Sydney Pollack

American motion-picture producer, director, and actor, born in Lafayette, Indiana. After graduating from high school, Pollack went to New York City to seek a career in theater. From 1954 to 1960 he studied and taught acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse and appeared in several Broadway plays. From 1960 to 1965 he directed more than 80 television shows,rift gold winning Emmy Awards and directing Emmy Award-winning performances by various actors.

After a fitful start as a film director, Pollack was nominated for an Academy Award in 1969 as best director for They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, which earned 11 nominations and won honors at the Cannes, Brussels, and Belgrade film festivals. He made various films starring Robert Redford, including Jeremiah Johnson (1972), which received a great deal of critical recognition, as did the popular success The Way We Were (1973). Also successful were the films Three Days of the Condor (1975) and The Electric Horseman (1979). Pollack’s credits in the 1980s include Absence of Malice (1981), with Paul Newman; Tootsie (1982), with Dustin Hoffman; and Out of Africa (1985),rift gold with Robert Redford and Meryl Streep, which won Pollack an Academy Award for best director. In the 1990s Pollack’s film work included memorable performances in Husbands and Wives (1992) and Death Becomes Her (1992), but he turned increasingly to producing. Among his credits as producer or executive producer are The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Presumed Innocent (1990), Dead Again (1991), Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), and The Firm (1993), the latter of which he also directed.