Film Director Alan J. Pakula

Mr. Pakula was born in the Bronx on April 7, 1928. His father was the co-owner of a printing business. He was expected to take over the business, but he convinced his Dad into becoming a screen writer. He attended Yale University and majored in drama. He worked at the Leland Hayward Theatrical Agency and fell in love with show business. His first job in Hollywood was at Warner Brothers in the cartoon department. In 1950, he became an apprentice to Don Hartman at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), and the next year moved with Hartman to Paramount, as a production assistant. He moved on to producing and only began directing in 1969.

Mr. Pakula made different kinds of movies with a style that emphasized and explored the psychology and motivations of his characters.  He had great interest in psychology, particularly how men deal with their fears, ''A man who is in control, and inside there is a frightened child,'' he said in an interview several years ago with The New York Times. ''That interests me. Why? You can draw your own conclusions.''

Mr. Pakula directed 16, produced 18, in his career. In 1957 his first film, ''Fear Strikes Out,'' starring Anthony Perkins, a study of the talented but troubled baseball star Jimmy Piersall, whose career was hindered by his mental illness. In 1962 To Kill A Mockingbird (producer): it won Oscars for Gregory Peck and the screenwriter, Horton Foote. In 1963 film he helped produce, ''Love With the Proper Stranger,'' which won several Academy Award nominations.  In 1965, “Baby the Rain Must Fall” (producer) and “Inside Daisy Clover” (producer). In 1967, "Up the Down Staircase" (producer), and in 1968 “The Stalking Moon” (producer). In 1969 his first picture directed, “The Sterile Cuckoo (director/producer): Liza Minnelli won an Oscar nomination for her role.

The following is a list of his other works:

1971 Klute (director/producer): Jane Fonda won an Oscar for her starring role.

1973 Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (director)

1974 The Parallax View (director/producer)

1976 All the President's Men (director)

1978 Comes a Horseman (director)

1979 Starting Over (director/producer)

1981 Rollover (director)

In 1982, “Sophie's Choice” (director/producer/screenplay): Meryl Streep won one of her Oscars for her role as Sophie, a tormented Nazi concentration camp survivor, The film was also ranked #1 in the Roger Ebert's Top Ten List for 1982 and was listed on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition).

Then he moved on with more incredible titles:

1986 Dream Lover (director/producer)

1987 Orphans (director/producer)

1989 See You in the Morning (director/producer/written by)

1990 Presumed Innocent (screenplay)

1992 Consenting Adults (director/producer)

1993 The Pelican Brief (director/producer/screenplay)

1997 The Devil's Own

Mr. Pakula was nominated for an Oscar for “All the President's Men” (1976) and for his screenplay for “Sophie's Choice,” (1982) but he never won.

He was always highly supportive of his cast, he had a reputation as an 'actor's director'. Pakula planned and talked through scenes thoroughly before shooting, and made a large number of takes. He was always highly supportive of his cast, he had a reputation as an'actor's director'.

He directed 8 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli, Jason Robards, Jane Alexander, Richard Farnsworth,Jill Clayburgh, Candice Bergen and Meryl Streep.Fonda, Robards  in “All the President’s Men” (1976) and Streep won Oscars for their performances in Pakula's movies. He was also the President of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1978.

The most autobiographical film he made was ''See You in the Morning,'' which was about a divorced man like himself, and his marriage to a widow with several children. Mr. Pakula's first marriage, to the actress Hope Lange, ended in divorce.  He was married to his second wife, Hannah Cohn Boorstin, from 1973 until his death in 1998.

Mr. Pakula was 70. He was killed instantly after his car swerved to a fence after a metal pipe came flying through the windshield from another driver that brought the pipe toward the windshield had struck his head. The police do not know where the long pipe came from. He is survived by his second wife, Hannah Pakula, three stepchildren and five grandchildren.

When he worked with Liza Minnelli on"The Sterile Cuckoo" (1969), he said, “One of the happiest times inmy life was during "The Sterile Cuckoo," mostly because of Liza. I'venever seen anybody get more joy out of working and it's contagious,” andanother one was, “I am oblique, I think that has to do with my own nature. Ilike trying to do things which work on many levels, because I think it isterribly important to give an audience a lot of things they might not get aswell as those they will, so that finally the film does take on a texture and isnot just simplistic communication.”

Taken from iMDB, Harrison Ford, who had starred in Mr. Pakula's last movie, ''The Devil's Own,'' (1997) called Mr. Pakula ''a natural guide to inner realms. As a writer and a director, he was always concerned with evolving emotionally. He was an elegant man.'' Also Julia Roberts, who appeared in his movie ''The Pelican Brief,'' (1993) said: ''He would allow you your time and the freedom to find things in the material. He knew when to give me my space or when to squeeze my hand. He was a psychiatrist and a director.''

Works Cited:

iMDB.com (2012). The Internet Movie Database: Alan J. Pakula. Taken from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001587/bio

New York Times (2012). Movies: Alan J. Pakula Film Director, Dies at 70, taken from http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/20/movies/alan-j-pakula-film-director-dies-at-70.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

The Telegraph (2012). Alan J Pakula, taken from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/7624467/Alan-J-Pakula.html