Alvin Rakoff, Director of Laurence Olivier’s ‘Voyage Round My Father,’ Dies at 97
Alvin Rakoff, the Canadian-born filmmaker who directed Laurence Olivier in A Voyage Round My Father, has died. He was 97.
His death was confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter by his longtime publicist, Nick Pourgourides. He passed away on Oct. 12 surrounded by family at home in Chiswick, a neighborhood in London.
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Rakoff as a writer, director and producer of over 100 TV, film and stage productions, as well as novels, directed Olivier and co-stars Alan Bates and Jane Asher in the 1982 TV drama A Voyage Round My Father, a film written by John Mortimer and which earned the director his second Emmy Award.
Alvin and Olivier also worked together on Mr. Halpern and Mr. Johnson and A Talent for Murder, both shot in 1983. The two-time Emmy Award winner also gave a young Sean Connery his first leading role in the 1957 film Requiem for a Heavyweight, and Alan Rickman as a young actor was chosen by Rakoff for his first major role in Romeo & Juliet (1978).
Other young talent he worked with in Britain included Michael Crawford, Simon Russell Beale, Fiona Shaw, Judi Dench, David Threlfall and Michael Caine.
Rakoff was born in Toronto on Feb. 6, 1927, and was the third of seven children for his father, Sam, and his mother, Pearl, who ran a dry goods shop on Baldwin Street.
His childhood just after the Great Depression was later recalled in Rakoff’s second novel, Baldwin Street. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a psychology degree, and secured work as a reporter which, while honing his writing skills, did not offer a steady income.
While helping save his family business, Rakoff during a weekend trip to New York City saw Marlon Brando on stage in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. That stage play spurred Rakoff to his first job in the entertainment industry as as a writer for the Canadian Broadcasting Company, Canada’s public broadcaster.
But looking to direct, Rakoff in 1952 sailed to the U.K. and soon sold his first script to the BBC, the British public broadcaster. And he landed a job as the youngest producer and director in the BBC drama department.
Among his first films as a director was Waiting for Gillian in 1954, and in 1957 he directed a young Sean Connery in Requiem for a Heavyweight. That film also cast an unknown Michael Caine as a background boxer.
A few years later, Rakoff got a telephone call from Harry Saltzman and Albert R. ‘Cubby’ Broccoli and recommended Connery for the part of James Bond in their film franchise. In 1962, the BBC chose Rakoff to direct and produce Heart to Heart, written by Terence Rattigan and starring Kenneth More, Ralph Richardson and Wendy Craig.
He won his first Emmy award for Call Med Daddy, a 1967 TV film that starred Donald Pleasance and Judy Cornwell. In 1973, Rakoff directed The Adventures of Don Quioxte, starring Rex Harrison and Frank Finlay.
Other international talent Rakoff worked with included Peter Cushing, Denholm Elliot, Julian Fellows, Henry Fonda, Edward Fox, Michael Gambon, Ava Gardner, John Gielgud, Elliott Gould, Richard Harris, Michael Horden, Trevor Howard, Celia Johnson, George Kennedy, Angela Lansbury, Patrick McGoohan, and Roger Moore.
Rakoff is survived by his wife of 30 years, Sally Hughes, and and two children from his first marriage to the late Jacqueline Hill: Sasha Rakoff and John Rakoff, a film producer.
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