Sydney Pollack Dies of Cancer at Age 73

He may not have had the name recognition or the cache of his contemporaries like Spielberg, Copolla, and Scorsese, but Sydney Pollack was one of Hollywood's more versatile and tireless filmmakers, who seemed equally comfortable in front of the camera, behind it, or somewhere off to the side. Pollack passed away at his home in California after a bout with cancer. Best remembered for his Oscar winners like Tootsie and Out of Africa, which won Pollack the Academy Award for Best Director, Pollack had also directed less mainstream fare like Absence of Malice and Three Days of the Condor. In 2005, he made two enormously different films, the political thriller The Interpreter and the compelling documentary The Sketches of Frank Gehry, about the unusual methods and results of the architect and iconoclast. Despite failing health over the past year, Pollack continued to work; he popped up in the romantic comedy Made of Honor and the HBO film Recount, on which he served as a producer, premiered this weekend. Though his work as a director is required viewing, Pollack actually began as an actor. While serving as an instructor at the Stanford Meisner school, one of his students was Robert Duvall. And if you're Robert Duvall's acting coach, that's good enough for me. What truly sets Pollack apart, however, is how he not only managed to be very successful over the course of 40 years amid an ever-changing marketplace, but his versatility. He was a great supporting actor, a solid director focused more on storytelling than "directing" in an era where the reverse was more often true, and a producer with uncanny foresight. Along with Anthony Minghella, who also passed away this year, Pollack ran the production house Mirage Enterprises. Among their credits: The Fabulous Baker Boys, Sense and Sensibility, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain. Pollack also helped guide Michael Clayton, a film he both co-produced and appeared, to seven Oscar nominations.