Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Sydney Pollack

Sydney Pollack died Monday.
"if you have a career like mine, which is so identified with Hollywood, with big studios and stars, you wonder if maybe you shouldn't go off and do what the world thinks of as more personal films with lesser-known people. But I think I've fooled everybody. I've made personal films all along. I just made them in another form."


He was a director with integrity. RIP Mr. Pollack.

11 comments:

Blueberry said...

I was very sorry to hear this news. I didn't even realize that he was sick. :-(

Robert Rouse said...

I used Pollack on my "Quote of the Day" today. He was an actor's director. Of course it helped that he used to run an acting class.

DivaJood said...

Blueberry, I didn't know either. He was fairly quiet about it, I think.

Robert, he was indeed an actor's director. But he also had a strong social conscience and brought topical issues to the mainstream.

Unknown said...

I never saw a Pollack film I didn't like. I hope he is with his friends that passed before him.

DivaJood said...

Dusty, me too. Wide range, thoughtful, and still commericially viable. I would have loved to work for him.

The Future Was Yesterday said...

His name on a picture said "go watch it. it's good." A American Icon that will never be replaced is gone.

enigma4ever said...

so sad....seems too young...gone too soon....may there be a big artists round table up there...namaste.

robin andrea said...

Such sad news. He was such a fine artist, and profoundly good storyteller.

jmsjoin said...

as usual you never seem to look closely at someone until they die aas was the case with him. He was quite personable actually and I had no idea as a man,an actor and,a Director.

Utah Savage said...

I saw so many Pollack films I can't even remember them all. Loved Tootsie, but can't yet name my favorite. And he was a wonderful actor.

DivaJood said...

TUA, I think his capacity to combine both interesting, thoughtful storytelling and commercial viability is unmatched.

Enigma, 73 is young. I mean, if 60 is the new 40, then he was middle-aged.

Robin, exactly - that capacity to tell a story without relying on special effects - unmatched.

Patriot, I don't think there was a film he did that I didn't like.

Utah, if he didn't direct it, he was producing it, or acting in it. I think the last thing he acted in was Michael Clayton? Or was there something else?