Sydney Pollack


Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack directed more than 20 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 movies or shows and produced over 44 films. 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 which he also appeared.
Some of his other best known works include Jeremiah Johnson, The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor and Absence of Malice. His subsequent films included Havana, The Firm, The Interpreter, and he produced and acted in Michael Clayton. Pollack is probably best known to television viewers for his recurring role playing Will Truman's father on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace.

Early life

Pollack was born in Lafayette, Indiana, to a family of Russian-Jewish immigrants, the son of Rebecca 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 the age of 37 while Pollack was a student.
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 1952–54, working on a lumber truck between terms.
After two years army service, 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 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.

Career

Pollack played a director in The Twilight Zone episode "The Trouble with Templeton" in 1961. But 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. 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 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. Young and Lange won Oscars for their performances in Pollack's films.
His disputes with 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 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 in owning and piloting his Cessna Citation X jet aircraft.
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 The Player and Eyes Wide Shut, 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'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 unfaithful but loving father, George Truman. 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.

Influences

In the 2002 Sight and Sound Directors' Poll, Pollack revealed his top ten films in alphabetical order:
Pollack's brother, Bernie, is a costume designer, producer, and actor.
Pollack was married to Claire Bradley Griswold, a former student of his, from 1958 until his death in 2008. They had three children: Steven, Rebecca, and Rachel. In 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. Claire, Pollack's wife, died on March 28, 2011 at 74 years of age, due to Parkinson's disease.

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. Pollack died the next day at his home in Los Angeles surrounded by his family who confirmed that cancer was the cause of death but declined to provide specifics. His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered along the runway at the Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles.

Filmography

Director and Producers
YearTitleRoleNotes
1965The Slender ThreadDirector
1966This Property Is CondemnedDirector
1968The ScalphuntersDirector
1969Castle KeepDirector
1969They Shoot Horses, Don't They?Director
1972Jeremiah JohnsonDirector
1973The Way We WereDirector
1974The YakuzaDirector, producer
1975Three Days of the CondorDirector
1977Bobby DeerfieldDirector, producer
1979The Electric HorsemanDirector
1981Absence of MaliceDirector
1982TootsieDirector, producer, actor
1985Out of AfricaDirector, producer
1985Sanford Meisner:
The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret		Executive producer
1988Bright Lights, Big CityProducer
1989The Fabulous Baker BoysExecutive producer
1990HavanaDirector
1990Presumed InnocentProducer
1993The FirmDirector, producer
1993Searching for Bobby FischerExecutive producer
1995SabrinaDirector, producer
1995Sense and SensibilityExecutive producer
1998Sliding DoorsProducer
1999Random HeartsDirector, producer
1999The Talented Mr. RipleyExecutive producer
2001IrisExecutive producer
2001Birthday GirlExecutive producer
2002The Quiet AmericanExecutive producer
2003Cold MountainProducer
2005Sketches of Frank GehryDirector, executive producer
2005The InterpreterDirector
2006Breaking and EnteringProducer
2007Michael ClaytonProducer, actor
2008RecountExecutive producer
2008LeatherheadsExecutive producer
2008The ReaderProducer
2018Amazing GraceDirectorFilmed in 1972 released in 2018

Acting roles
YearTitleRoleNotes
1956The Kaiser Aluminum HourShuberEpisode: "The Army Game"
1959Playhouse 90AndresEpisodes: "For Whom the Bell Tolls: Parts 1 & 2"
1959The United States Steel HourBensonEpisode: "The Case of Julia Walton"
1959Armstrong Circle TheatreAlbert RousseauEpisode: "35 Rue Du Marche"
1959StartimeHarryEpisode: "Something Special"
1959-64BrennerDetective Al Dunn3 episodes
1960Alfred Hitchcock PresentsBernie SamuelsonEpisode: "The Contest for Aaron Gold"
1960Twilight ZoneArthur WillisEpisode: "The Trouble With Templeton"
1960Tales of Wells FargoStan RykerEpisode: "Angry Town"
1961Have Gun – Will TravelJoe CulpEpisodes: "Quiet Night in Town: Part 1 & 2"
1961The DeputyChuck JohnsonEpisode: "Spoken in Silence"
1961The Asphalt JungleLouieEpisode: "The Professor"
1961-62The New BreedAustin Rogers/Bert Masters2 episodes
1962Ben CaseyEpisode: "Monument to an Aged Hunter"
1962War HuntSgt. Owen Van Horn
1975Three Days of the CondorTaxi Driver
1979The Electric HorsemanMan who makes pass at AliceUncredited
1982TootsieGeorge Fields
1992The PlayerDick Mellon
1992Death Becomes HerER DoctorUncredited
1992Husbands and WivesJack
1994FrasierHolden Thorpe Episode: "The Candidate"
1998Mad About YouDr. Sydney WarrenEpisode: ""
1998A Civil ActionAl Eustis
1999Eyes Wide ShutVictor Ziegler
1999Random HeartsCarl Broman
2000Just Shoot Me!HimselfEpisode: ""
2000King of the HillGrant TrimbleVoice; Season 4: ""
2000–06Will & GraceGeorge Truman4 episodes
2001The MajesticStudio ExecutiveVoice
2002Changing LanesStephen Delano
2003'NarratorVoice; Documentary
2005The InterpreterJay PettigrewUncredited
2005One Six Right: The Romance of FlyingHimselfDocumentary
2006Fauteuils d'orchestreBrian Sobinski
2006American MastersNarratorEpisode: "John Ford/John Wayne"
2007The SopranosWarren FeldmanEpisode: "Stage 5"
2007EntourageHimself
2007Michael ClaytonMarty Bach
2008Made of HonorThomas Bailey Sr.

Awards and Nominations