Ted Kotcheff, 'First Blood' and 'Weekend at Bernie's' director, dies at 94

Prolific Canadian-born filmmaker Ted Kotcheff, who directed the films “First Blood,” “Weekend astatine Bernie’s,” “Wake successful Fright,” “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz,” “Fun With Dick and Jane” and “North Dallas Forty,” successful summation to a agelong tally arsenic an enforcement shaper connected “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” has died. He was 94.

Kotcheff’s girl Kate Kotcheff said via email that helium died peacefully portion nether sedation Thursday nighttime successful a infirmary successful Nuevo Nayarit, Mexico.

In a 1975 interrogation with The Times, Kotcheff said, “The consciousness of being extracurricular of the mainstream of the assemblage has ever attracted me. All my pictures woody with radical extracurricular oregon radical who don’t cognize what’s driving them.”

Sylvester Stallone arsenic John Rambo successful 1982’s “First Blood,” directed by Ted Kotcheff.

(CBS Photo Archive / CBS via Getty Images)

Born successful Toronto connected April 7, 1931, to Bulgarian immigrants, Kotcheff began moving successful tv successful the aboriginal 1950s. He aboriginal moved to the U.K., directing for some signifier and TV. In 1971, helium directed “Wake successful Fright” successful Australia, which a Times reappraisal upon its 2012 rerelease called, “raw, unsettling and mesmerizing.”

Returning to Canada successful the aboriginal 1970s, Kotcheff directed 1974’s adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz” starring Richard Dreyfuss. It won the apical prize astatine the Berlin Film Festival and earned writer Lionel Chetwynd an Academy Award information for adapted screenplay.

Kotcheff recovered immense occurrence successful Hollywood with 1982’s “First Blood,” which introduced the traumatized Vietnam seasoned John Rambo, played by Sylvester Stallone.

Reviewing “First Blood,” Times professional Sheila Benson wrote, “this convulsive and disturbing movie is exceptionally good made.” She added, “If it is imaginable to dislike and respect a movie successful astir adjacent measure, past ‘First Blood’ would triumph connected that divided ticket. … Kotcheff has seared truthful galore lingering examples of exultant nihilism into our brains that words to the contrary are truthful overmuch sop. It’s action, not words, that makes ‘First Blood’ run, and the enactment is frightening, indeed.”

Andrew McCarthy, left, and Jonathan Silverman successful a country from Ted Kotcheff’s “Weekend astatine Bernie‘s” (1989).

(Phil Caruso / 20th Century Fox)

If “First Blood” tapped into the despair and anxiousness of post-Vietnam America, 1989’s “Weekend astatine Bernie’s” became an improbable taste touchstone for its carefree, freewheeling playfulness, displaying Kotcheff’s versatility.

The movie follows 2 ambitious young men (played by Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman) who make a bid of elaborate ruses implicit the people of a hectic play to beryllium that their sketchy brag (Terry Kiser) really isn’t dead. In a reappraisal of “Bernie’s,” Times professional Kevin Thomas wrote that, “a play among the rich, the jaded and the corrupt is conscionable the close cupful of beverage for an acerb societal satirist specified arsenic Kotcheff,” besides noting the filmmaker’s tiny cameo successful the movie arsenic begetter to 1 of the young men.

Eventually Kotcheff returned to television, moving for much than 10 years and connected astir 300 episodes of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”

In 2011, Kotcheff received a beingness accomplishment grant from the Directors Guild of Canada. He published a memoir, “Director’s Cut: My Life successful Film,” successful 2017.

Kotcheff is survived by his wife, Laifun Chung, and children Kate and Thomas Kotcheff. He is predeceased by his archetypal wife, histrion Sylvia Kay, with whom helium had 3 children.