Sydney Pollack 1935-2008

Cancer claimed Oscar winning director, producer and actor Sydney Pollack Monday at his home in Pacific Palisades. Pollack won his Academy Awards for best director and best picture for "Out of Africa." He was also nominated as a director for "Tootsie" and "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and as a producer on last year's "Michael Clayton." He also played a major role in 'Clayton.' His first acting credit on IMDB was a 1959 episode of "Playhouse 90," but it was on the movie "War Hunt" in 1962 that he met Robert Redford and formed a long professional association. "Mr. Pollack's career defined an era in which big stars and the filmmakers who knew how to wrangle them retooled the Hollywood system"...
(From LA Obvserved - Kevin Roderick)

I had a chance to hang out with Sydney Pollack at a film festival in Belgium about ten years ago. We spent an evening in a hotel bar where he excitedly discussed flying airplanes—a passion of his. After detailing a harrowing flight where he ran very low on fuel (fumes, evidently) while trying to land in pure fog, he asked us all to not repeat the story, explaining that it might not be so entertaining to the insurance companies that do "key person" insurance for directors.

He was a good director and, from my rather limited experience, a generous person.
What I really found appealing about him was that he was a multi-faceted person.

And I think in the back of my mind I always expected to see him again and talk about airplanes some more.