What a talent - and one of the best character actors in film.
RIP Sydney.
Academy Award-winning director Sydney Pollack dies of cancer at age 73By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
May 26, 2008 10:08 PM EDT
LOS ANGELES - Academy Award-winning director Sydney Pollack, a Hollywood mainstay who achieved commercial success and critical acclaim 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 his publicist, Leslee Dart. He had been diagnosed with cancer about nine months ago, Dart said.
Pollack, who occasionally appeared on the screen himself, worked with and gained the respect of Hollywood's best actors, including Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford and Meryl Streep, in a long career that reached prominence in the 1970s and 1980s.
"Sydney made the world a little better, movies a little better and even dinner a little better. A tip of the hat to a class act," actor George Clooney said in a statement issued by his publicist.
"He'll be missed terribly," Clooney said.
Last fall, Pollack played Marty Bach opposite Clooney in "Michael Clayton," a drama that examines the life of an attorney who is a "fixer" of sordid problems. The film, which Pollack co-produced, received seven Oscar nominations, including best picture and a best actor nod for Clooney. It won the Oscar for best supporting actress, Tilda Swinton.
Pollack was no stranger to the Academy Awards. In 1986, "Out of Africa" a romantic epic of a woman's passion set against the landscape of colonial Kenya, captured seven Oscars, including best director and best picture.
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