Dani Martin

Sydney Pollack- Better Actor than Director or Vice-Versa??

Sydney Pollack originally wanted to be an actor but by Hollywood standards he was just `too Jewish and too ugly`. These were the days of Tab Hunter and a whole lot of others like him. Perhaps being a Jew, he would even have been rejected by the Europeans excepting the British (at that time). He would have been rejected by the Germans and Italians and Spanish and French because whilst being as ugly as most of their leading men he was also a Jew (which invariably is always somehow uglier) Can anyone name 5 Italian-Jewish actors (forgetting Yves Montand who worked in France)....French-Jewish actors....Spanish-Jewish actors? That said, when Pollack, as an old man, got a chance to play a couple of roles, most memorably as the pivotal rich Jew who sips his sherry whilst poor New York Jews are dying, he was superb. So was he better as an actor or as a director?

Public Comments

1. Both, he is a great actor too.
2. 6 of 1- Half a dozen of another. He is a great director, because he is a excellent actor.
3. He was a great actor and director.