RIP Sydney Pollack and Harvey Korman

Song Stuck in My Head: Genesis, "The Carpet Crawlers" (from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway)

Director, producer and character actor Sydney Pollack died on the 26 May, 2008 after a nine month bout with cancer. He was 73 years old. While I was not a fan of all his films, Pollack's Three Days of the Condor (1975) held me firmly in place when I watched it on television as a kid. Condor was probably as responsible for my interest in film as Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark - and may have had more of an impact on my imagination in some ways. Some of Pollack's other film's included:

• Castle Keep (1969) director
• They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) director
• Jeremiah Johnson (1972) director
• The Way We Were (1973) director
• The Electric Horseman (1979) director/actor
• Absence of Malice (1981) director/producer
• Tootsie (1982) director/producer/actor
• Out of Africa (1985) director/producer
• Havana (1990) director/co-producer
• The Firm (1993) director/producer
• The Interpreter (2005) director, executive producer, and actor

Update: I have been working on a political blog post and just learned that Harvey Korman just died. Perhaps best known to all as the ridiculously villainous Hedley Lamarr in Mel Brooks classic comedy, Blazing Saddles, Korman had a long run on both film and television. Other workd by Korman included: The Carol Brunette Show, High Anxiety, History of the World, Part I and he was the voice of the Great Gazoo on the Flintstones. Korman died at the age of 81 of an abdominal aortic aneurysm.