Miloš Forman, filmmaker who defied conventions, dies at 86

Miloš Forman, the Czech-born filmmaker who directed classics such as 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' and 'Amadeus,' has died in the United States at the age of 86. Orphaned at 12 after his father died in Buchenwald and his mother at Auschwitz, Forman grew up in Czechoslovakia, where he was born in 1932. He studied at the Film School of Prague, influenced by Chaplin and Buster Keaton. He emigrated to the US in the early 1970s. His 1975 film 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' won five major Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture. The film starred Jack Nicholson, who became an icon. Forman's 1984 film 'Amadeus' won eight Oscars, with costumes by Theodore Pistek. His 1979 film 'Hair' became an archetype of the hippie musical. Other notable works include 'Ragtime,' 'Larry Flynt,' 'Man on the Moon,' and 'The Last Inquisitor' (2006). Forman also acted in films such as 'Les Bien-aimés' (2011). He stopped directing due to a degenerative eye disease.