Miloš Forman

Director & actor · born 18 February 1932 · Čáslav, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]

Jan Tomáš "Miloš" Forman (/ˈmiːloʊʃ/; Czech: [ˈmɪloʃ ˈforman]; February 18, 1932 – April 13, 2018) was a Czech and American film director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the United States in 1968.

Forman was an important figure in the Czechoslovak New Wave. Film scholars and Czechoslovak authorities saw his 1967 film The Firemen's Ball as a biting satire on Eastern European Communism. The film was initially shown in theatres in his home country in the more reformist atmosphere of the Prague Spring. However, it was later banned by the Communist government after the invasion by the Warsaw Pact countries in 1968. Forman was subsequently forced to leave Czechoslovakia for the United States, where he continued making films, gaining wider critical and financial success. In 1975, he directed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) starring Jack Nicholson as a patient in a mental institution. The film received widespread acclaim, and was the second in history to win all five major Academy Awards: Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor in Leading Role, and Actress in Leading Role.

Where to start: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).