CarversDog
RIP
Of all the people I have met in Hollywood, I regret that I never had the opportunty to shake the hand of director, producer, and actor Sydney Pollack; now that he has succumbed to cancer at the age of 73, "surrounded by family", as the obits always have it, in his Pacific Palisades home, that opportunity will never happen. Pollack's IMDB bio is here.
The list of films that Pollack directed and produced is impressive, to say the least, and although it was a love of theater that moved the Indiana-born Pollack, son of Russian immigrants, to become a director, he drew a lot of inspiration from literature. He helmed the 1969 adaptation of Horace McCoy's dark depression-era L.A. drama, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"; the same year he directed by personal favorite Pollack film, "Castle Keep", from William Eastlake's anti-war novel, starring Burt Lancaster, Peter Falk, and Patrick O' Neal. He also took over directing chores from Frank Gilroy in the adaptation of John Cheever's powerful short story, "The Swimmer".
"Bobby Deerfield" (1977), starred Al Pacino as a a Formula One race car driver contemplating death, an adaptation of an Erich Maria Remarque novel. "Three Days of the Condor" (1975) was a tense CIA thriller from a James Grady novel starring Robert Redford "” Pollack had a long association with Redford: "This Property is Condemned" (from a Tennessee Williams play), "Jeremiah Johnson", "The Way We Were", "The Electric Horseman", "Out of Africa".
The list of movies that Pollack produced but not assume the director's chair in is also mighty impressive. A few favorites: "The Fabulous Baker Boys" (1988), Kenneth Branagh's "Dead Again" (1991), "Searching For Bobby Fischer" (1993), "Sense and Sensibility" (1995), "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1999), "Cold Mountain" (2003), and last year's "Michael Clayton" starring George Clooney. Pollack's last film as producer and director was the 2005 documentary Sketches of Frank Gehry.
Hollywood has lost one of its most unique and literary talents. Rest in peace, Sydney Pollack.
The list of films that Pollack directed and produced is impressive, to say the least, and although it was a love of theater that moved the Indiana-born Pollack, son of Russian immigrants, to become a director, he drew a lot of inspiration from literature. He helmed the 1969 adaptation of Horace McCoy's dark depression-era L.A. drama, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"; the same year he directed by personal favorite Pollack film, "Castle Keep", from William Eastlake's anti-war novel, starring Burt Lancaster, Peter Falk, and Patrick O' Neal. He also took over directing chores from Frank Gilroy in the adaptation of John Cheever's powerful short story, "The Swimmer".
"Bobby Deerfield" (1977), starred Al Pacino as a a Formula One race car driver contemplating death, an adaptation of an Erich Maria Remarque novel. "Three Days of the Condor" (1975) was a tense CIA thriller from a James Grady novel starring Robert Redford "” Pollack had a long association with Redford: "This Property is Condemned" (from a Tennessee Williams play), "Jeremiah Johnson", "The Way We Were", "The Electric Horseman", "Out of Africa".
The list of movies that Pollack produced but not assume the director's chair in is also mighty impressive. A few favorites: "The Fabulous Baker Boys" (1988), Kenneth Branagh's "Dead Again" (1991), "Searching For Bobby Fischer" (1993), "Sense and Sensibility" (1995), "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1999), "Cold Mountain" (2003), and last year's "Michael Clayton" starring George Clooney. Pollack's last film as producer and director was the 2005 documentary Sketches of Frank Gehry.
Hollywood has lost one of its most unique and literary talents. Rest in peace, Sydney Pollack.
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