Ivan Passer (10 July 1933 – 9 January 2020) was a Czech film director and screenwriter, best known for his involvement in the Czechoslovak New Wave and for directing American films such as Born to Win (1971), Cutter’s Way (1981) and Stalin (1992).
Passer was born in Prague, the son of Marianna (Mandelick) and Alois Passer. Passer attended King George boarding school in PodÄ›brady with future filmmakers MiloÅ¡ Forman, Jerzy Skolimowski and Paul Fierlinger and statesman Václav Havel. He then studied at FAMU in Prague, but did not finish the course. He began his career as an assistant director on Ladislav Helge’s Velká samota.
Later he collaborated with his friend Forman on all of Forman’s Czech films, including Loves of a Blonde (1965) and The Firemen’s Ball (1967), both of which Passer co-wrote and which were nominated for Academy Awards. He introduced Forman to cinematographer Miroslav OndÅ™ÃÄek whom he knew from Velká samota. He then directed his first feature, Intimate Lighting, which was released in 1965 and is considered by some to be Passer’s masterpiece.
In 1969, after the Warsaw Pact invasion, Passer and Forman left Czechoslovakia together. Both proceeded to the United States, with Forman becoming an Academy Award-winning filmmaker. Passer went on to make several prominent American films such as Born to Win (1971), a junkie drama starring George Segal and Karen Black, and Cutter’s Way (1981), a dramatic thriller starring Jeff Bridges and John Heard.
Though best known for his idiosyncratic, often gritty dramas, he also directed comedies such as Silver Bears (1978) starring Michael Caine and Creator (1985) starring Peter O’Toole. Later in his career, he directed numerous films for television, most notably the award-winning biopic Stalin (1992) starring Robert Duvall for HBO. He was also a film professor at the University of Southern California.
Passer died on January 9, 2020 from pulmonary complications in Reno, Nevada. He was 86 years old.
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Ivan Passer Biography / Wiki
| Name | Ivan Passer |
| Also Know | I. Passer |
| Gender | Male |
| Known For | Directing |
| Place of Birth | Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic] |
| Date of Birth | 1933-07-10 |
| Age(as in 2022) | 86 |
| Deathday | 2020-01-09 |
Ivan Passer Acting Movies
| Movie Name | Character | Release Date | Overview |
| MiloÅ¡ Forman | Self | 2010-09-06 | … |
| CzechMate: In Search of Jiřà Menzel | Self | 2018-09-16 | An epic exploration of the Czechoslovak New Wave cinema of the 1960s and 70s, structured around a series of conversations with one of its most acclaim… |
| An Occasion to Speak | Self | 1966-09-28 | Documentary about the film academy in Prague and the Czech Film in 1965…. |
| Close Encounters with Vilmos Zsigmond | Self | 2016-05-13 | A very special encounter between legendary American cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and young French director Pierre Filmon. A personal journey with t… |
Ivan Passer Directing Movies
| Movie Name | Job | Release Date | Overview |
| Born to Win | Director | 1971-12-01 | A smart-mouthed junkie and a former hairdresser spends his days looking for just “one more fix”…. |
| Cutter’s Way | Director | 1981-03-19 | Richard spots a man dumping a body, and decides to expose the man he thinks is the culprit with his friend Alex Cutter…. |
| Creator | Director | 1985-09-20 | With the help of student assistant Boris and stolen university equipment, Dr. Harry Wolper plans to clone his dead wife. But then he meets Meli, an eg… |
| Haunted Summer | Director | 1988-12-16 | Authors Lord Byron, Mary Shelley (née Godwin) and Percy Shelley get together for some philosophical discussions, but the situation soon deteriorates … |
| Silver Bears | Director | 1977-06-03 | Financial wizard “Doc” Fletcher is sent by crime boss Joe Fiore to buy a bank in Switzerland in order to more easily launder their profits. When he ar… |
| Nomad: The Warrior | Director | 2005-07-17 | The Nomad is a historical epic set in 18th-century Kazakhstan. The film is a fictionalised account of the youth and coming-of-age of Ablai Khan, as he… |
| A Boring Afternoon | Director | 1965-07-23 | Several parties—a prostitute, aging football players, working girls, two men playing pool, and a hedonistic young man—each coalesce in a tavern…. |
| Fourth Story | Director | 1991-01-19 | Valerie’s husband Darryl leaves for work as usual, but never returns. She hires private eye Shepard to find him. Soon he discovers that David had a se… |
| Stalin | Director | 1992-11-21 | The life and career of the brutal Soviet dictator, Josef Stalin…. |
| Intimate Lighting | Director | 1966-04-08 | Ivan Passer’s film concerns the dreams of two musician friends, one of whom, having left their small hometown to become successful, returns to visit… |
| Kidnapped | Director | 1995-11-05 | When Scottish young gentleman David Balfour’s father dies, he leaves school to collect his inheritance from uncle Ebenezer, who in turn sells the boy … |
| Crime and Passion | Director | 1976-02-06 | Financier persuades his mistress to marry a rich industrialist for his money, then discovers that he and the new wife are to be murdered by her new hu… |
| Law and Disorder | Director | 1974-10-09 | In crime ridden New York of the seventies two cops has had enough. They decide to take justice into their own hands. Things turn exciting and humorous… |
| Picnic | Director | 2000-04-16 | The son of the richest man in town wants to marry the town’s beauty queen, but she meets a more interesting stranger who just got off the train…. |
| The Nightingale | Director | 1983-05-10 | A kitchen maid and a nightingale help save an emperor with the power of song and friendship…. |
| While Justice Sleeps | Director | 1994-01-01 | After the death of her husband, Jody and her daughter Samantha return to her home town. Sometimes she leaves Samantha with her old friend Winn. Only a… |
| Black Peter | First Assistant Director | 1964-04-17 | A few days in the life of a Czechoslovak teenager when he starts work…. |
| Great Solitude | Assistant Director | 1960-01-15 | In southern Moravia, in the native village of Velka Samota, a ministry official returns from Prague to lift the declining JZD he helped establish…. |
| Skid | Assistant Director | 1960-10-28 | Spy film about a man with a face lift who gets recruited by western organisations…. |
| The Pilgrimage to the Holy Virgin | Assistant Director | 1961-05-19 | Farmers get away from their arguments by embarking on a religious pilgrimage, enjoy a picnic en route, and on their return decide to form a cooperativ… |
| When the Cat Comes | First Assistant Director | 1963-09-20 | Some people with a strange cat arrive in a small village. The cat wears glasses, and when someone takes them off, she can color people, according to t… |
| Audition | First Assistant Director | 1964-02-28 | Two closely related episodes. Youths make problems for two local orchestras about to compete nationally, and in a talent competition a young girl gets… |
| Loves of a Blonde | First Assistant Director | 1965-11-12 | Andula, an innocent Czech girl from a factory town, is desperately in search of love. She believes she’s found it when she beds Milda, a charming youn… |
| The Wishing Tree | Director | 1999-01-01 | When her storyteller mother (Mary Alice) dies, attorney Clara Collier (Alfre Woodard) returns to her Georgia hometown and is soon captivated by a loca… |
Writing
| Movie Name | Job | Release Date | Overview |
| Born to Win | Writer | 1971-12-01 | A smart-mouthed junkie and a former hairdresser spends his days looking for just “one more fix”…. |
| Law and Disorder | Screenplay | 1974-10-09 | In crime ridden New York of the seventies two cops has had enough. They decide to take justice into their own hands. Things turn exciting and humorous… |
| A Boring Afternoon | Screenplay | 1965-07-23 | Several parties—a prostitute, aging football players, working girls, two men playing pool, and a hedonistic young man—each coalesce in a tavern…. |
| Audition | Story | 1964-02-28 | Two closely related episodes. Youths make problems for two local orchestras about to compete nationally, and in a talent competition a young girl gets… |
| Audition | Screenplay | 1964-02-28 | Two closely related episodes. Youths make problems for two local orchestras about to compete nationally, and in a talent competition a young girl gets… |
| Intimate Lighting | Story | 1966-04-08 | Ivan Passer’s film concerns the dreams of two musician friends, one of whom, having left their small hometown to become successful, returns to visit… |
| Intimate Lighting | Screenplay | 1966-04-08 | Ivan Passer’s film concerns the dreams of two musician friends, one of whom, having left their small hometown to become successful, returns to visit… |
| Loves of a Blonde | Story | 1965-11-12 | Andula, an innocent Czech girl from a factory town, is desperately in search of love. She believes she’s found it when she beds Milda, a charming youn… |
| Loves of a Blonde | Screenplay | 1965-11-12 | Andula, an innocent Czech girl from a factory town, is desperately in search of love. She believes she’s found it when she beds Milda, a charming youn… |
| Crime and Passion | Adaptation | 1976-02-06 | Financier persuades his mistress to marry a rich industrialist for his money, then discovers that he and the new wife are to be murdered by her new hu… |
| The Firemen’s Ball | Story | 1967-12-15 | The firemen of a provincial Czechoslovakian town throw a ball in honor of the old chief’s retirement. There will be music and dancing, a beauty pagean… |
| The Firemen’s Ball | Screenplay | 1967-12-15 | The firemen of a provincial Czechoslovakian town throw a ball in honor of the old chief’s retirement. There will be music and dancing, a beauty pagean… |
Credit: TMDB
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