Alvin Rakoff
| Alvin Rakoff | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 18, 1927 Canada |
| Occupation | Director |
| Spouse(s) |
Jacqueline Hill (1958–93) (her death) Sally Hughes (2013–present) |
| Children | Sasha Rakoff John D. Rakoff |
Alvin Rakoff (born February 18, 1927) is a Canadian film and television director who has spent the bulk of his career in England and directed more than 100 television plays, as well as a dozen feature films and numerous stage productions. Among other awards, he is twice winner of the International Emmy Award, for A Voyage Round My Father, starring Laurence Olivier, and Call Me Daddy, starring Donald Pleasence.
His mother came from Rovno in Ukraine, his father was from Voronezh in Russia. His parents met in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is the third of seven children. His parents had a shop in what is now known as Kensington Market. After graduation from the University of Toronto he became a journalist and then began writing for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's nascent television. He was seconded by the CBC to visit "the country where TV first started, England". Days after arriving he sold a script to the British Broadcasting Corporation, at the time the only television broadcaster in the UK. The BBC subsequently invited him to join their television directors' training course. At 26 years of age he became the youngest producer/director in the BBC drama department. He decided to continue his career in England.
A BBC adaptation in 1953 of the Irwin Shaw novel The Troubled Air was his first major writing assignment for television. In 1954 his production of Waiting For Gillian won the Daily Mail's National TV Award with actors Patrick Barr and Anne Crawford also honoured. He subsequently recreated this production in French for transmission throughout France. In 1955 on the night commercial TV first appeared in the UK he was asked by the BBC to offer the main opposition, The Hole In The Wall with Mervyn Johns and Sidney Tafler of which The Times wrote: "Mr Rakoff who seems to be a master of this medium." In his 1957 production Requiem for a Heavyweight he lifted an unknown actor, Sean Connery, from the ranks of walk-ons and gave Connery his first leading role. Also in this production was a young Michael Caine. In 1958 for the BBC Rakoff adapted, directed, produced Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny Court Martial.
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