Pakula, Alan J.

▪ 1999

      American motion-picture director, producer, and screenwriter (b. April 7, 1928, Bronx, N.Y.—d. Nov. 19, 1998, Melville, N.Y.), evoked exceptional performances from actors and actresses in 16 films, most notably in 3 dark, foreboding psychological thrillers: Klute (1971), The Parallax View (1974), and All the President's Men (1976). Pakula examined complex emotions in his films, which often featured themes dealing with fear and the abuse of political power. After majoring in drama at Yale University, he moved to Hollywood, where he began working in the Warner Bros. cartoon department. Beginning in 1957, Pakula produced films in collaboration with director Robert Mulligan, most notably To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). In 1969 Pakula directed his first film, The Sterile Cuckoo, starring Liza Minnelli, who was nominated for an Academy Award. Pakula cemented his reputation as an important director when Jane Fonda won an Oscar as the protagonist of Klute. His moody film adaptation of the Carl Bernstein-Bob Woodward Watergate exposé, All the President's Men, was a career high point—the film won four Oscars and Pakula earned an Oscar nomination for best director. He wrote the screenplays for four later films, including his Oscar-nominated adaptation of William Styron's novel Sophie's Choice (1982; Meryl Streep won an Oscar in the title role). Another Pakula screenplay, See You in the Morning (1989), featured a divorced man who, like himself, married a widow with several children. Later films included the legal thrillers Presumed Innocent (1990) and The Pelican Brief (1993). At the time of his death, resulting from an automobile accident, Pakula was working on a screenplay about Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt's years in the White House.

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