Streisand Comments on Pollack's Death; Oscar Winner Dies at 73

Oscar winning director and producer, Sydney Pollack passed away on Memorial Day, 2008 from cancer in his home in the Pacific Palisades. He was 73 years old.

Most recently, Pollack had produced (and appeared in ) Michael Clayton which was up for seven Academy Awards including best picture, director and actor as well as Made of Honor which just opened up this spring. He was originally set to direct the newly aired "Recount" on HBO but withdrew due to his illness.

Said longtime friend Barbra Streisand: "He knew how to tell a love story.  He was a great actor's director because he was a great actor.  And he was a very good friend, someone I even shared secrets with."

Another friend and collaborator Martin Landau stated:  "Ever since we started together in New York, Sydney excelled at everything he set out to do, his friendships and his humanity no less than his extraordinary talents."

Martin Landau and Sydney Pollack were friends from their early acting days in New York, and, together with Mark Rydell, they head given leadership to the Actors Studio for a number of years.

As a producer, Pollack worked on several notable film such as The Fabulous Baker Boys, Sense and Sensibility, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain.  As an actor, he has appeared in Husband and Wives, Eyes Wide Shut, Changing Lanes and his own critcially acclaimed, Tootsie. Pollack won his Best Director Oscar for Out of Africa and directed such hits as Tootsie and The Interpreter. His films have been nominated in various categories a total of 48 times.

Pollack is survived by his wife and his two daughters, Rebecca and Rachel. Pollack had a son named Steven who died in a 1993 from a plane crash in Santa Monica.

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