Director-actor Sydney Pollack passed away at the age of 73 on Monday afternoon. Diagnosed with cancer about nine months ago, Pollack died surrounded by family, at his home in Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles.
“Sydney made the world a little better, movies a little better and even dinner a little better. A tip of the hat to a class act,” George Clooney said in a statement. “He’ll be missed terribly” (Pollack, who was much a great actor as he was a filmmaker, starred in Clooney’s “Michael Clayton,” which itself was a major homage to many of the ’70s thrillers Pollack both directed and starred in).
This is sad news. We always had a major soft spot for Pollack He always had a very avuncular, soulful charm in his acting. He seemed incredibly affable even when playing bastards. His incredible body of work included directorial efforts like “Tootsie,” “Out Of Africa” (for which he won a Best directing Oscar in 1985) and ’70s classics like, “Three Days Of The Condor” “Jeremiah Johnson” and “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” One of his stand-out acting roles was his turn in Woody Allen’s “Husbands & Wives.”
Quincy Jones, who scored Pollack’s first feature, “The Slender Thread,” echoed the sentiment of the filmmaker/actors kind soulfulness. “Sydney Pollack’s immense talents as a director were only surpassed by the compassion that he carried in his soul for his fellow man,” Jones said. “Today we’ve lost not only one of our greatest filmmakers, but a great human being.”
It’s interesting to note that Dustin Hoffman actively campaigned for Pollack to play a role in “Tootsie” after the director had seemingly retired from acting, having not been onscreen in nearly 20 years. Also noteworthy is the public spat Hoffman and Pollack had in their differing opinions whether the film should lean toward comedy or drama.
Pollack’s films were generally even-handed and serene in both pacing and tone. In 2006, he bemoaned the state of cinema and worried that film was becoming a fast-food product. “Beginnings and endings are not interesting, audiences want the high point, which means you’ve got to get to it and get to it now – get the gun out fast, the clothes off quick,” Pollack says. “What I really want to do is produce. There isn’t much patience with a slow developing story line anymore.”
You’ll notice in our “Current Fixations & 2nd Look” section of our left nav we’ve had “rewatching Sydney Pollack movies” listed for months as we tried to go back and fill the holes in his directing oeuvre. He will be deeply missed.
Watch: Pollack and Hoffman argue in “Tootsie”
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