Sidney Lumet Add to My Celebs Age 86 (passed away Apr. 9th, 2011) Birthday Jun. 25th, 1924 Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Height 5' 5

Sidney Lumet's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Private Screenings Sidney Lumet

Main Movie Roles 2009 - I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale 2004 - The Manchurian Candidate 2003 - A Decade Under the Influence

NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at IMDB


BIOGRAPHY:

Synonymous with the New York filmmaking scene, Lumet roamed the streets of his adopted hometown in a wide variety of films, working in the nascent medium of television in the early 1950s before making his feature film directorial debut in 1957 with the cinematic adaptation of the jury room classic 12 Angry Men, starring Henry Fonda. That film earned Lumet his first Oscar nomination and started a prolific career that would take him through crime dramas, Broadway and literary adaptations, occasional Hollywood films, and lacerating satires.

Born in Philadelphia to parents who were in show business -- his father was an actor and director, his mother a dancer -- he appeared in numerous Broadway plays as a child and young adult before serving three years in the Army during WWII and returning to New York to direct. Lumet's directorial style, described as "lightning quick" in an era when American cinema was still burdened by the limitations of decorative and expensive Hollywood films, earned him a successful career in TV, where he adapted numerous plays for such early shows as Playhouse 90 and Studio One. He directed a TV version of 12 Angry Men before turning it into a successful 1957 film that earned three Academy Award nominations (Best Picture, Director and Screenplay) and singlehandedly established Lumet's cinematic directing career.

Lumet alternated film and television work in the late 1950s and early 1960s -- including a TV version of The Iceman Cometh -- before helming a number of acclaimed cinematic films in the early 1960s: the devastating adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962); the New York drama The Pawnbroker (1964), which earned Rod Steiger a Best Actor Oscar nomination; and the nuclear drama Fail-Safe (also 1964). Through the late 1960s and early 1970s some of Lumet's work was uneven -- adaptations of bestsellers The Group (1966) and The Anderson Tapes (1971) as well as Chekhov's The Sea Gull (1968) are admirable but not entirely successful -- but scored again throughout the 1970s. The crime drama Serpico (1973) helped cement Al Pacino's star status after The Godfather -- and earned the actor his first Best Actor Oscar nomination, and the actor and director paired again in 1975's Dog Day Afternoon, the story of a bank heist gone crazily awry; the film, now considered a modern classic, earned Lumet and Pacino Oscar nominations and some of the best reviews of their careers. In between those films, set in New York, Lumet took a literal and figurative jaunt with the successful adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express (1974), an upper-class murder mystery set on a luxury European train that seemed as far from the seamy streets of Manhattan as possible.

In 1976, Lumet explored the themes of media exposure and saturation he delved into with Dog Day Afternoon even further with the scathing television satire and drama Network. Lumet, along with screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, pioneered the idea (and condemnation) of what is now commonly thought of as reality TV in his story of a network anchorman (Finch) who suffers a breakdown on live television with the rallying cry "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!", and the television executive (Dunaway) who turns him into a folk hero, TV icon, and tragic figure, ultimately goading him into committing suicide live on television. The film, still potent and more lacerating than most explorations of modern media since, won Finch and Dunaway Oscars; Finch's award was posthumous, as the actor died in early 1977. It remains one of only two films to win three Academy Awards for acting (the third for supporting actress Beatrice Straight, who appeared onscreen for less than six minutes), the other being A Streetcar Named Desire.

After that string of commercial and financial hits, Lumet's career included a wide variety of films: adaptations of Broadway hits Equus (1977, fairly successful), The Wiz (1978, a musical flop but a strangely visionary view of New York), Deathtrap (1982, unexpected fun if not a perfect film); crime drama Prince of the City (1981, one of Lumet's most unheralded fims); courtroom drama The Verdict (1982, a big hit that earned star Paul Newman and Lumet Oscar nominations); Hollywood melodrama (1986's The Morning After,); and indie drama (Running On Empty, the 1988 drama with River Phoenix in his only Oscar-nominated performance). Lumet's last film was the 2007 drama Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.

Lumet was married four times, first to actress Rita Gam, second to socialite Gloria Vanderbilt, and third to Gail Jones, daughter of Lena Horne. He married Mary Gimbel, who survives him, in 1980 and had two daughters with Ms. Jones, Amy Lumet and screenwriter Jenny Lumet, who scripted the drama Rachel Getting Married. Nominated for five Oscars (four for directing, one for screenplay), Lumet was awarded an honorary Academy Award at the 2004 Oscars.



TRIVIA:

• Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982.
• Lumet is often a favorite director for actors, encouraging the creative collaboration of his stars.
• Three of his films are listed on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time. They are: _Serpico (1973)_ (qv) at #84, _The Verdict (1982)_ (qv) at #75, and _12 Angry Men (1957)_ (qv) at #42.
• 'Roger Ebert' (qv) says of Lumet's book Making Movies that it "has more common sense in it about how movies are actually made than any other I have read.".
• Wanted to direct _Death Wish (1974)_ (qv) with 'Jack Lemmon (I)' (qv) in the leading role.
• Ex-father-in-law of 'Bobby Cannavale' (qv) and 'P.J. O'Rourke' (qv).
• After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001 he caused some controversy by continuing to shoot his New York based series _"100 Centre Street" (2001)_ (qv) for the remainder of the day. Lumet said he told the crew that they could leave if they wanted but that no one did.
• Was the originally director of _Funny Girl (1968)_ (qv), but left the picture over differences with producer 'Ray Stark' (qv) and star 'Barbra Streisand' (qv). He was replaced by 'William Wyler' (qv).

Sidney Lumet Photos

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