Sidney Lumet

From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA • 1924 - 2011

Sidney Arthur Lumet ( loo-MET; June 25, 1924 – April 9, 2011) was an American film director. Lumet started his career in theatre before moving to directing television in 1950, and then directing films from 1957, where he gained a reputation for making realistic and gritty New York dramas that focused on the working class, tackled social injustices, and often questioned authority. He received various accolades including an Academy Honorary Award and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for nine British Academy Film Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. He was nominated five times for Academy Awards: four for Best Director for the legal drama 12 Angry Men (1957), the crime drama Dog Day Afternoon (1975), the satirical drama Network (1976) and the legal thriller The Verdict (1982), and won for Best Adapted Screenplay for Prince of the City (1981). Other films include A View from the Bridge (1962), Long Day's Journey into Night (1962), The Pawnbroker (1964), Fail Safe (1964), The Hill (1965), Serpico (1973), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Equus (1977), The Wiz (1978), The Morning After (1986), Running on Empty (1988) and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007). He received the Academy Honorary Award in 2004. A member of the inaugural class at New York's Actors Studio, Lumet started acting Off-Broadway and made his Broadway acting debut in the 1935 play Dead End. He went on to direct the Broadway plays Night of the Auk (1956), Caligula (1960) and Nowhere to Go But Up (1962). Lumet is also known for his work on television. He received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series nomination for NBC Sunday Showcase (1961). He also directed for Goodyear Television Playhouse, Kraft Television Theatre and Playhouse 90. (Via Wikipedia)