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Actor, Director and Producer Sydney Pollack Dies at 73
May 27, 2008 02:53 PM
by
Rachel Balik
The Hollywood icon passed away at his home on May 26, 2008, after a 10-month battle with cancer.
30-Second Summary
Sydney Pollack, best known for films such as “Tootsie,” “Out of Africa” and “The Way We Were,” continued working as a director, actor and producer until his death on May 26, 2008.
Growing up in South Bend, Indiana, Sydney Pollack had seen New York City in movies but had never been there. When he graduated high school, instead of going to college, he took the little money he had saved and boarded a train for New York. He saw an ad for an acting school, applied, and at age 17 began studying with the legendary Sanford Meisner.
But Pollack’s talents extended beyond acting, as Burt Lancaster recognized when he saw Pollack working as a dialogue coach on a movie set. Pollack tried his hand at directing, and after his first major success in 1969 he primarily made blockbuster films with big stars. However, he always tried to uphold his artistic integrity. “I’ve made personal films all along. I just made them in another form,” Pollack said.
Growing up in South Bend, Indiana, Sydney Pollack had seen New York City in movies but had never been there. When he graduated high school, instead of going to college, he took the little money he had saved and boarded a train for New York. He saw an ad for an acting school, applied, and at age 17 began studying with the legendary Sanford Meisner.
But Pollack’s talents extended beyond acting, as Burt Lancaster recognized when he saw Pollack working as a dialogue coach on a movie set. Pollack tried his hand at directing, and after his first major success in 1969 he primarily made blockbuster films with big stars. However, he always tried to uphold his artistic integrity. “I’ve made personal films all along. I just made them in another form,” Pollack said.
Headline Links: ‘Sydney Pollack Dead at 73’
Sydney Pollack died of cancer in his home at age 73. He is best known as a director, but he started his long career as an actor. He was working as a dialogue coach when leading actor Burt Lancaster took notice of him on the set. Lancaster called Lew Wasserman, the head of Universal Pictures, and asked him to help Pollack get started as a director. Pollack started in TV but made his first movie, “The Slender Thread,” in 1965. He went on to make several pictures in a variety of genres. “To me, he is the last of the great studio directors that could do just about anything, and he did. He made Westerns early on, action thrillers, melodramas, love stories,” says film historian Patricia Erens.
Source: NPR
Pollack’s colleagues came forward to praise his talents in acting and directing. “Here's a man who could have himself been a movie star of a certain type had he so chosen, because he really is that good an actor,” said Jeanine Basinger, head of the film studies department at Wesleyan University. Actor George Clooney, who acted with Pollack in the film Michael Clatyon said, “Sydney made the world a little better, movies a little better and even dinner a little better. A tip of the hat to a class act.”
Source: The Los Angeles Times
Despite a long career of successes, Pollack remained modest. “I was never what I would call a great shooter or visual stylist,” he said. Although he had been nominated for several Academy Awards and won Best Director for “Out of Africa,” some of his later movies were met with ambivalence by critics and at the box office. One of the filmmakers who throughout his career “served commerce without wholly abandoning art,” Pollack had an independent film company and also advocated for artists’ rights. Although he occasionally turned down directing projects without explanation, he willingly made acting cameos until the end of his life.
Source: The New York Times
Background: Pollack’s Life and Career
Reflecting back on his life and career in 2002, Pollack told the Guardian, “It seems to me a miracle ... I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to do it now." In the interview, Pollack recounted his successes as though they were accidents. He recalled his shock when he discovered that the acting school he picked on a whim at age 17 was the best in New York, and said he’d accepted acting roles late in life just for the chance to watch other directors in action.
Source: The Guardian
Pollack began studying theater with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in 1952. His first real break came when he directed the 1969 film “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” Greater acclaim came with “Tootsie” and “Out of Africa.” Pollack developed a working relationship with Robert Redford, although a 1990 drama with Redford, “Havana,” was a disappointment. Shaken by a few more poorly performing films in the 90s, Pollack chose to focus more on producing later in his career.
Source: All Movie
Reference: Pollack’s Credits
The Internet Movie Database provides a complete list of Pollack’s credits.
Source: The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
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