Rakoff's mother came from Rovno in Ukraine; his father was from Voronezh in Russia. His parents, secular Jews, met in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is the third of seven children. His parents had a shop in Kensington Market. After graduation from the University of Toronto, he became a journalist and began writing for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's nascent television service. He was seconded by the CBC to visit "the country where TV first started - England". Days after arriving he sold a script to the British Broadcasting Corporation, at the time the only television broadcaster in the UK. The BBC subsequently invited him to join their television directors' training course. At 26 years of age, he became the youngest producer/director in the BBC drama department. He became a resident in the United Kingdom through working extensively worldwide.
When Rakoff was 16, he changed his first name from Abraham to Alvin, inspired by Alvin York and the film Sergeant York.[5]
Wilton House acted as location for Inns of Court during shooting of A Voyage Round My Father (1982). Laurence Olivier with his feet up taking a break with assistant director Shirley Cleghorn looking on.
A BBC adaptation in 1953 of the Irwin Shaw novel The Troubled Air was his first major writing assignment for television. In 1954, his production of Waiting For Gillian won the Daily Mail's National TV Award with actors Patrick Barr and Anne Crawford also honoured. He later recreated this production in French for transmission throughout France. In 1955, on the night commercial TV first appeared in the UK he was asked by the BBC to offer the main opposition, The Hole In The Wall with Mervyn Johns and Sidney Tafler, of which The Times wrote: "Mr. Rakoff who seems to be a master of this medium".[citation needed]
In 1962, the BBC asked Rakoff to produce/direct its entry for the European-wide 'The Largest Theatre In The World' written especially for the occasion by Terence Rattigan and called Heart to Heart, with Kenneth More and Ralph Richardson. In 1964, when the new channel BBC 2 was launched Rakoff was selected to direct plays filling the first three Sunday-night drama slots (The Seekers). He won his first Emmy Award in 1967 for Call Me Daddy, which had featured Donald Pleasence, and 15 years later won it again for A Voyage Round My Father (Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates, and Jane Asher took the leads) which he produced and directed.
Rakoff's writing includes Too Marvellous For Words, the story of lyricist Johnny Mercer presented at The Mill Theatre, Sonning, and King's Head Theatre, London. He has written three novels. His first, & Gillian, a romantic odyssey, was translated into 10 languages. His second, Baldwin Street, based on his early days in his parents' shop in Toronto, was published in 2008. The Seven Einsteins, a third novel, is a genetic thriller published in 2014. A successful adaptation of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep was produced in 2012. Currently[when?], Rakoff is developing and writing An Act of Love for Orchard Films Ltd.
In 2010, Rakoff directed A Sentimental Journey, the story of Doris Day, at Wilton's Music Hall, London, and subsequently (2012) El Portal Theatre, Hollywood.
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