Alan J. Pakula
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| Alan J. Pakula | |
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 Pakula in Sweden, 1990. |
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| Born | April 7, 1928 The Bronx, New York, USA |
| Died | November 19, 1998 (aged 70) Melville, New York, USA |
| Spouse | Hope Lange (1963–1971) Hannah Cohn Boorstin (1973–1998) |
Alan Jay Pakula (April 7, 1928 – November 19, 1998) was an American film director, writer and producer noted for his contributions to the conspiracy thriller genre.
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[edit] Career
Pakula started his Hollywood career as an assistant in the cartoon department at Warner Brothers. In 1957, he undertook his first production role for Paramount Pictures. In 1962, he produced To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. In 1969, he directed his first feature, The Sterile Cuckoo, starring Liza Minnelli.
In 1971, Pakula released the first installment of what would informally come to be known as his "paranoia trilogy". Klute, the story of a relationship between a private eye (played by Donald Sutherland) and a call girl (played by Jane Fonda, who won an Oscar for her performance), was a commercial and critical success. This was followed in 1974 by The Parallax View starring Warren Beatty, a labyrinthine post-Watergate thriller involving political assassinations. The film has been noted for its experimental use of hypnotic imagery in a celebrated film-within-a-film sequence in which the protagonist is inducted into the Parallax Corporation, whose main, albeit non-ostensible, enterprise is domestic terrorism.
Finally, in 1976, Pakula rounded out the "trilogy" with All the President's Men, based on the bestselling account of the Watergate scandal written by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who were played in the movie by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. It was another commercial hit, considered by many critics and fans to be one of the best thrillers of the 1970s.[1]
Pakula scored another hit in 1982 with Sophie's Choice, starring Meryl Streep. His screenplay, based on the novel by William Styron, was nominated for an Academy Award. Later commercial successes included Presumed Innocent, based on the bestselling novel by Scott Turow, and another political thriller, The Pelican Brief, an adaptation of John Grisham's bestseller.
[edit] Personal life
Pakula was born in The Bronx, New York to parents of Polish Jewish descent, Jeanette (née Goldstein) and Paul Pakula.[2] He was educated at The Hill School, Pottstown, PA and Yale University, where he majored in drama. From October 19, 1963 until 1971, Pakula was married to actress Hope Lange. He was married to his second wife, Hannah Cohn Boorstin, from 1973 until his death in 1998.
[edit] Death
Pakula died on November 19, 1998 in a freak car accident on the Long Island Expressway in Melville, New York. He was 70 years old. A driver in front of him struck a metal pipe, which went through Pakula's windshield, struck him in the head, and caused him to swerve off the road and into a fence. He was killed instantly.[3]
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Fear Strikes Out | Producer |
| 1962 | To Kill a Mockingbird | Producer |
| 1963 | Love with the Proper Stranger | Producer |
| 1965 | Baby the Rain Must Fall | Producer |
| Inside Daisy Clover | Producer | |
| 1967 | Up the Down Staircase | Producer |
| 1968 | The Stalking Moon | Producer |
| 1969 | The Sterile Cuckoo | Director, producer |
| 1971 | Klute | Director, producer |
| 1973 | Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing | Director, producer |
| 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 |
| 1982 | Sophie's Choice | Director, producer, writer |
| 1986 | Dream Lover | Director, producer |
| 1987 | Orphans | Director, producer |
| 1989 | See You in the Morning | Director, producer, writer |
| 1990 | Presumed Innocent | Writer, director |
| 1992 | Consenting Adults | Director, producer |
| 1993 | The Pelican Brief | Director, producer, writer |
| 1997 | The Devil's Own | Director |
[edit] References
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alan J. Pakula |
- ^ All the President's Men Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
- ^ Alan Pakula Biography
- ^ Sterngold, James (1998-11-20). "Alan J. Pakula, Film Director, Dies at 70". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A07E7DE1230F933A15752C1A96E958260. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
[edit] External links
- Alan J. Pakula at the Internet Movie Database
- Alan J Pakula - Daily Telegraph obituary
- American Film Institute interview
- "The Pakula Parallax" essay
- "Alan J. Pakula". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4058. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
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