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Sydney Irwin Pollack (July 1, 1934 – May 26, 2008) was an American film director, producer, and actor. Pollack is known for directing commercially and critically acclaimed studio films. Over his forty year career he received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award as well as nominations for three Golden Globe Awards and six BAFTA Awards.
Pollack won the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture for Out of Africa (1985). He was also nominated for Best Director Oscars for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), and Tootsie (1982). Pollack's other notable films include Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Way We Were (1973), The Yakuza (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975), Absence of Malice (1981), The Firm (1993), and Sabrina (1995).
Pollack produced and acted in Michael Clayton (2007), and produced numerous films such as The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Sense and Sensibility (1995), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Iris (2001), Cold Mountain (2003) and The Reader (2008). Pollack acted in Robert Altman's The Player (1992), Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives (1993), and Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999).
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. Pollack studied acting with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre from 1952 to 1954, working on a lumber truck between terms.
He was drafted for two years of 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, asked him to come to Los Angeles 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.
He found his real success in television in the 1960s by directing episodes of series, such as The Fugitive and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. After doing TV he made the jump into film with a string of movies that drew public attention. His film-directing debut was The Slender Thread (1965). 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?, 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, he 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 such films as 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, Pollack 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 being 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 playing 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. In addition to earlier appearances on NBC's Just Shoot Me and Mad About You, in 2007, Pollack made guest appearances on the HBO TV series 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 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. Besides his many feature film laurels, Pollack was 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.
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 following day at his home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, at the age of 73. He had been diagnosed about ten months prior to his death; the type of cancer has been variously cited as pancreatic, stomach cancer, or of unknown primary origin.
As executive producer
As producer only
Acting roles
Directed Academy Award Performances
Influences
In the 2002 Sight & Sound Directors' Poll, Pollack revealed his top ten films in alphabetical order:
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: Steven (1959–1993), Rebecca (b. 1963), and Rachel (b. 1969). In November 1993, Steven died at the age of 34 in the crash of a small, single-engine plane which clipped a power line and burst into flames in Santa Monica, California. Claire Griswold died on March 28, 2011, at 74 years of age, from Parkinson's disease.
Filmography
Film
Directing and producing
Paramount Pictures United Artists Columbia Pictures Cinerama Releasing Corporation Warner Bros. Columbia Pictures Warner Bros Paramount Pictures Warner Bros Universal Pictures Columbia Pictures Universal Pictures Paramount Pictures Columbia Pictures Universal Pictures Sony Pictures Classics Neon
1962 War Hunt Sergeant Owen Van Horn 1975 Three Days of the Condor Taxi Driver 1979 The Electric Horseman Man Who Makes Pass At Alice Uncredited 1982 Tootsie George Fields 1992 The Player Dick Mellon Death Becomes Her Emergency Room Doctor Uncredited Husbands and Wives Jack 1998 A Civil Action Al Eustis 1999 Eyes Wide Shut Victor Ziegler Random Hearts Carl Broman 2001 The Majestic Studio Executive voice acting 2002 Changing Lanes Stephen Delano 2005 The Interpreter Secret Service Director Jay Pettigrew Uncredited 2006 Fauteuils d'orchestre Brian Sobinski 2007 Michael Clayton Marty Bach 2008 Made of Honor Thomas Bailey Sr. Final film role
Television
Acting roles
1956 The Kaiser Aluminum Hour Shuber Episode: "The Army Game" 1959 Playhouse 90 Andres Episodes: "For Whom the Bell Tolls: Parts 1 & 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 3 episodes 1960 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Bernie Samuelson Season 6 Episode 4: "The Contest for Aaron Gold" The Twilight Zone Arthur Willis Episode: "The Trouble with Templeton" Tales of Wells Fargo Stan Ryker Episode: "Angry Town" 1961 The Untouchables Charlie Episode: "The Big Train Part One" Have Gun – Will Travel Joe Culp Episodes: "Quiet Night in Town: Part 1 & 2" The Deputy Chuck Johnson Episode: "Spoken in Silence" The Asphalt Jungle Louie Episode: "The Professor" 1961–1962 The New Breed Austin Rogers
Bert Masters2 episodes 1962 Ben Casey Unknown Episode: "Monument to an Aged Hunter" 1994 Frasier Holden Thorpe (voice) Episode: "The Candidate" 1998 Mad About You Dr. Sydney Warren Episode: "Cheating on Sheila" 2000 Just Shoot Me! Himself Episode: "" King of the Hill Grant Trimble Voice; Season 4: "" 2000–2006 Will & Grace George Truman 4 episodes 2003 Narrator Voice; Documentary 2005 One Six Right: The Romance of Flying Himself Documentary 2006 American Masters Narrator Episode: "John Ford/John Wayne" 2007 The Sopranos Warren Feldman Episode: "Stage 5" Entourage Himself
Awards and nominations
+Awards and nominations received by Pollack's films 1965 The Slender Thread 2 1 1966 This Property Is Condemned 1 1968 The Scalphunters 1 1969 They Shoot Horses, Don't They? 9 1 6 1 6 1 1973 The Way We Were 6 2 1 2 1 1975 Three Days of the Condor 1 1 1977 Bobby Deerfield 1 1979 The Electric Horseman 1 1981 Absence of Malice 3 2 1982 Tootsie 10 1 9 2 5 3 1985 Out of Africa 11 7 7 3 6 3 1990 Havana 1 1 1993 The Firm 2 1 1995 Sabrina 2 3 Academy Award for Best Actor 1981 Paul Newman Absence of Malice 1982 Dustin Hoffman Tootsie Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor 1969 Gig Young They Shoot Horses, Don't They? 1985 Klaus Maria Brandauer Out of Africa Academy Award for Best Actress 1969 Jane Fonda They Shoot Horses, Don't They? 1973 Barbra Streisand The Way We Were 1985 Meryl Streep Out of Africa Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress 1969 Susannah York They Shoot Horses, Don't They? 1981 Melinda Dillon Absence of Malice 1982 Jessica Lange Tootsie Teri Garr 1993 Holly Hunter The Firm
External links
Categories: 1934 Births, 2008 Deaths, 20th-century American Jews, 20th-century American Male Actors, 21st-century American Jews, 21st-century American Male Actors, Actors From South Bend, Indiana, American Aviators, American Male Film Actors, American Male Television Actors, American People Of Ukrainian-jewish Descent, American Television Directors, Best Directing Academy Award Winners, Deaths From Cancer In California, Deaths From Cancer Of Unknown Primary Origin, Directors Of Best Picture Academy Award Winners, Film Directors From California, Film Directors From Indiana, Film Directors From New York City, Film Producers From California, Film Producers From Indiana, Film Producers From New York, Golden Globe Award–winning Producers, Jewish American Film People, Jewish American Male Actors, Jewish American Military Personnel, Male Actors From Indiana, Male Actors From Los Angeles, Military Personnel From Indiana, Neighborhood Playhouse School Of The Theatre Alumni, People From Lafayette, Indiana, Primetime Emmy Award Winners, Stella Adler Studio Of Acting Alumni, United States Army Soldiers
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