When I stumbled over the sad news of Sydney Pollack’s death about half an hour ago, it hit me a bit harder than a lot of celebrity or filmmaker deaths. I guess I felt like I knew him. Maybe because he was both a consistently wonderful actor as well as a strong director, though somewhat inevitably far less consistent. Also, I’ve seen him speak more than once in person — including passionately discussing film preservation and, in those pre-DVD days, the importance of making letterboxed versions of widescreen films available, a subject which obviously speaks to the film geek in me.

Then there are also the weirder personal connections. A good actor and good guy who once tolerated me in acting classes some years back, worked for him and spoke with great respect of the man. And then there was the film that I think might actually be his best (though there are a few I’ve still yet to catch), Three Days of the Condor, a favorite film of my good pal, Randy Reynaldo — which for reasons shrouded by the mist of time eventually resulted in a very silly spoof featuring Randy’s character, Rob Hanes, for which I am mostly to blame.

And, speaking of my acting class, I once had the fun of recreating the scene below. Safe to say, I think, I was pretty godawful by comparison, still, fun to try to avoid stepping too deeply into the man’s shoes.

My favorite acting bit of Pollack’s might actually be as one of the few actual right choices in the otherwise gloriously wrong Eyes Wide Shut. There was something about a Pollack performance that also applied to his best acting, a kind of dark, if not quite cynical, perhaps tough, view of life mixed with a kind of compassion, even when he was playing gigantically untrustworthy people, and always a touch of humor that was frankly Jewish, culturally speaking.

And he made good movies, well, a lot of the time. Here’s an example of Mr. Pollack’s mastery of a nearly lost art in a Hollywood thriller. People talking. No wonder I’ll miss him.

UPDATE: The invaluable David Hudson of Greencine has a huge round-up of reaction to Pollack’s passing. Also, the above referenced Randy R. has his say.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Brian Doan has a more detailed appreciation of Mr. Pollack’s works as a director, which I think nails a lot (though I can’t say I agree about Out of Africa, which didn’t work for me at all). He also has several more links that I hope to have time to get before I forget.