Sydney Irwin Pollack (July 1, 1934 – May 26, 2008) was an American film director, producer, and actor. Known for directing commercially and critically acclaimed studio films, he received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards, in addition to nominations for three Golden Globe Awards and six BAFTA Awards in a career spanning more than 40 years.
Pollack won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for Out of Africa (1985). He was also nominated for Academy Awards for Best Director for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) and Tootsie (1982). Pollack's other notable films include This Property Is Condemned (1966), 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). Other films he produced include The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Sense and Sensibility (1995), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Iris (2001), Cold Mountain (2003) and The Reader (2008). Pollack also acted in Tootsie (1982), Robert Altman's The Player (1992), Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives (1993), and Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999).
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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. His other notable films include Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Way We Were (1973), The Yakuza (1974), Absence of Malice (1981), The Firm (1993), and Sabrina (1995).
Pollack 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 (1998), and Changing Lanes (2002), as well as his own, including Three Days of the Condor (1975), The Electric Horseman (1979), Random Hearts (1999), and The Interpreter (2005, his final non-documentary film as a director). He also appeared in Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives (1992) as a New York lawyer undergoing a midlife crisis, and in Robert Zemeckis's Death Becomes Her (1992) 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.
Influences
In the 2002 Sight & Sound Directors' Poll, Pollack listed his top ten films in alphabetical order:
Personal life
Pollack was married to Claire Bradley Griswold, a former student of his, from 1958 until his death in 2008. They had three children.
Death
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. He had been diagnosed about ten months before his death; the type of cancer has been variously cited as pancreatic, stomach, or of unknown primary origin.
Filmography
Film
Directing and producing
Acting roles
Television
Acting roles
Accolades
Directed Academy Award performances
Under Pollack's direction, these actors have received Academy Award wins and nominations for their performances in their respective roles.