Sydney Pollack is best known for the fine performances he elicited from Hollywood stars such as Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Paul Newman and Burt Lancaster. Born in Lafayette, IN, Pollack began his own career as an actor. After studying at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse with Sanford Meisner, he stayed on at Meisner's request as an acting coach, while also appearing on Broadway, in summer stock and on television. A role in a "Playhouse 90" production of For Whom the Bell Tolls, directed by John Frankenheimer, led to an introduction to Burt Lancaster. It was through Lancaster that Pollack got his chance to begin directing for television. In the next five years he directed over 80 shows, most notably 15 episodes of the popular "Ben Casey" series. Pollack's first feature as a director was THE SLENDER THREAD (1965), featuring Anne Bancroft as a suicidal woman and Sidney Poitier as a crisis center worker trying to keep her on the telephone while emergency services track her down. This taut drama, shot on location in Seattle in black and white, opened with an aerial shot that would soon become one of the director's trademarks. After Pollack directed THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED (1966), THE SCALPHUNTERS (1968) and CASTLE KEEP (1969), he achieved his first major success with THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? (1969), a harrowing drama set during a Depression-era dance marathon. Although the film was criticized for toning down the harsher, more abrasive qualities of the Horace McCoy novel on which it was based, it did earn Gig Young an Oscar® as Best Supporting Actor and Pollack a nomination for Best Director. Pollack next scored at the box office with THE WAY WE WERE (1973), an old-fashioned love story starring Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand. After several missteps, Pollack returned to form with THE ELECTRIC HORSEMAN (1979), this time pairing Redford with Jane Fonda in a romantic comedy about a modern-day cowboy and a reporter. He enjoyed a huge commercial and critical success with the breakthrough gender-bending comedy TOOTSIE (1982), in which he also acted in a small but memorable role as the agent of an intransigent actor, played by Dustin Hoffman (who insisted that the director play the part). Pollack's career reached a zenith of sorts with OUT OF AFRICA (1985), the sumptuous if overlong love story of writer Isak Dinesen (Meryl Streep) and Denys Finch Hatton (Redford), which Pollack produced and directed, winning Oscars for both. After his triumphant trip to Africa, Pollack was busier as a producer than as a director. Some of his varied producing credits include MAJOR LEAGUE (1989), THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS (1989), PRESUMED INNOCENT (1990), DEAD AGAIN (1991) and SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER (1993). Pollack directed only two features in that same timespan: HAVANA (1990), a resounding critical and commercial flop featuring an aging Robert Redford, and THE FIRM (1993), a blockbuster legal thriller starring Tom Cruise and a stellar supporting cast. He devoted more time to acting in recent years, receiving kudos for his major supporting performance in Woody Allen's HUSBANDS AND WIVES (1992), as a New York professional who leaves his wife (Judy Davis) of many years. That same year, he appeared in Robert Altman's THE PLAYER and in Robert Zemeckis's DEATH BECOMES HER. Pollack produced and directed a remake of Billy Wilder's SABRINA in 1995, with Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond and Greg Kinnear in the Bogart, Hepburn and Holden roles. It was deemed to be a pretty tame version of the original, with elements of farce combined with corny soap-opera romance. Ford was not entirely convincing as the romantic lead. Pollack called on Harrison Ford again for his next film, RANDOM HEARTS (1999), where after the death of their loved ones in a tragic plane crash, Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas find each other's keys in each other's loved one's possessions and realize that they were having a love affair. They are forced to figure out the details of the illicit relationship. Pollack was a vocal opponent of "pan-and-scan" and colorization. In 1997, he brought a lawsuit against Danish Television after they had broadcast THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR in pan-and-scan in 1991. A Danish court ruled that the pan scanning was a "mutilation" of the film and a violation of Pollack's drior moral, his legal right as an artist to maintain his reputation by protecting the integrity of his work. Nonetheless, the court held in favor of the defendant on a technicality. Pollack was the winner of the 2000 John Huston Award, presented by the Directors Guild of America as a "defender of artists' rights... a warrior." More recently, he produced or executive produced THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY (1999), UP AT THE VILLA (2000), BLOW DRY, BIRTHDAY GIRL and IRIS (all 2001), HEAVEN and THE QUIET AMERICAN (both 2002), COLD MOUNTAIN and IN THE NAME OF LOVE (both 2003), FORTY SHADES OF BLUE, THE INTERPRETER (also director) and SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY (also director) (all 2005), CATCH A FIRE and BREAKING AND ENTERING (both 2006), MICHAEL CLAYTON and MARGARET (both 2007) and scheduled productions of THE NO. 1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY, "Recount" (TV) and THE READER (all 2008). His brother is costume designer Bernie Pollack.  Nominated for Directing 1969: THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY?  Nominated for Best Picture 1982: TOOTSIE - Producer at Mirage/Punch (w. Dick Richards)  Nominated for Directing 1982: TOOTSIE  Best Picture 1985: OUT OF AFRICA - Producer at Universal  Directing 1985: OUT OF AFRICA  Nominated for Best Picture 2007: MICHAEL CLAYTON - Producer at Clayton Productions  Nominated for Best Picture 2008: THE READER - Producer at Mirage Enterprises (w. Donna Gigliotti, Anthony Minghella & Redmond Morris) 7 nominations, 2 Awards