Pollack, Sydney Irwin

▪ 2009

      American director, producer, and actor

born July 1, 1934, Lafayette, Ind.

died May 26, 2008, Pacific Palisades, Calif.

directed numerous television shows and more than a score of movies, including the epic romance Out of Africa (1985), a period piece set in colonial Kenya that earned him Academy Awards for best director and best picture. Pollack was known for collaborating with high-profile actors and actresses to make socially relevant, thought-provoking films. He directed actor Robert Redford in several films, including The Way We Were (1973), Three Days of the Condor (1975), The Electric Horseman (1979), and Out of Africa. Pollack was best remembered by many, however, for his work on the comedy Tootsie (1982), which garnered him Oscar nominations for best director and best picture, won him a New York Film Critics Circle Award for best director, and earned him plaudits for his on-screen appearance as Dustin Hoffman's long-suffering agent. Pollack began his career as an actor on Broadway and on television, but performing in a teleplay piqued his interest in directing. He later directed more than 80 television programs, including a 1965 episode of Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre for which he won an Emmy Award. Pollack directed his first feature film, The Slender Thread, in 1965 and received his first Academy Award nomination for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1968). This was followed by such popular films as Absence of Malice (1981), The Firm (1993), and The Interpreter (2005). Among the nearly 50 films that Pollack produced throughout his career, there were many that he did not direct, including Sense and Sensibility (1995), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Cold Mountain (2003), and Michael Clayton (2007).

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