George P. Cosmatos

Who was George P. Cosmatos?

George Pan Cosmatos was a Greek/Italian film director. After studying film at the London Film School, he became assistant director to Otto Preminger on Exodus, Leon Uris's epic about the birth of Israel. Thereafter he worked on Zorba the Greek, 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 with Marcello Mastroianni and The Cassandra Crossing with Sophia Loren. In 1979, he made the successful World War II adventure movie Escape to Athena, starring a gigantic all star cast including Roger Moore, David Niven, Telly Savalas, Elliott Gould and Claudia Cardinale. Cosmatos was nominated for a 1985 Golden Raspberry Award for his role as director of the box-office hit 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.