Many european film directors have gone to Hollywood hoping to make their mark in the American film industry, but few have had as much success there as the Czech - born film director Milos Forman. Forman was born in 1932 in Caslav, in what is today the Czech Republic. his father, who was Jewish, and his mother were arrested by the Nazis during the occupation of Czechoslovakia during the Second World War. Milos never saw his parents again: they both died in concentration camps, leaving him an orphan at the age of 12. Milos and his brother were brought up by one of their uncles.