Director Milos Forman, who won Academy Awards for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Amadeus," died Friday in the United States after a short illness, according to the Hollywood Reporter. He was 86.
Forman, a native of Czechoslovakia, won an Oscar for “Cuckoo’s Nest,” the 1975 film that was adapted from the 1962 novel by Ken Kesey and starred Jack Nicholson. The film won five Academy Awards, including best picture, best actor, best actress, director and adapted screenplay.
Forman picked up another Oscar for the 1984 film “Amadeus,” which won eight awards, including best picture and director.
Forman earned his final Oscar nomination for the 1996 film, “The People vs. Larry Flynt,” a drama about Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt. In 1999, he directed “Man on the Moon,” a film about comedian Andy Kaufman.
He was born Jan Tomas Forman on Feb. 18, 1932, in Caslav, a town outside of Prague, Czechoslovakia, according to the Hollywood Reporter. His parents were killed in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, and he spent much of his youth in a boarding school for war orphans.
Forman became an American citizen in 1975, continued his success in 1979 with “Hair” and in 1981 with “Ragtime,” which was nominated for eight Oscars.
He married Martina Zborilova, his third wife, in 1999.
