This director's most successful work spotlighted the triumph of the underdog and demonstrated a keen skill at manipulating audience emotion. John G Avildsen is perhaps best known for his Oscar-winning direction of "Rocky" (1976) and the similar "The Karate Kid" (1984) and its sequels. Early in his career, though, he worked as a production manager, assistant director and cinematographer before graduating to the director's chair in the late 1960s. Avildsen's early output included the sly, often overlooked sex comedy, "Guess What We Learned in School Today?" (1970) and the souped-up portrait of