Forman was born in Caslav, Czechoslovakia and was orphaned at a very young age as his parents died at the concentration camp in Auschwitz. Later on he studied film direction and the School of Cinema in Prague. He directed several Czechoslovakian comedies before leaving for the United States in 1968 after the Warsaw Pact invasion of his country.
In spite of initial difficulties he started directing in his new home country, achieving his first success with the adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1974, which won five Academy Awards including one for direction.
Notable works