<img title="Image: http://www.myvivvo.com/thumbnail.php?file=art.pollack2.gi_603854965.jpg&amp;size=article_medium" src="http://www.myvivvo.com/thumbnail.php?file=art.pollack2.gi_603854965.jpg&amp;size=article_medium" alt="Legendary director actor Sidney Pollack dies of cancer">
										
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								<span>Academy Award-winning director Sydney Pollack, who achieved 
critical acclaim with the period drama "Out of Africa" and the romantic 
comedy "Tootsie," died of cancer Monday, his agent told CNN.<br><br>Pollack,
 73, died at his home in Los Angeles. He was surrounded by his wife of 
nearly 50 years, Claire Griswold, their two daughters, Rebecca and 
Rachel, and his brother, Bernie, agent Leslee Dart said. Their only son 
Steven died in a plane crash in 1993.<br><br>Pollack, who often appeared
 on the screen himself, worked with and gained the respect of 
Hollywood's best actors in a long career that reached prominence in the 
1970s and 1980s, according to the Associated Press.<br><br>"Sydney made 
the world a little better, movies a little better and even dinner a 
little better. A tip of the hat to a class act," actor George Clooney 
said in a statement issued by his publicist, the Associated Press 
reported.<br><br>Last fall, Pollack played Marty Bach opposite Clooney 
in "Michael Clayton," a drama that examines the life of a fixer for 
lawyers. The film, which Pollack co-produced, received seven Oscar 
nominations, including best picture and a best actor nod for Clooney, 
according to the Associated Press.<br><br>Pollack was no stranger to the
 Academy Awards. In 1986, "Out of Africa," a romantic epic of a woman's 
passion set against the landscape of colonial Kenya, captured seven 
Oscars, including best director, The Associated Press reported.<br><br>In
 addition to directing "Out of Africa," "Tootsie," "The Way We Were," 
and a host of other Oscar-nominated films, he appeared in Stanley 
Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut," Woody Allen's "Husbands and Wives," and his 
own "The Electric Horseman."<br><br>He also produced nearly 50 films, 
including 1981's "Absence of Malice," which starred Paul Newman and 
Sally Field, and 1999's "The Talented Mr. Ripley," which starred Matt 
Damon.<br><br>Though he had been working until recently -- his show 
"Recount" premiered Sunday night on HBO -- he had been in a lot of pain 
and did not watch it, Dart said.<br><br>Doctors never were able to determine the primary source of the cancer, she said.<br><br>Services will be private, she said.</span>
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