Veteran Canadian filmmaker and producer Alvin Rakoff, best known for directing Laurence Olivier in A Voyage Round My Father, is no more. He passed away at the age of 97. The cause of death was “old age,” his agent told Variety. He died on October 12 at home, surrounded by his family. Donald Sutherland Dies at 88: From Films, Awards to Activism During the Vietnam War Era, All You Need to Know About The Hunger Games Star.
Over a career spanning more than four decades, which began when television was still only available in black-and-white, Rakoff was involved in over 100 television, film and stage productions as well as writing novels. According to his representatives, he was still working into his ’90s. Rakoff was the third of seven children born to Sam and Pearl Rakoff in Toronto in 1927. His parents owned a dry goods shop, but the director grew up in poverty after the Great Depression hit in 1929. He would later recount the experience in his novel Baldwin Street.
After seeing his first film in a theatre at the age of 6, his love of film and television was ignited. He went on to graduate with a degree in psychology from the University of Toronto before becoming a journalist. But it was watching Marlon Brando in a stage production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire that changed the course of his life. After leaving the play, Rakoff vowed to build a career in show business. Donald Sutherland Dies at 88; Son Kiefer Sutherland Informs Fans of The Hunger Games Star’s Demise Through an Emotional Post.
He went to work for the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) as a writer, which sent him to the U.K. when he was 25.