LUMET, SIDNEY

LUMET, SIDNEY (1924– ), U.S. theatrical and film director. Born in Philadelphia, Lumet, the son of actor Baruch Lumet and dancer Eugenia Wermus Lumet, was a child actor at the Yiddish Art Theater. He appeared on Broadway in 1937 and   later directed off-Broadway shows. Between 1937 and 1948 he performed in such Broadway productions as Dead End; The Eternal Road; Schoolhouse on the Lot; Morning Star; Journey to Jerusalem; and Seeds in the Wind. In 1947 he founded an off-Broadway group of actors that consisted of former members of Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio, including Yul Brynner and Eli Wallach, who had become dissatisfied with Strasberg's concepts. On Broadway, Lumet directed Night of the Auk (1956); Caligula (1960); and Nowhere to Go but Up (1962). Lumet joined the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1950 and gained a reputation as a director of live television dramas. He directed such TV series as Studio One (1948); Danger (1950); Crime Photographer (1951); and You Are There (1953), as well as the musical Mr. Broadway (1957); All the King's Men (1958); the miniseries The Sacco-Vanzetti Story (1960); and Rashomon and The Iceman Cometh (1960). On the screen, the first film that Lumet directed was Twelve Angry Men (Oscar nomination for Best Director, 1957). In 1959 he directed Tennessee Williams' The Fugitive Kind, and in 1962 Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge. His later movies, most of which were shot in New York City, include Fail-Safe (1964), The Pawnbroker (1965), The Hill (1965), The Group (1966), Bye Bye Braverman (1968), Funny Girl (1968), The Appointment (1970), The Anderson Tapes (1971), Serpico (1973), Murder onthe Orient Express (1974), Dog Day Afternoon (Oscar nomination for Best Director, 1975), Network (Oscar nomination for Best Director, 1976), Equus (1977), Prince of the City (which he co-wrote; Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay, 1981), Death-trap (1982), The Verdict (Oscar nomination for Best Director, 1982), Family Business (1989), A Stranger among Us (1992), Guilty as Sin (1993), Night Falls on Manhattan (which he also wrote, 1997), and Gloria (1999). Among his numerous awards and nominations, Lumet was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Directors Guild of America in 1993; won the Joseph L. Mankiewicz Excellence in Filmmaking Award at the Director's View Film Festival in 2004; and received the Honorary Academy Award of Merit in 2005. Lumet's book, Making Movies, was published in 1995. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Boyer, Sidney Lumet (1993); F. Cunningham, Sidney Lumet: Film and Literary Vision (1991, 20012). (Jonathan Licht / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)