Sydney Pollack

May 28 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

THE son of a Jewish pharmacist and blessed with rather bookish looks, Sydney Pollack didn’t kid himself about his prospects in front of the camera.

"I knew I wasn't going to be any great shakes as an actor – the way I looked, I would play the soda jerk or the friend of a friend," said the screen maestro, who has died of cancer, aged 73.

But his acting experiences formed the backbone of his phenomenally successful directing career.

Known for his shrewd commercial instincts, his penchant for all-star casts and an ability to coax the very best performances out of them, Pollack directed Tootsie, The Way We Were and Out of Africa, for which he won a best director Oscar.

Pollack was born in 1934 in Indiana. His alcoholic mother died when he was 16 and he moved to New York to study acting.

He appeared on Broadway and in TV series such as The Twilight Zone, but at the urging of Burt Lancaster he turned to directing.

Starting with The Slender Thread, a 1965 drama starring Sidney Poitier and Anne Bancroft, Pollack went on to direct 20 films, including They Shoot Horses Don’t They with Jane Fonda and later The Firm.

In 1993, he described how he got the polished performances he wanted out of his actors.

"When I start a scene, I say, 'let's not make this a movie. You're not doing it to be observed. You're doing it alone’. I tell actors, 'Watch Candid Camera, then flick the channel to something else, then turn back. You'll see how phoney the acting looks because real reaction so often means doing nothing. It's always simple. The tendency with actors is to think that if you're doing more, you're doing more’."

He kept a hand in acting with character roles in films like Eyes Wide Shut and Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives. He also guest starred on sitcom Will & Grace and The Sopranos.

Pollack had more than 40 credits as producer for films including The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Talented Mr Ripley, Cold Mountain and Michael Clayton, and formed a production company called Mirage Enterprises, with Anthony Minghella.

He is survived by his wife, Claire, and their two daughters, six grandchildren and a brother.

Sydney Pollack, director, actor and producer; born July 1, 1934, died May 26, 2008.