Oscar-winning director Forman dies at 86

[April 14, 2018]    PRAGUE (Reuters) - Milos Forman, the Czech-born movie director who found fame in Hollywood with the Oscar-winning classics "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Amadeus," has died at the age of 86, Czech news agency CTK reported on Saturday.

Czech director Milos Forman attends the opening ceremony of the 44th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary July 3, 2009. REUTERS/David W Cerny/File photo

Forman died on Friday in the United States after a short illness, his wife, Martina, told CTK.

"His departure was calm and he was surrounded the whole time by his family and his closest friends," she said.

Forman was born in the Czech town of Caslav on Feb. 18, 1932, but moved to the United States after the Communist crackdown on the "Prague Spring" uprising in 1968. He became a U.S. citizen in the 1970s.

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," in which a psychiatric institution becomes a microcosm of the contemporary world, and "Amadeus," the life of 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart through the eyes of his rival Antonio Salieri, earned 13 Oscars between them, including those for best director to Forman.

His other notable work included the rock musical "Hair" in 1979, "Ragtime" in 1981 and "The People vs Larry Flint" in 1996, which was nominated for an Academy Award that year.

(Reporting by Jason Hovet; editing by Angus MacSwan)

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