Canadian director Alvin Rakoff dead at 97
Esteemed Canadian director Alvin Rakoff, who played a vital role in Sean Connery and Alan Rickman becoming stars, has died aged 97.
Although Rakoff was Canadian, it was the United Kingdom that he called home, and where he built his career in the film industry. He passed away surrounded by his family in Chiswick, London, according to his personal assistant. However, at this stage, no cause of death has been confirmed for Rakoff.
After graduating from the University of Toronto, Rakoff received his first break by securing a role as a writer at the CBC in Canada. After his time at CBC, Rakoff gambled by taking a visit to the United Kingdom which changed his trajectory.
Within a short period of his arrival to Britain, Rakoff made an impression on the BBC who quickly snapped up the rights to his first fiction script. He then began training at the BBC, and aged 26, became a producer and director for the broadcaster’s drama department.
Notably, in 1957, Rakoff handed Sean Connery his first leading man role for the televised adaptation of Requiem for a Heavyweight. At the time, Connery was an unknown in the British entertainment industry, and the opportunity brought him to the attention of many for the first time. Michael Caine also appeared in the production.
Rakoff won an Emmy Award in 1967 for his televised drama Call Me Daddy, which starred Donald Pleasence in the leading role.
Other notable actors handed an important break by Rakoff’s televised dramas include the late Alan Rickman, who starred in the Canadian’s 1978 adaptation of Romeo & Juliet for the BBC. Furthermore, Rickman’s Harry Potter co-star Michael Gambon appeared in 1981’s The Breadwinner. Laurence Olivier also starred in three of Rakoff’s productions.
His final television series, A Dance to the Music of Time, aired on the BBC in 1997 and featured Miranda Richardson opposite Alan Bennett.
“A giant of film, theatre and TV”
Tributes have already begun to pour in for Rakoff from iconic figures in British cinema. Stephen Fry remarked: “Alvin Rakoff was 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.”
Meanwhile, Dame Judi Dench stated: “I have such wonderful memories of Alvin – both being directed by him and seeing him at The Mill. A very endearing person.”
During an interview with The Times in 2023, Rakoff reflected on his career, and said his best investment was selling his car for $1,600 to facilitate his move to the UK. “This thing called television was coming along, that nobody knew anything about, so I wrote something for CBC Television. I wanted to direct, but they said: ‘Forget about directing. Go to England. Go see what they’re doing. Learn what you can, and bring it back here to us,” he recalled.
Despite Rakoff’s fears that he’d “never get a job because the BBC didn’t hire foreigners”, he landed on his feet, recalling, “Within four days I was on Children’s Hour talking about Canadian national parks. In 1953 I had my first major BBC assignment, adapting the Irwin Shaw novel The Troubled Air. Then Michael Barry [former BBC head of drama] got me on to the directing course. He was my mentor and ally, and completely responsible for my career. Without him, I wouldn’t be here.”
Rakoff is survived by his wife, Sally Hughes, who he married in 2013.
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