Sydney Pollack

Early life

Pollack was born in Lafayette, Indiana, to a family of Jewish immigrants, the son of Rebecca (née Miller) and David Pollack, a semi-professional boxer and pharmacist. The family relocated to South Bend, and his parents divorced when he was young. His mother, who suffered from alcoholism and emotional problems, died at age 37, when Pollack was 16.

Despite earlier plans to attend college and then medical school, Pollack left Indiana for New York City soon after finishing high school at 17. From 1952 to 1954 he studied acting with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, working on a lumber truck between terms.

Pollack was drafted for two years' army service as a truck driver at Fort Carson, Colorado, ending in 1958. He returned to the Playhouse at Meisner's invitation to become his assistant. In 1960, John Frankenheimer, a friend of Pollack's, asked him to work in Los Angeles as a dialogue coach for the child actors in Frankenheimer's first big movie, The Young Savages. During this time Pollack met Burt Lancaster, who encouraged him to try directing.

Career

Pollack played a director in the 1960 The Twilight Zone episode "The Trouble with Templeton". He made his feature film debut as an actor in Denis Sanders's War Hunt (1962), where he met Robert Redford, the male lead in seven films Pollack directed.

Pollack first found success in television in the 1960s by directing episodes of series, such as The Fugitive and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. After that he directed a string of movies that drew public attention. His directorial debut was The Slender Thread (1965). Pollack's films received 48 Academy Award nominations and won 11 Oscars. His first Oscar nomination was for his 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, and his second in 1982 for Tootsie. For his 1985 film Out of Africa, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, Pollack won Academy Awards for directing and producing.

During his career, he directed 12 actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Jane Fonda, Gig Young, Susannah York, Barbra Streisand, Paul Newman, Melinda Dillon, Jessica Lange, Dustin Hoffman, Teri Garr, Meryl Streep, Klaus Maria Brandauer, and Holly Hunter. Young and Lange won Oscars for their performances in Pollack's films.

In 1984, Pollack helped found the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, becoming co-chairman.

One of a select group of non- and/or former actors awarded membership in the Actors Studio, Pollack resumed acting in the 1990s with appearances in Robert Altman's The Player (1992) and Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999), often playing corrupt or morally conflicted power figures. As a character actor, he appeared in films such as A Civil Action, and Changing Lanes, as well as his own, including Random Hearts and The Interpreter (the latter also his final non-documentary film as a director). He also appeared in Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives as a New York lawyer undergoing a midlife crisis, and in Robert Zemeckis's Death Becomes Her as an emergency room doctor. His last role was as Patrick Dempsey's father in the 2008 romantic comedy Made of Honor, which was in theaters at the time of his death. He was a recurring guest star on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, playing Will Truman's (Eric McCormack) unfaithful but loving father, George. He also appeared on NBC's Just Shoot Me and Mad About You and in 2007 made guest appearances on HBO's The Sopranos and Entourage.

Pollack received the first annual Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking award from the Austin Film Festival on October 21, 2006. As a producer he helped guide many films that were successful with both critics and audiences, such as The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Michael Clayton, a film in which he also starred and for which he received his sixth Academy Award nomination, in the Best Picture category. Pollack and the English director Anthony Minghella formed the production company Mirage Enterprises. The last film they produced together, The Reader, earned them both posthumous Oscar nominations for Best Picture. Pollack was also nominated for five Primetime Emmys, earning two: one for directing in 1966 and another for producing, which was given four months after his death in 2008.

The moving image collection of Sydney Pollack is housed at the Academy Film Archive.

Influences

In the 2002 Sight & Sound Directors' Poll, Pollack listed his top ten films in alphabetical order:

• Casablanca (1943)
• Citizen Kane (1941)
• The Conformist (1970)
• The Godfather Part II (1974)
• Grand Illusion (1937)
• The Leopard (1963)
• Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
• Raging Bull (1980)
• The Seventh Seal (1957)
• Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Personal life and death

Pollack was married to Claire Bradley Griswold, a former student of his, from 1958 until his death in 2008. They had three children.

Concerns about Pollack's health surfaced in 2007, when he withdrew from directing HBO's television film Recount, which aired on May 25, 2008. He died from cancer the next day at his home in Los Angeles's Pacific Palisades neighborhood, aged 73. stomach, or of unknown primary origin.

Filmography

Film

Directing and producing

As executive producer

• Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret (1985)
• The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)
• King Ralph (1991)
• Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)
• Sense and Sensibility (1995)
• The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
• Iris (2001)
• Birthday Girl (2001)
• The Quiet American (2002)
• Leatherheads (2008)
• Recount (2008) As producer only
• Songwriter (1984)
• Bright Lights, Big City (1988)
• Presumed Innocent (1990)
• Sliding Doors (1998)
• Cold Mountain (2003)
• Breaking and Entering (2006)
• Michael Clayton (2007)
• The Reader (2008)
• Margaret (2011)

Acting roles

Television

Acting roles

Awards and nominations

Directed Academy Award Performances

References

References

1. (October 4, 2014). "The 58th Academy Awards | 1986".
2. MacNab, Geoffrey. (August 14, 2002). "The secret of my success?". [[The Guardian]].
3. McLellan, Dennis. (May 27, 2008). "Sydney Pollack: 1934–2008, Prolific director known for A-list casts". [[SFGate]].
4. Macnab, Geoffrey. (May 28, 2008). "Sydney Pollack, film director revered by stars, dies aged 73". [[The Independent]].
5. Trott, Walt. (June 18, 1973). "From the S&S archives: Sydney Pollock: A man for the stars". Stars and Stripes.
6. (May 28, 2008). "Obituary: Sydney Pollack". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
7. "About".
8. Thompson, Anne. (April 17, 1986). "Filmex: Will Jerry Weintraub save it or destroy it?". [[LA Weekly]].
9. Garfield, David. (1980). "A Player's Place: The Story of The Actors Studio". MacMillan.
10. "Sydney Pollack Collection".
11. "2002 Top Ten Poll — How the directors and critics voted: Sydney Pollack".
12. Cieply, Michael. (May 27, 2008). "Sydney Pollack, Film Director, Is Dead at 73". [[The New York Times]].
13. Clark, Mike. (May 26, 2008). "Remembering Sydney Pollack, an actor's director". [[USA Today]].
14. King, Susan. (May 28, 2008). "Pollack's way with actors". [[Los Angeles Times]].
15. Stern, Marlow. (October 16, 2017). "When Harvey Weinstein Tormented a Legendary Director on His Deathbed". [[The Daily Beast]].
16. Gorman, Steve. (May 26, 2008). "Sydney Pollack dies in Los Angeles". [[Reuters]].