Sydney Pollack dies of cancer at age 73
In this May 26, 2006 file photo, American director Sydney Pollack arrives for the screening of the film "Quand J'Etais Chanteur" at the 59th international Cannes film festival, southern France. Pollack died of cancer Monday afternoon May 26, 2008 at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., according to his agent. He was 73. (AP Photo/Laurent Emmanuel, file)
LOS ANGELES — Academy Award-winning director Sydney Pollack, who achieved commercial and critical success with the gender-bending comedy "Tootsie" and the period drama "Out of Africa, has died. He was 73.
Pollack died of cancer Monday afternoon at his home in Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, surrounded by family, said agent Leslee Dart.
Pollack, who occasionally appeared on the screen himself, worked with and gained the respect of Hollywood's best actors in a long career that reached prominence in the 1970s and 1980s.
Last fall, he played Marty Bach opposite George Clooney in "Michael Clayton," which Pollack also co-produced. The film received seven Oscar nominations, including best picture and a best actor nod for Clooney.
In recent years, Pollack produced many independent films with filmmaker Anthony Minghella and a production company Mirage Enterprises.
The Lafayette, Ind. native was born to first-generation Russian-Americans.
In high school, he fell in love with theater, a passion that prompted him forego college and move to New York and enroll in the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater.
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This is sad news, I really enjoyed his films (especially They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Tootsie and Out of Africa).
Albert
