Director and actor Sydney Pollack has died of stomach cancer at the age of 73. One of the first generation of television-trained directors to make his mark in the movie world, Pollack made his name in the '60s and '70s with such films as The Shoot Horses Don't They?, Jeremiah Johnson and The Way We Were, frequently working with some of those decades most iconic actors, Jane Fonda, Al Pacino, and Robert Redford among them. Pollack would team with Redford for several dramas, the widely lauded hit Out Of Africa among them. But it was his sole comedy, the Dustin Hoffman-starring Tootsie, that brought him his greatest success.
Pollack perhaps worked so well with actors because he understood the craft from the inside, frequently appearing in supporting parts in everything from Eyes Wide Shut to Will And Grace. He also worked as a producer, partnering in later years with Anthony Minghella, who died earlier this year.
The New York Times has one of the earliest of what will surely be many appreciations.