John Guilbert Avildsen was an American film director. He is perhaps best known for directing Rocky, which earned him the Academy Award for Best Director. Other films he directed include Joe, Save the Tiger, The Formula, Neighbors, Lean on Me, Rocky V, 8 Seconds, and the first three The Karate Kid films.
After starting out as an assistant director on films by Arthur Penn and Otto Preminger, Avildsen's early low-budget feature Joe received good notices for star Peter Boyle and moderate box-office business. Avildsen's first success came with the low-budget 1971 cult classiccomedy filmCry Uncle!, a 1971 American film in the Troma Entertainment library that stars Allen Garfield. This was followed by Save the Tiger, a film nominated for three Oscars, winning Best Actor for star Jack Lemmon. Both Joe and Save the Tiger were about losers, but as the 1970s continued, Avildsen shifted to people who went on to be victorious. His greatest success was Rocky, which he directed working in conjunction with writer and star Sylvester Stallone. The film was a major critical and commercial success, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1976 and garnering ten Academy Award nominations and winning three, including Best Picture and Best Director. Avildsen later returned to direct what was then expected to be the series' final installment, Rocky V.. He directed the mystery-drama The Formula, starring Marlon Brando and George C. Scott, for which he was nominated for Razzie Award for Worst Director. Avildsen's other films include Neighbors, For Keeps, Lean on Me, The Power of One, 8 Seconds and the first three The Karate Kid films. He was the original director for both Serpico and Saturday Night Fever, but was fired over disputes with, respectively, producers Martin Bregman and Robert Stigwood. His last film was Inferno, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. A documentary on the life, career and films of Avildsen was released in August 2017. John G. Avildsen: King of the Underdogs, directed and produced by Derek Wayne Johnson, features interviews with Sylvester Stallone, Ralph Macchio, Martin Scorsese, Jerry Weintraub, and Burt Reynolds, among others. The documentary is a companion to the book The Films of John G. Avildsen: Rocky, The Karate Kid, and other Underdogs, written by Larry Powell and Tom Garrett.
Avildsen's first wife was Marie Olga Maturevich. After they divorced, he married actress Tracy Brooks Swope in 1987; they separated in 2006. He had five children. His estranged son Ash, founded Sumerian Records. Another son, Jonathan Avildsen, appeared in the films The Karate Kid Part III and Rocky V. His eldest son was named Anthony and he had a daughter Penelope Avildsen. John also had a daughter with Tracy Swope, Bridget.
