'First Blood,' 'Weekend at Bernie's' director Ted Kotcheff dies
by Fred Topel · UPIApril 11 (UPI) -- Film and television director Ted Kotcheff died Thursday. His family confirmed the death on Friday to the The Globe and Mail and CBC.
His son Thomas said his father died of natural causes at age 94.
Kotcheff's career ranged from action movies like First Blood, the first Rambo film, and Uncommon Valor, and comedies like Weekend at Bernie's, in which two insurance employees puppet their dead boss around a beach resort.
Other popular movies include The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, the original Fun with Dick and Jane and the football drama North Dallas Forty. His 1971 Australian thriller Wake in Fright had a re-release in 2014.
He began his career at the Canadian Broadcasting Company directing live television and later directed British television and West End Theater in London.
Kotcheff would return to television in the '90s and '00s, including several episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. SVU star Mariska Hargitay wrote the forward to Kotcheff's 2017 memoir Director's Cut: My Life in Film.
Notable deaths of 2025
Matt Stevens
Safety Matt Stevens intercepts a tipped pass during an NFL game on January 8, 2000. Stevens, who played for the Buffalo Bills, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, Houston Texans and the New England Patriots where he won a Super Bowl in 2022, died at the age of 51 on March 20. Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo