Oscar nominations and winning five – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Actress.
Forman would also receive the Best Director Oscar for 1985’s Amadeus (another Best Picture winner), as well as a further nomination for 1996’s The People vs. Larry Flynt. His other movies included Hair (1979), Ragtime (1981), Valmont (1989), Man on the Moon (1999) and Goya’s Ghosts (2006), the latter of which proved to be his final directorial offering.
