Person in history
Ted Kotcheff
Ted Kotcheff, Canadian film and television director (born 1931)
Life at a glance
- Died
- 2025 · April 10
Their story
Who they were
Personal life Kotcheff lived in Beverly Hills with his wife Laifun ( nee Chung). They had two children: Alexandra, a filmmaker, and Thomas , a composer and pianist. He had three children from his previous marriage to actress Sylvia Kay : Aaron, Katrina and Joshua. [ citation needed ] Ted Kotcheff was a vegetarian. [ 1 ] In May and June 2013, he was invited to the Film Forum in New York City for a re-release of his film The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz ,
William Theodore Kotcheff was a Canadian director and producer of film, television, and theatre. He worked at various times in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He was known for having directed such films as the seminal Australian New Wave picture Wake in Fright (1971), the Mordecai Richler adaptations The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974) and Joshua Then and Now (1985), the original Rambo film First Blood (1982), and the comedies Fun with Dick and Jane (1977), North Dallas Forty (1979),
Early life
Early life William Theodore Kotcheff [ 1 ] was born in Toronto in 1931, into a family of Bulgarian immigrants . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ] His father was born in Plovdiv , and his mother was of Macedonian Bulgarian background, from a Vambel , Ottoman Empire (present-day Greece ), but grew up in Varna, Bulgaria . [ 11 ] The family's original surname was 'Tsochev' (Bulgarian: Цочев ),
Path and career
Career This section needs more citations . Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . Find sources:   "Ted Kotcheff"  –  news   · newspapers   · books   · scholar   · JSTOR ( August 2025 ) ( Learn how and when to remove this message ) Canadian television Kotcheff began his television career at the age of twenty-four when he joined the staff of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ,
Why this date
Ted Kotcheff appears on our April 10 calendar for 2025 as a death entry.
Sources
Cite this page
“Ted Kotcheff”, What's On This Date, https://whatsonthisdate.com/app/people/ted-kotcheff, accessed October 28, 2026.
Cite the underlying source as well — the source links above go to the record this entry is adapted from.
Questions about Ted Kotcheff
When did Ted Kotcheff die?
April 10 2025.
Who else was born on this day?
The date page lists everyone we hold for that calendar day.
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