RIP Sydney Pollack and Dick Martin

Rowan and Martin's Laugh In  Tootsie

Sydney Pollack, a Hollywood mainstay as director, producer and sometime actor whose star-laden movies like “The Way We Were,” “Tootsie” and “Out of Africa” were among the most successful of the 1970s and ’80s, died Monday at home here. He was 73.

The cause was cancer, said the publicist Leslee Dart, who spoke for his family. [NYTimes.com]

Dick Martin, a veteran nightclub comic who with his partner, Dan Rowan, turned a midseason replacement slot at NBC in 1968 into a hit that redefined what could be done on television, died Saturday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 86 and lived in Malibu, Calif.

The cause was respiratory failure, a family spokesman, Barry Greenberg, said. Mr. Martin had lost one lung to tuberculosis as a teenager, and in recent years he had used an oxygen tank for much of the day. [NYTimes.com]

One Comment

  1. Stunned says:

    Sydney’s death came as a catastrophic shock to me. Can’t believe I got the news from here of all places! I had no idea he was ill. So sad, and such an immense loss to a business where actors have no business acting and directors have no business directing shitty actors.

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