Sydney Pollack - A Tribute.

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My Tribute to Sydney Pollack who died May 27 2008.

Sydney Pollack (July 1, 1934 -- May 27, 2008 was an Academy Award-winning American film director, producer and actor. Born in Lafayette, Indiana to Russian Jewish immigrants, Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting. He began directing television shows in the 1960s before moving to films.

Pollack directed more than 21 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 films or shows, and produced over 44 films. Some of his best known works include Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Way We Were (1973), Three Days of the Condor (1975) and Absence of Malice (1981). 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, the latter of which he also starred in. Later films included Havana (1990), The Firm (1993), Sabrina (1995) and The Interpreter (2005). He died at the age of 73 from cancer.

"Out of Africa," the 1985 drama based on Danish author Isak Dinesen's experiences in Kenya during the early part of the 20th century and her romance with English big-game hunter-adventurer Denys Finch Hatton, earned Mr. Pollack two Academy Awards: as director and as producer of the film, which won the best picture Oscar.
Mr. Pollack also received a best director Oscar nomination for "Tootsie."

In the 1982 comedy, Dustin Hoffman stars as Michael Dorsey, an unemployed New York actor who revives his career by transforming himself into a "woman" - actress Dorothy Michaels - who lands a role in a TV soap opera.
Pressed by Hoffman to play his actor-character's exasperated agent in "Tootsie," Mr. Pollack finally consented to his first big-screen acting role since 1962. As an actor, Mr. Pollack later appeared in a number of films, including Woody Allen's "Husbands and Wives" and the recent Oscar-nominated Tony Gilroy film "Michael Clayton." Mr. Pollack also turned up in guest roles on TV series such as "Frasier," "Will & Grace" and "The Sopranos." He was also executive producer to the series.

Mr. Pollack had a small role in the 1955 Broadway comedy "The Dark Is Light Enough" and later appeared on "Playhouse 90" and "The United States Steel Hour," as well as series such as "The Twilight Zone" and "Have Gun Will Travel."
Mr. Pollack's work as an actor on director John Frankenheimer's adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" on "Playhouse 90" led Frankenheimer to ask him to work as a dialogue coach for two children in his "Playhouse 90" production of "Turn of the Screw." That in turn led Mr. Pollack to do similar work in Hollywood on Frankenheimer's 1961 film "The Young Savages."
Over the next several years, Mr. Pollack directed episodes of TV shows such as "The Fugitive," "The Defenders," and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour." In 1966, he won an Emmy for his direction of an episode of "Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre."

His most recent film was a departure: "Sketches of Frank Gehry," a documentary released in 2006 about his friend, the renowned architect whose work includes the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
Mr. Pollack also had more than 40 credits as a producer or executive producer on films such as "Presumed Innocent," "The Fabulous Baker Boys," "The Talented Mr. Ripley," "Cold Mountain" and "Michael Clayton."
THANK YOU SYDNEY. What a mensch.

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