Sydney Pollack

Sydney Pollack was an American filmmaker and actor who directed studio films across four decades, from his 1965 debut The Slender Thread through They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor, Tootsie, The Firm and Sabrina. His 1985 epic Out of Africa won him the Academy Award for Best Director along with Best Picture, and he received two further Best Director nominations over his career. Films he directed earned 48 Oscar nominations and 11 wins in total. In later years he became an active producer, guiding The Fabulous Baker Boys, Sense and Sensibility, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Michael Clayton to the screen, and he also won two Primetime Emmy Awards. He died of cancer in 2008 at his home in Pacific Palisades, California, at age 73.