Alvin Rakoff obit

Alvin Rakoff Dies: Veteran Canadian Filmmaker Was 97; Judi Dench & Stephen Fry Share Tributes 

 

He was not on the list.

Alvin Rakoff, the veteran Canadian filmmaker best known for pics like the 1982 feature A Voyage Round My Father starring Laurence Olivier, died in Chiswick, London, October 12 surrounded by his family. He was 97.

Rakoff’s former personal agent confirmed the news with Deadline this morning.

Born on on February 6, 1927, in Toronto Rakoff was the third of seven children. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a psychology degree, Rakoff spent time as a news reporter. His first job as a writer was with the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), which later sponsored Rakoff to visit the UK. Within days of arriving, he sold his first fiction script to the BBC. He was soon invited to join the BBC’s director’s training course and, the following year at the age of twenty-six, Rakoff became the youngest producer/director in the BBC drama department.

As Rakoff once recalled: “I trained at the BBC as a director-producer. In those days, the two roles were combined. And the BBC insisted that trainees be knowledgeable in all forms of television. I worked on horse shows, cricket matches, variety, stand-up, big bands, small bands… Perhaps that’s why it seemed logical in later productions to use different techniques.”

Waiting For Gillian (1954) was one of Rakoff’s first productions. It was a play that had failed on the stage but drew acclaim on TV. The adaptation later won a National Television Award for Best Play and transferred to Paris where it was performed live in French. Rakoff won his first Emmy Award for Call Me Daddy (1967), starring Donald Pleasance and Judy Cornwell. The production later transferred to the big screen where it was re-titled Hoffman (1970) and starred Peter Sellers and Sinead Cusack.

Rakoff, however, is perhaps best known for the 1982 drama A Voyage Round My Father, which starred Laurence Olivier. Written by John Mortimer and co-starring Alan Bates and Jane Asher, the pic won Rakoff his second Emmy. Rakoff and Olivier later collaborated on two further projects, Mr. Halpern and Mr. Johnson and A Talent for Murder.

Over the years, Rakoff worked with performers such as 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, Roger Moore, Stephen Rea, Miranda Richardson, Jean Simmons, Rod Steiger, Sam Wanamaker, and Shelley Winters.

In a statement shared with Deadline, Stephen Fry described Rakoff as a “giant of film, theatre and TV.”

“His Midas touch with spotting and fostering talent introduced the world to some of the last century’s greatest stars. Typically he was working on a screenplay right up to the last,” Fry said.

Judi Dench added: “I have such wonderful memories of Alvin – both being directed by him and seeing him at The Mill. A very endearing person.”

Rakoff is survived by Sally Hughes, his wife of 30 years and Managing Director of The Mill at Sonning Theatre alongside two children from his first marriage to the late Jacqueline Hill (d. 1993). Rakoff has five grandchildren and one surviving sibling, his sister Lorraine, a retired interior designer who still lives in Toronto.

Rakoff was also the former President of the Directors Guild.

Filmography

Feature films (director)

Year     Film            Cast

1958            Passport to Shame            Eddie Constantine

1959    The Treasure of San Teresa  Eddie Constantine

1961    World in My Pocket            Rod Steiger

1964    The Comedy Man            Kenneth More

1969            Crossplot         Roger Moore, Claudie Lange, Francis Matthews, Gabrielle Drake, Bernard Lee

1970            Hoffman          Peter Sellers, Sinead Cusack

1971    Say Hello to Yesterday            Jean Simmons, Leonard Whiting

1979    City on Fire      Henry Fonda, Ava Gardner, Shelley Winters

1979    King Solomon's Treasure            David McCallum, Patrick Macnee, Britt Ekland

1980    Death Ship     George Kennedy, Richard Crenna, Nick Mancuso

1981    Dirty Tricks   Elliott Gould

Television (director)

Year     Title            Cast

1953    Holiday Girl            Mantovani Orchestra

1953            Starlight          

1953    A Place of Execution    

1953    Strictly Personal          

1953    The Emperor Jones by Eugene O'Neill

1954    Willie the Squouse     

1954    The Lover   Diana Wynyard

1954    Waiting for Gillian            Patrick Barr, Anne Crawford (National Television Award)

1955    Waiting for Gillian (French TV version form Paris, re-titled Un Chemin Dans La Nuit)  

1954    The Face of Love            Peter Cushing, Mary Morris, George Rose

1954    Return to the River      

1954    The Good Partners 

1954    Tyrant's Tower 

1954            Teckman Biography by Francis Durbridge        

1955    Three Empty Rooms by Reginald Rose            Jacqueline Hill

1955    The New Executive

1955    The Hole in the Wall     Mervyn Johns, Sidney Tafler

1955            Thunder in the Realm (Canada)         

1955    The Legend of Pepito  Sam Wanamaker, Jacqueline Hill

1956    The Reclining Figure            Donald Wolfit

1956    For the Defence           

1956    The Condemned            André Morell, Sean Connery

1956    Epitaph            Trevor Howard, Leo McKern

1956    The Seat of the Scornful            Basil Sydney, Finlay Currie, Jacqueline Hill

1956    No Man's Land            Alec McCowen

1957    Dial 999 (series, 4 episodes)         

1957    The Staring Match  

1957            Requiem for a Heavyweight            Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Warren Mitchell

1957    Our Town   Heather Sears

1958    The Caine Mutiny Court Martial   

1958            Breakdown      Nigel Davenport, Roger Livesey

1958    Man in the Corner       

1959    Velvet Alley    Sam Wanamaker, Jacqueline Hill

1959    The Ransom of Red Chief (USA)            William Bendix, Hans Conreid

1959    The Dark Side of the Earth          

1960    The Leather Jungle            Freddie Mills, Neil McCallum

1960    A Town Has Turned to Dust            Rod Steiger

1960    Come In Razor Red            Richard Harris

1961    Joker's Justice  Dan Massey, Leo McKern

1961    The Room by Harold Pinter   

1961    A Reason for Staying            Anthony Quayle, Denholm Elliott, Warren Mitchell

1962    Heart to Heart by Terence Rattigan ("The Largest Theatre in the World", European Union television drama entry)            Kenneth More, Ralph Richardson, Wendy Craig, Jean Marsh

1962    A Quiet Game of Cards            Bernard Braden

1962    Call Me Back            Alec McCowen

1963    The Remarkable Incident at Carsons Corners           

1964    The Seekers            Michael Bryant

1964    The Blackpool Trilogy  Julia Foster, Nicola Pagett

1965    Court Martial (series)            Peter Graves, Bradford Dillman

1966    You'll Know Me by the Stars in My Eyes     Jane Asher, Nigel Patrick, Phyllis Calvert

1966    The Move After Checkmate            Michael Crawford

1966    The Sweet War Man            Kenneth More

1967    The Girl       Joss Ackland, Brenda Bruce

1967    The Man Who Understood Women            Jane Asher

1967    Call Me Daddy (Emmy Award)            Donald Pleasence

1968    Murder            Peter Egan

1971    A Kiss Is Just a Kiss            Keir Dullea

1971            Summer and Smoke            Lee Remick

1972    Blur & Blank via Cleckheaton            Denholm Elliott

1972    A Man About a Dog   

1972    The Adventures of Don Quixote            Rex Harrison, Frank Finlay, Rosemary Leach

1973            Shadow of a Gunman            Stephen Rea

1973            Harlequinade   

1974    Cheap in August            Leo McKern, Virginia McKenna

1974    Jan & Tony, "Rooms"

1974    How to Impeach A President (USA) 

1974    A Brisk Dip Sagaciously Considered      

1974    Shall We Have a King? (USA)   

1975            Husband to Mrs Fitzherbert            Nicholas Jones

1975    The Nicest Man in the World            Celia Johnson

1975    The October Crisis (Canada)         

1975    Lulu Street (Canada)         

1975    The Liberty Tree            Jeremy Irons, Julian Fellowes

1976    The Killers 

1976    In Praise of Love            Kenneth More, Claire Bloom

1976    Mrs Amsworth            Glynis Johns

1976    The Promise           

1976    The Dame Of Sark            Celia Johnson, Peter Dyneley

1977    The Kitchen            Peter Egan, Sinéad Cusack

1978    Romeo & Juliet Alan Rickman, Celia Johnson, Michael Hordern, Jacqueline Hill

1980    The Quiet Days of Mrs Stafford            Susan Littler

1981    The Breadwinner            Michael Gambon

1982    Disraeli            Richard Pasco

1982    A Voyage Round My Father            Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates, Jane Asher

1983            Firework For Elspeth            Fiona Shaw

1983    Mr Halpern & Mr Johnson            Laurence Olivier, Jackie Gleason

1983    A Talent for Murder            Laurence Olivier, Angela Lansbury

1984    The First Olympics, Athens 1896            Angela Lansbury, Louis Jordan, David Caruso

1985            Paradise Postponed            Zoe Wanamaker, David Threlfall, Michael Hordern, etc.

1989            Haunting Harmony      

1990    Gas & Candles           

1991/1992            Sam Saturday            Ivan Kaye

1992    The Best Of Friends            John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Patrick McGoohan

1997    A Dance to the Music of Time            Miranda Richardson, Simon Russell Beale, Alan Bennett, John Gielgud

Writing (television, films, books)

Year     Title            Role

1953    The Troubled Air            adaptor (TV)

1953    A Flight of Fancy            writer (TV)

1953    Our Town   adaptor (TV)

1954    Waiting for Gillian            co-adaptor (TV)

1958    The Caine Mutiny Court Martial            adaptor (TV)

1970    Say Hello To Yesterday            writer (film)

1973    A Man About Dog            adaptor (TV)

1973            Shadow Of A Gunman            adaptor (TV)

1978    City On Fire      co-writer (film)

1991/92            Sam Saturday            creator (TV series)

1996    & Gillian   (novel, Little Brown)

2001/02            Too Marvelous For Words  writer (musical)

2008            Baldwin Street            (novel, Bunim & Bannigan, New York)

2012    The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler            (stage adaptation)

2014    The Seven Einsteins            (novel, Author House)

Theatre credits (director)

1965 - Hamlet, Bristol Old Vic

(Richard Pasco, Barbara Leigh Hunt, Margaret Courtney, etc.)

 

1982 - Celia Johnson Theatre fund, Aldwych Theatre

(Ralph Richardson, Jeremy Irons, Richard Briers, etc.)

 

1984 - Cruise Charity, Albert Hall

(Richard Briers, John Gielgud, Penelope Keith, Wayne Sleep, etc.)

 

1995 – Stage Struck by Simon Gray, The Mill at Sonning

(Nicholas Jones)

 

2001-2002 – Too Marvelous For Words: The Story of Lyricist Johnny Mercer

(written and directed) The Mill at Sonning

 

2002 – Too Marvelous For Words, King's Head Theatre, London

2004 – I Remember You by Bernard Slade, The Mill at Sonning

2005 – Separate Tables by Terence Rattigan, The Mill at Sonning

(Anthony Valentine, Glynis Barber)

 

2007 – Same Time Next Year by Bernard Slade, The Mill at Sonning

(Steven Pacey, Shona Lindsay)

 

2009 – A Sentimental Journey, The Story of Doris Day. The Mill at Sonning

(Sally Hughes, Glyn Kerslake)

 

2010 – A Sentimental Journey, The Story of Doris Day. Wilton's, London

2011 - The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. Adapted with his son John D. Rakoff.

2011 - A Sentimental Journey, The Story of Doris Day - Edinburgh Festival; The Mill at Sonning; El Portal Theater, Los Angeles.