Milos Forman Dies At 86: Celebrities, Fans React To ‘Amadeus’ Director’s Death

Screenwriter, actor, professor, and Oscar-winning director for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Amadeus,” Milos Forman died at the age of 86, his representative Dennis Aspland confirmed.

Forman was born in Caslav, Czech Republic, in February 1932. His father was a member of a resistance group against the Nazi occupation. Later, both his parents died in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

In his biography, Forman wrote, “My parents were real patriots, and that was probably the reason why they died. Not until much later, when I was suddenly far from my homeland and its culture, far away from my family, when I was cut away from the land of my childhood, I realized I shared this strong feeling of affection for my country with them.”

As soon as the news of his death was confirmed, numerous fans paid tributes to him on social media and thanked him for his contribution to the world of cinema.

According to a report in CNN, Forman was always fascinated with the world of theatre and he also founded his own amateur theatre group in the 1950s, eventually also studying direction at the Prague Film Academy.

However, it was during the 1960s that Forman became a well-recognized film director for “Loves of a Blonde” and “The Firemen’s Ball,” both of which were also nominated for the Oscars in the best foreign film category.

It was in the year 1968 that he moved to the United States from what was then Czechoslovakia after Warsaw Pact troops invaded the country to pound on the “Prague Spring.”

In the U.S., Forman rose to fame after he directed Hollywood classic “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” a film adaption of a Ken Kesey novel.

The film, which starred Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher, won five Oscars, including best picture and best director and went on to become the second film in history to win the top five Academy Award categories.

Reports stated Forman made the film even after his friends continuously advised him against it saying the story was too American for a foreign director.

"I explained I wanted to make the film because to me it was not just literature but real life, the life I lived in Czechoslovakia from my birth in 1932 until 1968. The Communist Party was my Nurse Ratched, telling me what I could and could not do; what I was or was not allowed to say; where I was and was not allowed to go; even who I was and was not,” he told the Directors Guild of America.

However, that wasn’t the end of it as Forman went on to win his second Oscar for the 1984 Hollywood film “Amadeus,” a biopic of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

For his contribution to Hollywood cinema, Forman was also awarded the Directors Guild of America’s (DGA) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013 for motion picture direction.

"No matter what subject or genre he tackles, Miloš finds the universality of the human experience in every story, allowing us – his rapt audience – to recognize ourselves within the struggle for free expression and self-determination that Miloš so aptly portrays on the silver screen," former DGA President Taylor Hackford had said.