20 Movie Talents We Lost In 2017

Director John G. Avildsen is best known as the Academy Award winning director behind 1976’s classic underdog movie Rocky and later returned to direct its not so critically acclaimed fourth sequel Rocky V in 1990.

Avildsen was also the director behind Oscar nominated documentary short Travelling Hopefully about American Civil Liberties Union co-founder Roger Nash Baldwin and the first three films in another classic underdog comes good franchise, Karate Kid.

Early in his career he received critical acclaim for Joe (1970), which starred Susan Sarandon in her debut film role, and Save the Tiger (1973) for which star Jack Lemmon received the Academy Award for Best Actor.