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Alan J. Pakula
Pakula in Sweden, 1990.
Born	April 7, 1928(1928-04-07) The Bronx, New York, USA
Died	November 19, 1998 (aged 70) Melville, New York, USA
Spouse(s)	Hope Lange (1963-1971) Hannah Cohn Boorstin (1973-1998)

Alan Jay Pakula (April 7, 1928 – November 19, 1998) was an American film director, writer and producer noted for his contributions to the conspiracy thriller genre.

Contents 1 Career 2 Personal life 2.1 Death 3 Filmography 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Career

Pakula started his Hollywood career as an assistant in the cartoon department at Warner Brothers. 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 a Best Picture Academy Award. In 1969, he directed his first feature, The Sterile Cuckoo, starring Liza Minnelli.

In 1971, Pakula released the first installment of what would informally come to be known as his "paranoia trilogy". Klute, the story of a private eye's relationship with 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, albeit non-ostensible, 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, who were played in the movie by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. It was another commercial hit, considered by many critics and fans to be one of the best thrillers of the 1970s.^[1]

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 another political thriller, The Pelican Brief, an adaptation of John Grisham's bestseller.

[edit] Personal life

Pakula was born in The Bronx, New York to parents of Polish and Jewish descent, Jeanette (née Goldstein) and Paul Pakula.^[2] He was educated at Yale University, where he majored in drama. From October 19, 1963 until 1971, Pakula was married to actress Hope Lange. He was married to his second wife, Hannah Cohn Boorstin, from 1973 until his death in 1998.

[edit] Death

Pakula died on November 19, 1998 in a freak car accident on the Long Island Expressway in Melville, New York. He was 70 years old. A driver in front of him struck a metal pipe, which went through Pakula's windshield, striking him in the head and causing him to swerve off the road and into a fence. He was killed instantly.^[3]

[edit] Filmography

Year	Title	Notes
1957	Fear Strikes Out	Producer
1962	To Kill a Mockingbird	Producer
1963	Love with the Proper Stranger	Producer
1965	Baby the Rain Must Fall	Producer
	Inside Daisy Clover	Producer
1967	Up the Down Staircase	Producer
1968	The Stalking Moon	Producer
1969	The Sterile Cuckoo	Director, producer
1971	Klute	Director, producer
1973	Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing	Director, producer
1974	The Parallax View	Director, producer
1976	All the President's Men	Director
1978	Comes a Horseman	Director
1979	Starting Over	Director, producer
1981	Rollover	Director
1982	Sophie's Choice	Director, producer, writer
1986	Dream Lover	Director, producer
1987	Orphans	Director, producer
1989	See You in the Morning	Director, producer, writer
1990	Presumed Innocent	Writer, director
1992	Consenting Adults	Director, producer
1993	The Pelican Brief	Director, producer, writer
1997	The Devil's Own	Director

[edit] References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alan J. Pakula

[edit] External links

• Alan J. Pakula at the Internet Movie Database
• American Film Institute interview
• Alan J. Pakula at Find a Grave

v • d • e Films directed by Alan J. Pakula 1960s The Sterile Cuckoo (1969) 1970s Klute (1971) · Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (1973) · The Parallax View (1974) · All the President's Men (1976) · Comes a Horseman (1978) · Starting Over (1979) 1980s Rollover (1981) · Sophie's Choice (1982) · Dream Lover (1986) · Orphans (1987) · See You in the Morning (1989) 1990s Presumed Innocent (1990) · Consenting Adults (1992) · The Pelican Brief (1993) · The Devil's Own (1997)

Persondata
NAME	Pakula, Alan J.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Pakula, Alan Jay
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Film director, producer, screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH	April 7, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH	The Bronx, New York, USA
DATE OF DEATH	November 19, 1998
PLACE OF DEATH	Melville, New York, USA