Alvin Rakoff (born Abraham Rakoff; 6 February 1927 – 12 October 2024) was a Canadian director of theatre, film, and television.
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Early life and education
The son of Jewish emigrants from the Russian Empire, Rakoff was born in Toronto born on 6 February 1927. He was the third of seven children of Pearl (nee Isenberg) and Samuel Rakoff, who had a shop in Kensington Market. When Rakoff was 16, after facing antisemitism, he changed his first name to Alvin, inspired by Alvin York and the film Sergeant York.
After graduation from the University of Toronto, he became a journalist and began writing for the CBC's nascent television service, where Sydney Newman was head of the drama department. In 1952, he moved to London, England to work at the BBC.
Career
A BBC adaptation in 1953 of the Irwin Shaw novel The Troubled Air was his first major writing assignment for television. In 1954, his production of Waiting For Gillian won the Daily Mail's National TV Award with actors Patrick Barr and Anne Crawford also honoured. He later recreated this production in French for transmission throughout France.
In 1962, the BBC asked Rakoff to produce/direct its entry for the European-wide 'The Largest Theatre In The World' written especially for the occasion by Terence Rattigan and called Heart to Heart, with Kenneth More and Ralph Richardson. In 1964, when the new channel BBC 2 was launched Rakoff was selected to direct plays filling the first three Sunday-night drama slots (The Seekers). He won his first Emmy Award in 1967 for Call Me Daddy, which had featured Donald Pleasence, and 15 years later won it again for A Voyage Round My Father (Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates, and Jane Asher took the leads) which he produced and directed.
Rakoff's writing included Too Marvellous For Words, the story of lyricist Johnny Mercer presented at The Mill Theatre, Sonning, and King's Head Theatre, London. He had written three novels. His first, & Gillian, a romantic novel, was translated into 10 languages. His second, Baldwin Street, based on his early days in his parents' shop in Toronto, was published in 2008. The Seven Einsteins, a third novel, is a genetic thriller published in 2014. An adaptation of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep was produced in 2012.
Rakoff's theatre work ranged from Hamlet at Bristol Old Vic to a Charity Cruise performance at the Royal Albert Hall before Her Majesty the Queen, and continued with his association with The Mill Theatre, Sonning, directing productions of Separate Tables with Anthony Valentine and his own adaptation of Chandler's The Big Sleep.
In 2010, Rakoff directed A Sentimental Journey, the story of Doris Day, at Wilton's Music Hall, London, and subsequently (2012) El Portal Theatre, Hollywood.
Rakoff was also a president of the Directors Guild of Great Britain.
He worked with actors including Laurence Olivier, Peter Sellers, Sean Connery, Judi Dench, Rex Harrison, Rod Steiger, Henry Fonda and Ava Gardner.
Rakoff awarded Sean Connery his first leading role, and gave Alan Rickman his first job when he was a drama student. Other actors he worked with early in their careers include Michael Crawford, Jeremy Irons, and Michael Caine.
Death
Rakoff died at his home in Chiswick, London on 12 October 2024, aged 97.