Born in The Bronx, NY; educated at the Yale School of Drama. Began his career as an assistant in the Warner Bros. cartoon department in 1949 and graduated to producer status at Paramount with the baseball psychodrama FEAR STRIKES OUT (1957). The film marked the first of seven collaborations with director Robert Mulligan which included TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962), INSIDE DAISY CLOVER (1965) and UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE (1967). Pakula launched his own directorial career with the sensitive, if somewhat static melodrama, THE STERILE CUCKOO (1969) and hit his stride two years later with KLUTE (1971), a moody psychological thriller in which Donald Sutherland and Jane Fonda each gave one of the best performances of their careers. Pakula consolidated his position as one of Hollywood's most bankable directors with his fine adaptation of the Watergate exposé, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976), and continued to demonstrate a flair for intelligent and literate, if sometimes earnest, filmmaking. Pakula earned critical acclaim for his translation of William Styron's Holocaust drama, SOPHIE'S CHOICE (1982), and for the screen version of Scott Turow's bestselling thriller, PRESUMED INNOCENT (1990). His proven skill with political thrillers, including his 1974 paranoid classic THE PARALLAX VIEW, continued with THE PELICAN BRIEF (1993), based on the bestselling novel by John Grisham. His last film was THE DEVIL'S OWN (1997). Pakula was married to actress Hope Lange from 1963 until 1969. He married Hannah Cohn Boorstin in 1973; they remained married until his death. He died in Melville, Long Island, NY in 1998. He was killed when another car struck a metal pipe lying in the road and it flew into the windshield of his car.  Nominated for Best Picture 1962: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - Producer at Pakula-Mulligan-Brentwood  Nominated for Directing 1976: ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN  Nominated for Writing (Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium) 1982: SOPHIE'S CHOICE 3 nominations