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Dig A Hole: Sydney Pollack

May 27th, 2008 by Scott Marks

On September 8, 2007, Emulsion Compulsion quoted a National Enquirer piece that reported Mr. Pollack’s stomach cancer had metastasized. This blog entry not only attracted the attention of scores of Mr. Pollack’s fans and admirers, it also became a gathering place for the director’s former classmates to post their memories and get well wishes.

I was also introduced to Gracie Parker, Mr. Pollack’s granddaughter. Gracie first left a comment assuring everyone that “My Grandpa is a great man. He is strong and will fight till the end.” Earlier this year she contacted me to tell me that her grandfather’s health has not improved and that he was currently hospitalized.

Gracie asked Emulsion Compulsion to help put Mr. Pollack in touch one of his old high school cronies. Two weeks ago she wrote “Thanks so much for your kind words.. They mean a lot…”

Sydney Pollack, director, actor, producer and champion of independent films, died of cancer Monday afternoon at his home in Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, surrounded by family. He was 73.

He was born on July 1, 1934, in Lafayette, Indiana, to a family of Russian-Jewish immigrants. His mother, Rebecca Miller, was a homemaker, his father, David Pollack, a professional boxer turned pharmacist. His parents divorced when he was young and his alcoholic mother died when she was 37 and Sydney was 16. After graduating from his HS in 1952, Pollack moved to the New York City and enrolled in the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater.

For two years young Pollack studied acting under Sanford Meisner and eventually became his assistant. After serving two years in the army, he returned to the Neighborhood Playhouse where he taught acting.

Pollack appeared in several Broadway productions before turning his attention to television directing in 1961. For four years Pollack broke his bones on popular shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Defenders, Ben Casey and the unavoidable Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre.

His first feature as a director was The Slender Thread starring Sidney Poitier as a crisis center worker who receives a call for help from suicidal Anne Bancroft. Pollack made his big screen acting debut in War Hunt where he met fellow actor Robert Redford. He gave the actor the lead in his second film, This Property is Condemned, and the two began a professional relationship that blossomed into a lifelong friendship. Over the years, Redford appeared in seven films for Sydney Pollack:This Property is Condemned, Jeremiah Johnson, The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor, The Electric Horseman, Out of Africa and Havana.

As a director, Mr. Pollack has always been a hit and miss affair. He never should have gone near a remake of a film as perfect as Sabrina and Tootsie’s message that men make better women than women do curdles the proceedings. Nor was I blown away by the picture postcard pyrotechnics of Out of Africa, a plodding melodrama with good acting at its finest.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? is arguably his most accomplished piece of filmmaking. Pollack squeezed every drop of emotion he could from a cast ranging from Jane Fonda at the brink of superstardom (and still capable of turning in a performance) to a possessed Gig Young, Red Buttons and “Grandpa” Al Lewis. The director’s use of space in production designer Harry Horner’s studio mock up of a depression era dance hall reveals more about his characters than any number of his other films combined.

The one Sydney Pollack film that I continue to return to is Absence of Malice. One of Pollack’s greatest virtues as a director was his ability to edit in his head. There is not one continuity error in the entire piece and watching the character and camera movement mesh as they advance from shot to shot is a sight to behold.

As a director, Pollack made an equally capable producer lending his backing to such worthy causes as Songwriter, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Flesh and Bone, Sense and Sensibility and one of this decades ten best films, Tom Tykwer’s Heaven.

While a much more gifted director than Garry Marshall, I admire both filmmakers equally for their work in front of the camera. Next to Charles Durning, Pollack’s the funniest thing in Tootsie. Woody Allen wisely gave him his only lead role in Husbands and Wives and he gives the best performances in both Eyes Wide Shut and Michael Clayton.

I was fortunate to meet the man once about four years ago. Pollack was entering the building just as I was leaving a friend’s office. He didn’t seem to be in that much of a hurry because we spoke for a good ten minutes. Of course I got right to the point and asked him about working with Al Lewis. He said he was “a very serious actor” who at the time was trying to break away from his Munsters mold.

Much of the talk was spent on a mid-80s cable show that he hosted called In Search of Independents. For the life of me I can’t recall who aired the show and a search of both imdb and Google proved fruitless. It was a showcase for short independent films that introduced me to a lot of superb experimental works that made for essential classroom use.

I wanted to expose my students to inexpensive shorts that anyone with a video camera and an imagination could bring to the screen. JGLNG is a five-minute abstract short that hypnotizes the viewer by superimposing two images of a juggler juggling. There was also a William Wegman film that choreographed his two Weimaraners following an off-camera tennis ball. Mr. Pollack remembered both shorts and spoke with great passion when the subject of independent films came up.

In 1958, Pollack married his former student Claire Griswold and the two remained in love for fifty years. In addition to his wife, Mr. Pollack is survived by two daughters, Rebecca and Rachel; his brother Bernie; and six grandchildren. His son Steven Pollack died in a plane crash in 1993.

Our prayers go out to you and your family, Gracie. For those of you who would like to leave a message, I’ll see to it that Gracie gets them.

Links:
Sydney Pollack photos

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Filed Under Obituaries