Leadership in America

Actor/Director Sydney Pollack

October 17: Sydney Pollack
Actor and director Sydney Pollack was born on July 1, 1934. After graduating high school in Indiana, he studied acting in New York and quickly moved into television, both as an actor and as a director. His real breakthrough in film came in 1969 when he directed Jane Fonda in, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Fonda was nominated for an Oscar as best actress and Pollack as best director, but he didn't win the golden statuette until he directed Meryl Streep in Out of Africa. He says making that movie was the greatest test of his leadership: the cast was enormous, it was shot in a foreign country, and the logistics were daunting.

The 66-year old Pollack says he's learned much about leadership from those who have directed him, including Woody Allen and Stanley Kubrick. Pollack has gone on to make some of the most memorable films of the past 20 years, including Tootsie, The Electric Horseman, with Robert Redford, The Way We Were, with Redford and Barbra Streisand, and produced many others.

Listen to NPR's Susan Stamberg talks with Sydney Pollack about his life as an actor and as an actor's director in this full-length interview.

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