An Italian director and screenwriter of Greek origins, he was born into a Greek family in Florence, Italy, and grew up in Egypt and Cyprus. He studied cinema at the London Film Academy in the United Kingdom and became an assistant to director Otto Preminger during the films Exodus (1960) and Zorba the Greek (1964). He also directed the British adventure film Escape to Athena (1979). He directed the second part of Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and Leviathan (1989) before he died in British Columbia, Canada, at the age of sixty-four years.