Sydney Pollack

Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack, 2006
Born	Sydney Irwin Pollack July 1, 1934(1934-07-01) Lafayette, Indiana, U.S.
Died	May 26, 2008(2008-05-26) (aged 73) Pacific Palisades, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor Producer Director
Years active	1965–2008
Spouse	Claire Griswold (1958–2008)

Sydney Irwin Pollack (July 1, 1934 — May 26, 2008) was an American film director, producer and actor. Born in Lafayette, Indiana to Russian Jewish immigrants, Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting. He began directing television shows in the 1960s before moving to films.

Pollack directed more than 21 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 films or shows, and produced over 44 films. Some of his best known works include Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Way We Were (1973), Three Days of the Condor (1975) and Absence of Malice (1981). His 1985 film Out of Africa won him Academy Awards for directing and producing; he was also nominated for Best Director Oscars for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and Tootsie, in the last of which he also appeared. His later films included Havana (1990), The Firm (1993), Sabrina (1995), and The Interpreter (2005).

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Influences 3 Personal life and death 4 Filmography 4.1 Directing and producing 4.2 Film and television 5 References 6 External links

Early life

Sydney Pollack was born in Lafayette, Indiana, to a family of Jewish immigrants from Russia,^[1] the son of Rebecca (née Miller) and David Pollack, a semi-professional boxer and pharmacist.^[1] The family relocated to South Bend and his parents divorced when he was young. His mother, an alcoholic with emotional problems, died at the age of 37 while Pollack was a student.^[2]

Despite earlier plans to attend college and then medical school, Pollack left Indiana for New York City soon after finishing high school at age 17.^[3] Pollack studied acting with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse from 1952 to 1954, working on a lumber truck between terms.^[3] After two years' army service until 1958, he returned to the Playhouse at Meisner’s invitation to become his assistant.^[4] In 1960, John Frankenheimer, a friend of Pollack's, asked him to come to Los Angeles in order to work as a dialogue coach for the child actors on Frankenheimer's first big picture, The Young Savages. It was during this time that Pollack met Burt Lancaster who encouraged the young actor to try directing.^[4]

Career

Pollack found initial success in television in the 1960s by directing episodes of series such as The Fugitive and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. His film directing debut was 1965's The Slender Thread, starring Sidney Poitier and Anne Bancroft.^[2] Over time, Pollack's films received a total of 48 Academy Award nominations, winning 11 Oscars. His first Oscar nomination was for his 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?. He was nominated a second time 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 different 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. Only Young and Lange won Oscars for their performances in one of Pollack's films.

His rows with star Dustin Hoffman during the filming of Tootsie became well known. Eventually Hoffman began pushing the idea that Pollack play the role of his agent, and Pollack reluctantly agreed despite not having had any film roles in 20 years. Their off-screen relationship added authenticity to their scenes in the movie, most of which feature them arguing. Pollack subsequently took on more acting roles in addition to producing and directing. He appeared as himself in the Documentary One Six Right, describing his joy of owning and piloting his Citation X jet aircraft.

He resumed his acting career with appearances in such films as The Player (1992) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999), often playing corrupt or morally conflicted power figures. As a character actor, Pollack appeared in films such as A Civil Action, and Changing Lanes, as well as his own, including Random Hearts and The Interpreter. He also appeared in Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives as a New York lawyer undergoing a midlife crisis, and in Robert Zemeckis' 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 playing in theaters at the time of his death. He had a recurring guest star role on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, playing Will Truman's (Eric McCormack) unfaithful but loving father, George Truman. In 2007, Pollack made guest appearances on the HBO TV series The Sopranos and Entourage in addition to earlier appearances on NBC's Just Shoot Me and Mad About You.

Pollack received the first annual Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking award from the Austin Film Festival on October 21, 2006. As a producer he helped to guide many films that were successful with both critics and movie audiences, such as The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Michael Clayton, a film in which he also starred opposite George Clooney, and for which he received his sixth Academy Award nomination, in the Best Picture category. He formed a production company called Mirage Enterprises with the English director Anthony Minghella. The last film they produced together, The Reader, earned them both posthumous Oscar nominations for Best Picture.

Influences

In the 2002 Sight and Sound Directors' Poll, Pollack revealed his top-ten films: Casablanca, Citizen Kane, The Conformist, The Godfather Part II, Grand Illusion, The Leopard, Once Upon a Time in America, Raging Bull, The Seventh Seal, and Sunset Boulevard.^[5]

Personal life and death

Pollack was married to Claire Griswold, a former student of his, from 1958 until his death. They had three children: Rachel, Rebecca, and Steven Pollack. Steven Pollack died in a plane crash in 1993.^[6][7] Sydney's brother Bernie Pollack is a costume designer, producer, and actor.

Concerns about Pollack's health had surfaced in 2007 when suddenly he stepped out of directing HBO's television film Recount.^[8] The film aired on May 25, 2008. Pollack died the next day of stomach cancer at his home in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, surrounded by family.^[6][9] His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered along the runway at the Van Nuys Airport in Van Nuys, California.

Filmography

Directing and producing

Year	Film	Role(s)	Academy Award Wins	Academy Award Nominations
1965	The Slender Thread	Director		2
1966	This Property Is Condemned	Director
1968	The Scalphunters	Director
	The Swimmer	Director
1969	Castle Keep	Director
	They Shoot Horses, Don't They?	Director	1	9
1972	Jeremiah Johnson	Director
1973	The Way We Were	Director	2	6
1975	Three Days of the Condor	Director		1
	The Yakuza	Director, Producer
1977	Bobby Deerfield	Director, Producer
1979	The Electric Horseman	Director		1
1981	Absence of Malice	Director		3
1982	Tootsie	Director, Producer	1	10
1985	Out of Africa	Director, Producer	7	11
	Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret	Executive Producer
1988	Bright Lights, Big City	Producer
1989	The Fabulous Baker Boys	Executive Producer		4
1990	Havana	Director		1
	Presumed Innocent	Producer
1993	The Firm	Director, Producer		2
	Searching for Bobby Fischer	Executive Producer		1
1995	Sabrina	Director, Producer		2
	Sense and Sensibility	Executive Producer	1	7
1998	Sliding Doors	Producer
1999	Random Hearts	Director
	The Talented Mr. Ripley	Executive Producer		5
2001	Iris	Executive Producer	1	3
2002	The Quiet American	Executive Producer		1
2003	Cold Mountain	Producer	1	7
2005	Sketches of Frank Gehry	Director, Executive Producer
	The Interpreter	Director
2006	Breaking and Entering	Producer
2007	Michael Clayton	Producer, Actor	1	7
2008	Recount	Executive Producer	NA	NA
	Leatherheads	Executive Producer
	The Reader	Producer	1	5
2009	Margaret	Producer	-	-
TBA	The Amulet of Samarkand	Producer[10]

Film and television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1956	The Kaiser Aluminum Hour	Shuber	Episode: "The Army Game"
1959	Playhouse 90	Andres	Episodes: "For Whom the Bell Tolls: Part 1" and " For Whom the Bell Tolls: Part 2"
	The United States Steel Hour	Benson	Episode: "The Case of Julia Walton"
	Armstrong Circle Theatre	Albert Rousseau	Episode: "35 Rue Du Marche"
	Startime	Harry	Episode: "Something Special"
1959–1964	Brenner	Detective Al Dunn	Episodes: "Family Man" "Good Friend" "Point of Law"
1960	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Bernie Samuelson	Episode: "The Contest for Aaron Gold"
	Twilight Zone	Arthur Willis	Episode: "The Trouble With Templeton"
1961	Have Gun - Will Travel	Joe Gulp	Episodes: "Quiet Night in Town: Part 1" and "Quiet Night in Town: Part 2"
	The Deputy	Chuck Johnson	Episode: "Spoken in Silence"
	The Asphalt Jungle	Louie	Episode: "The Professor"
1961, 1962	The New Breed	Austin Rogers/Bert Masters	Episodes: "The Compulsion to Confess" and "Walk This Street Lightly"
1962	Ben Casey		Episode: "Monument to an Aged Hunter"
	War Hunt	Sgt. Owen Van Horn
1979	The Electric Horseman	Man who makes pass at Alice	uncredited
1982	Tootsie	George Fields
1992	The Player	Dick Mellon
	Death Becomes Her	ER Doctor	uncredited
	Husbands and Wives	Jack
1994	Frasier	Holden Thorpe	Episode: "The Candidate"
1998	Mad About You	Dr. Sydney Warren	Episode: "Cheating on Sheila"
	A Civil Action	Al Eustis
1999	Eyes Wide Shut	Victor Ziegler
	Random Hearts	Carl Broman
2000	Just Shoot Me!	Sydney Pollack	Episode: "A&E Biography: Nina Van Horn"
	King of the Hill	Grant Trimble	Voice Episode: "Transnational Amusements Presents: Peggy's Magic Sex Feet"
2000–2006	Will & Grace	George Truman	Episodes: "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, He's Kept Me in the Closet and I'm So Sad" "Cheaters" "Cheatin' Trouble Blues" "Blanket Apology"
2001	The Majestic	Studio Executive	Voice
2002	Changing Lanes	Stephen Delano
2005	The Interpreter	Earl Leemus
2006	Fauteuils d'orchestre	Brian Sobinski
	American Masters	Narrator	Episode: "John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend"
2007	The Sopranos	Warren Feldman	Episode: "Stage 5"
	Michael Clayton	Marty Bach
2008	Made of Honor	Thomas Bailey Sr.

References

External links

• Sydney Pollack at the Internet Movie Database
• Detailed biography of Sydney Pollack
• An appreciation by Charlie Rose Show, May 28, 2009

Academy Award for Best Director Warren Beatty (1981) · Richard Attenborough (1982) · James L. Brooks (1983) · Miloš Forman (1984) · Sydney Pollack (1985) · Oliver Stone (1986) · Bernardo Bertolucci (1987) · Barry Levinson (1988) · Oliver Stone (1989) · Kevin Costner (1990) · Jonathan Demme (1991) · Clint Eastwood (1992) · Steven Spielberg (1993) · Robert Zemeckis (1994) · Mel Gibson (1995) · Anthony Minghella (1996) · James Cameron (1997) · Steven Spielberg (1998) · Sam Mendes (1999) · Steven Soderbergh (2000) Complete list · (1927–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001-present)

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series Jack Smight (1959) · Robert Mulligan (1960) · George Schaefer (1961) · Franklin J. Schaffner (1962) · Stuart Rosenberg (1963) · Tom Gries (1964) · Paul Bogart (1965) · Sydney Pollack (1966) · Alex Segal (1967) · Lee H. Katzin (1968) · David Greene (1969) · Paul Bogart (1970) · Daryl Duke / Fielder Cook (1971) · Alexander Singer / Tom Gries (1972) · Jerry Thorpe / Joseph Sargent (1973) · John Korty / Robert Butler (1974) · Bill Bain (1975) (1959–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–present)

Films directed by Sydney Pollack 1960s The Slender Thread (1965) • This Property Is Condemned (1966) • The Scalphunters (1968) • Castle Keep (1969) • They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) 1970s Jeremiah Johnson (1972) • The Way We Were (1973) • The Yakuza (1975) • Three Days of the Condor (1975) • Bobby Deerfield (1977) • The Electric Horseman (1979) 1980s Absence of Malice (1981) • Tootsie (1982) • Out of Africa (1985) 1990s Havana (1990) • The Firm (1993) • Sabrina (1995) • Random Hearts (1999) 2000s The Interpreter (2005) • Sketches of Frank Gehry (2005)

Persondata
Name	Pollack, Sydney
Alternative names
Short description	Actor
Date of birth	July 1, 1934
Place of birth	Lafayette, Indiana, United States
Date of death	May 26, 2008
Place of death	Los Angeles, California, United States