WWTBAM Bored

Dead at 73. Breaking news heading from the New York Times, but I can't find any details yet.

I for one will always remember him as the man who brought us "Tootsie." Sigh.

Shit. I liked him a lot.

Well, Tootsie's a hell of a movie, as that type of movie goes.

The news just says he had cancer; didn't say what sort, but I think he was a smoker.

Pollack started as an actor and appeared occasionally in films he didn't direct, most recently Made of Honor and Michael Clayton (which he produced, as he did a number of other films including Cold Mountain). He became an acting coach in New York local theater, with Robert Duvall and Rip Torn among his students.

From that he went into TV and then film directing. Among the films he directed were Out of Africa (for which he won Oscars for directing and producing), The Firm, They Shoot Horses Don't They (his breakthrough), The Way We Were, Absence of Malice, Three Days of the Condor, and Jeremiah Johnson. He and Robert Redford, who appeared in a number of his movies, were good friends. Redford probably did his best work for Pollack, but never got an Oscar nomination in any Pollack film.

Pollack also produced a number of movies, including Clayton and Cold Mountain. He was considered more of a craftsman than an artist, but his films were invariably good entertainment., and he was equally at home with comedy and suspense. A very talented and well-liked man.

Looked him up at imdb.com and noticed he was executive producer on HBO's Recount that ran Sunday and again last nite.

An article was in the local paper Saturday that I thought was kind of interesting. Nothing earth shattering, but interesting.

http://www.gazette.com/entertainment/po ... _ties.html