| George Pan Cosmatos | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 January 1941 Florence, Italy |
| Died | 19 April 2005 (aged 64) Victoria, Canada |
| Occupation | Director |
| Years active | 1960–1997 |
George Pan Cosmatos (4 January 1941 in Florence, Italy – 19 April 2005 in Victoria, Canada) was a Greek/Italian film director. After studying film in London, he became assistant director to Otto Preminger on Exodus (1960), Leon Uris's epic about the birth of Israel. Thereafter he worked on Zorba the Greek (1964), in which Cosmatos had a small part as Boy with Acne. Cosmatos grew up in Egypt and Cyprus and is said to have spoken six languages. He was famous in Italy for the movies Rappresaglia (1973) with Marcello Mastroianni and The Cassandra Crossing (1976) with Sophia Loren. In 1979, he made the famous and successful World War II adventure movie Escape to Athena, starring a gigantic all star cast including Roger Moore, David Niven, Telly Savalas, Elliot Gould and Claudia Cardinale. Cosmatos was nominated for a 1985 Golden Raspberry Award for his role as director of Rambo: First Blood Part II starring Sylvester Stallone. He also directed another Stallone vehicle, Cobra, in 1986.
Late in his career, Cosmatos received more praise for Tombstone, a 1993 Western movie about Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. This film was particularly praised for the exceptional performance of Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday. After his death it has been claimed by Tombstone star Kurt Russell that Cosmatos had ghost-directed the movie on Russell's behalf [1]. But anyone that knew Cosmatos well or worked with him in the past would find this hard to believe, as he was famous for having the stereotypical controlling and domineering personality of Hollywood directors. Sylvester Stallone recommended Cosmatos to writer Kevin Jarre after the departure of the first director.
Survived by one son, George P. Cosmatos died of lung cancer on 19 April 2005 at his home in Victoria, British Columbia he was 64.
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