Alvin Rakoff
| Alvin Rakoff | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 18, 1927  Canada |
| Occupation | Director |
| Spouse | Jacqueline Hill (1958 – 1993) (her death) |
| Partner | Sally Hughes |
| Children | 2 children |
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 high profile television plays, as well as a dozen feature films and numerous stage productions. Among other awards, he was twice winner of the International Emmy Award, for A Voyage Round My Father, starring Laurence Olivier, and Call Me Daddy, starring Donald Pleasence.
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[edit] Early life
His mother came from Rovno in Ukraine. His father from Voronezh in Russia. His parents met in Toronto. He is the third of seven children. His parents had a shop in what is now known as Kensington Market. After graduation from 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 then invited him to join their television directors' training course. At 26 years old he became the youngest producer/director in the BBC drama department. And decided to continue his career in England.
[edit] Career
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. 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 (Mervyn Johns, Sidney Tafler, etc.) 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 1962 the BBC asked him to produce/direct its entry for the European-wide The Largest Theatre In The World written by Terence Rattigan and called Heart to Heart (Kenneth More, Ralph Richardson, Wendy Craig, Jean Marsh, Peter Sallis, etc.). He was selected to direct plays filling the first three Sunday night drama slots (The Seekers) when BBC 2 began broadcasting in 1964. He won his first Emmy award in 1967 for Call Me Daddy (Donald Pleasence) and 15 years later won it again for A Voyage Round My Father (Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates, Jane Asher) which he produced and directed. His 1972 production of The Adventures Of Don Quixote (Rex Harrison, Frank Finlay) achieved international praise.[citation needed] In 1997 he produced/co-directed the award-winning A Dance To The Music Of Time (John Gielgud, Simon Russel Beale, Miranda Richardson).
His films include On Friday At Eleven (a.k.a. The World In My Pocket in the U.S.) starring Rod Steiger; Say Hello To Yesterday, which he also wrote, featured Jean Simmons, Leonard Whiting; Hoffman starred Peter Sellers; City On Fire, which he co-wrote, starred Henry Fonda, Ava Gardner, Shelley Winters, etc.
A BBC adaptation in 1953 of Irwin Shaw novel The Troubled Air was his first major writing assignment for television. In 1958 he adapted, directed, produced Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny Court Martial. A number of other television and film screenplays followed. In 2002 he wrote Too Marvelous For Words, the story of lyricist Johnny Mercer presented at The Mill Theatre, Sonning and King's Head Theatre, London.
He has written two novels. His first, & Gillian, was translated into ten languages. His second, Baldwin Street, based on his early days in Toronto, was published in 2008.
His theatre work ranges from Hamlet at Bristol Old Vic to Charity Cruise performance at Royal Albert Hall before Her Majesty the Queen and continues with his association with The Mill Theatre, Sonning, e.g. Separate Tables (Anthony Valentine).
In 2010 he directed A Sentimental Journey, the story of Doris Day, at Wilton's Music Hall, London.
He is a former president of the Directors Guild of Great Britain.
[edit] Personal life
Alvin Rakoff married his frequent leading lady actress Jacqueline Hill (Requiem For A Heavyweight, Three Empty Rooms, etc.) in 1958. She died in 1993. He has two children — Dr. Sasha Rakoff, a charity executive, and John D. Rakoff, a writer; and four grandchildren. He has been in a long term relationship with Sally Hughes, Managing Director of The Mill Theatre, Sonning.
[edit] Filmography
- Feature films (director)
| Year | Film | Cast |
|---|---|---|
| 1960 | On Friday At Eleven | Rod Steiger |
| 1966 | Money Go Round | |
| 1968 | Crossplot | Roger Moore |
| 1969 | Hoffman | Peter Sellers |
| 1970 | Say Hello to Yesterday | Jean Simmons, Leonard Whiting |
| 1979 | City on Fire | Henry Fonda, Ava Gardner, Shelley Winters |
| 1980 | Dirty Tricks | Elliot 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 |
| 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 | |
| 1955 | The Legend of Pepito | Sam Wanamaker, Jacqueline Hill |
| 1956 | The Reclining Figure | Donald Wolfit |
| 1956 | For the Defence | |
| 1956 | The Condemned | Andre 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) | |
| 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 | 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 Elliot, Warren Mitchell |
| 1962 | Heart to Heart by Terence Rattigan | 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, Phylis 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 | Donald Pleasence |
| 1968 | Murder | |
| 1971 | A Kiss is Just a Kiss | row 2, cell 3 |
| 1971 | Summer and Smoke | Lee Remick |
| 1972 | Blur & Blank via Cleckheaton | |
| 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 | In Praise of Love | Kenneth More, Claire Bloom |
| 1975 | The October Crisis | |
| 1975 | Lulu Street | |
| 1975 | The Liberty Tree | Jeremy Irons |
| 1976 | The Killers | |
| 1976 | Mrs Amsworth | Glynis Johns |
| 1976 | The Promise | |
| 1976 | The Dame Of Sark | Celia Johnson |
| 1977 | The Kitchen | Peter Egan, Sinead 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 | |
| 1992 | The Best Of Friends | John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Patrick McGoohan |
| 1997 | A Dance to the Music of Time | Miranda Richardson, Simon Russel Beale, Alan Bennet, John Gielgud |
- Writing (television, films, books)
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| The Troubled Air | 1953 | adaptor (TV) |
| A Flight of Fancy | 1953 | Writer (TV) |
| Our Town | 1953 | adaptor (TV) |
| The Caine Mutiny Court Martial | 1958 | adaptor (TV) |
| Say Hello To Yesterday | 1970 | Writer (Film) |
| A Man About Dog | 1973 | Adaptor (TV) |
| Shadow Of A Gunman | 1973 | adaptor (TV) |
| City On Fire | 1978 | Co-Writer (Film) |
| Sam Saturday | 1991/1992 | Creator (TV series) |
| & Gillian | 1996 | (Novel) |
| Too Marvelous For Words | 2001/2 | Writer (Musical) |
| Baldwin Street | 2008 | (Novel, Bunim & Bannigan, New York) |
- 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 as well as directed by Alvin Rakoff) 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. The World's first stage adaptation of the famous crime novel. Adapted with his son John D. Rakoff.
