POLLACK, SYDNEY

POLLACK, SYDNEY (1934– ), U.S. film director and producer. Born in Lafayette, Indiana, Pollack first learned his craft by directing many TV episodes of such programs as Ben Casey, The Defenders, Dr. Kildare, The Fugitive, and The Naked City. Pollack then initiated his career as a feature film director with The Slender Thread (1965), and over the past decades has directed varied cinematic fare, including This Property Is Condemned (1966), The Scalp-hunters (1968), Castle Keep (1969), They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (Oscar nomination for Best Director, 1969), Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Way We Were (1973), The Yakuza (1975), Three Days of the Condor (1975), Bobby Deerfield (1977), The Electric Horseman (1979), Absence of Malice (1981), Tootsie (Oscar nomination for Best Picture and Best Director, 1982), Out of Africa (Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director, 1985), Havana (1990), The Firm (1993), Sabrina (1995), Random Hearts (1999), Sketches of Frank Gehry (2005), and The Interpreter (2005). Pollack produced more than 40 films, which include many of the above, as well as other successes such as Songwriter (1984), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Dead Again (1991), King Ralph (1991), Leaving Normal (1992), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Sliding Doors (1998), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Iris (2001), Heaven (2002), The Quiet American (2002), and Cold Mountain (2003). He also acted in several films, such as Tootsie, Robert Altman's The Player (1992), Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives (1992), Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Random Hearts, and Roger Michell's Changing Lanes (2002). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Meyer, Sydney Pollack: A Critical Filmography (1998); S. Dworkin, Making Tootsie (1983); W. Taylor Sydney Pollack (1981). (Jonathan Licht and Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)