Canadian director Ted Kotcheff, known for First Blood and Weekend at Bernie's, dead at 94

Chris Iorfida · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 11, 2025 5:12 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 infinitesimal ago

Canadian Ted Kotcheff, whose six-decade vocation arsenic movie and tv manager included helming the archetypal instalments of 2 deed movie franchises successful the 1980s, has died astatine property 94, his girl confirmed to The Canadian Press.

During his vocation Kotcheff directed stars specified arsenic Jane Fonda, Burt Reynolds, Gregory Peck and Kathleen Turner, landing Hollywood jobs aft years spent directing productions in Britain, Australia and Israel. In Canada, helium directed 2 adaptations of novels by his erstwhile roommate Mordecai Richler — The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and Joshua Then and Now, some of which won home movie awards.

But helium was champion known for his enactment successful the 1980s. He directed 1982's First Blood, the archetypal of what would beryllium 5 question pictures featuring troubled Vietnam vet John Rambo, and 7 years aboriginal was down the lens for the improbable deed Weekend astatine Bernie's, which saw 2 hapless underlings cart astir the dormant assemblage of their brag arsenic enactment guests carried connected unawares.

"No substance what portion of the satellite I question to, determination are 2 films of excavation that seemingly everyone has seen: First Blood and Weekend astatine Bernie's," helium wrote successful his 2017 memoir, Director's Cut: My Life successful Film.