Milos Forman

Miloš Forman, born as Jan Tomáš Forman was a prolific Czech-American film director, screenwriter, actor, and professor whose work gained international acknowledgment. He was born on 18 February 1932 in Čáslav, Czechoslovakia and passed away on 13 April 2018. Forman rose to stardom in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the United States in 1968. Throughout his lustrous career, he won several awards such as two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Golden Bear, a César Award, and the Czech Lion. Forman was instrumental in the Czechoslovak New Wave. His 1967 film, The Firemen's Ball, was perceived as a satiric critique on Eastern European Communism. The film was initially aired in his home country during the more reformist atmosphere of the Prague Spring. However, it was later banned after the invasion by Warsaw Pact countries in 1968, forcing Forman to leave Czechoslovakia for the United States. Forman directed multiple notable films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Amadeus (1984), and Man on the Moon (1999). Forman's early life was marred by the brutal loss of both parents during the Nazi occupation. Raised by two uncles and family friends, he wanted to become a theatrical producer in his youth. He later discovered that his biological father was a Jewish architect, Otto Kohn, who survived the Holocaust. Forman moved to the United States during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in summer 1968 where he continued making films.