Alan Jay Pakula (; April 7, 1928 – November 19, 1998) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Associated with the New Hollywood movement, his best-known works include his critically acclaimed "paranoia trilogy": the neo-noir mystery Klute (1971), the conspiracy thriller The Parallax View (1974), and the Watergate scandal drama All the President's Men (1976). He was the subject of the 2023 documentary Alan Pakula: Going for Truth.
Early life and education
Pakula was born in The Bronx, New York, to Polish Jewish parents, Jeanette (née Goldstein) and Paul Pakula. He was educated at The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and Yale University, where he majored in drama.
Career
Pakula started his Hollywood career as an assistant in the cartoon department at Warner Bros. 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 an Academy Award for Best Picture. Pakula had a successful professional relationship as the producer of movies directed by Mockingbird director Robert Mulligan from 1957 to 1968. In 1969, he directed his first feature, The Sterile Cuckoo, starring Liza Minnelli.
Paranoia trilogy
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, although secret, 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, played by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, respectively. It was another commercial hit, considered by many critics and fans to be one of the best political thrillers of the 1970s.
Subsequent films
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 The Pelican Brief, an adaptation of John Grisham's bestseller. His final film was the thriller The Devil's Own, where he reunited with Harrison Ford.
Personal life
From October 19, 1963, until 1971, Pakula was married to actress Hope Lange. He was married to his second wife, author Hannah Pakula (formerly Hannah Cohn Boorstin) from 1973 until his death in 1998.
He had two stepchildren from his marriage with Hope Lange, Christopher and Patricia Murray, and three stepchildren from his second marriage. They are Louis, Robert, and Anna Boorstin. He spoke very openly about his stepson Robert's battle with depression.
Death
On November 19, 1998, Pakula was driving on the Long Island Expressway in Melville, New York, when a driver in front of him hit a metal pipe, causing it to crash through Pakula's windshield and strike him in the head. His car swerved off the road and into a fence. He was taken to North Shore University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Filmography
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|- style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
!Year
!Title
!Director
!Producer
!Writer
|-
|1969
|The Sterile Cuckoo
|
|
|
|-
|1971
|Klute
|
|
|
|-
|1973
|Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing
|
|
|
|-
|1974
|The Parallax View
|
|
|
|-
|1976
|All the President's Men
|
|
|
|-
|1978
|Comes a Horseman
|
|
|
|-
|1979
|Starting Over
|
|
|
|-
|1981
|Rollover
|
|
|
|-
|1982
|Sophie's Choice
|
|
|
|-
|1986
|Dream Lover
|
|
|
|-
|1987
|Orphans
|
|
|
|-
|1989
|See You in the Morning
|
|
|
|-
|1990
| Presumed Innocent
|
|
|
|-
|1992
|Consenting Adults
|
|
|
|-
|1993
|The Pelican Brief
|
|
|
|-
|1997
|The Devil's Own
|
|
|
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Producer only
!Year
!Title
!Director
|-
|1957
|Fear Strikes Out
| rowspan="7" |Robert Mulligan
|-
|1962
|To Kill a Mockingbird
|-
|1963
|Love with the Proper Stranger
|-
| rowspan="2" |1965
|Baby the Rain Must Fall
|-
|Inside Daisy Clover
|-
|1967
|Up the Down Staircase
|-
|1968
|The Stalking Moon
|}
Awards and nominations received by Pakula's directed films
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"|Year
!rowspan="2"|Film
!colspan="2" style="background-color:#AAAADE;"|Academy Awards
!colspan="2" style="background-color:#AA0;"|BAFTA Film Awards
!colspan="2" style="background-color:#FE1;"|Golden Globe Awards
|-
!Nominations
!Wins
!Nominations
!Wins
!Nominations
!Wins
|-
|1969
|The Sterile Cuckoo
|align=center|2
|
|align=center|1
|
|align=center|1
|
|-
|1971
|Klute
|align=center|2
|align=center|1
|align=center|1
|
|align=center|2
|align=center|1
|-
|1976
|All the President's Men
|align=center|8
|align=center|4
|align=center|10
|
|align=center|4
|
|-
|1978
|Comes a Horseman
|align=center|1
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|1979
|Starting Over
|align=center|2
|
|
|
|align=center|4
|
|-
|1982
|Sophie's Choice
|align=center|5
|align=center|1
|align=center|2
|
|align=center|3
|align=center|1
|-
!colspan="2" style="background-color:#BCC5CC;"|Total
!20
!6
!14
!
!14
!2
|-
|}
Directed Academy Award performances <br />Under Pakula's direction, these actors have received Academy Award nominations and wins for their performances in their respective roles.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!style="background-color:#B0C7DE;"|Year
!style="background-color:#B0C7DE;"|Performer
!style="background-color:#B0C7DE;"|Film
!style="background-color:#B0C7DE;"|Result
|-
!colspan="4" style="background-color:#DEDAFE;"|Academy Award for Best Actress
|-
|1970
|Liza Minnelli
|The Sterile Cuckoo
|
|-
|1972
|Jane Fonda
|Klute
|
|-
|1980
|Jill Clayburgh
|Starting Over
|
|-
|1983
|Meryl Streep
|Sophie's Choice
|
|-
!colspan="4" style="background-color:#DEDAFE;"|Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
|-
|1977
|Jason Robards
|All the President's Men
|
|-
|1979
|Richard Farnsworth
|Comes a Horseman
|
|-
!colspan="4" style="background-color:#DEDAFE;"|Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
|-
|1977
|Jane Alexander
|All the President's Men
|
|-
|1980
|Candice Bergen
|Starting Over
|
|-
|}
References
Further reading
External links
- Alan J. Pakula papers. Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.