Biography for
Alan J. Pakula More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

7 April 1928, The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

Date of Death

19 November 1998, Melville, Long Island, New York, USA (road accident)

Height

6' 1½" (1.87 m)

Spouse

Hannah Pakula	(17 February 1973 - 19 November 1998) (his death)
Hope Lange	(19 October 1963 - 26 July 1971) (divorced)

Trivia

He was killed when another car struck a metal pipe lying in the road and it flew into the windshield of his car.

Alan was the son of a Polish immigrant who ran a printing business. Alan graduated from Yale and was expected to take over the business, but he convinced his Dad into underwriting a movie. This set him off on his producer's path and later became a director.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 728-732. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.

Directed 8 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli, Jason Robards, Jane Alexander, Richard Farnsworth, Jill Clayburgh, Candice Bergen and Meryl Streep.Fonda, Robards and Streep won Oscars for their performances in one of Pakula's movies.

President of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1978

His production business partner in the 1950s and 1960s was 'Robert Mulligan'.

Personal Quotes

[on working with Liza Minnelli on "The Sterile Cuckoo"] One of the happiest times in my life was during "The Sterile Cuckoo," mostly because of Liza. I've never seen anybody get more joy out of working and it's contagious.

I am oblique, I think that has to do with my own nature. I like trying to do things which work on many levels, because I think it is terribly important to give an audience a lot of things they might not get as well as those they will, so that finally the film does take on a texture and is not just simplistic communication.

Salary

The Devil's Own (1997)

$5,000,000