Editing Sydney Pollack (section)

==Early life==
Pollack was born in [[Lafayette, Indiana]], to a family of Jewish immigrants, the son of Rebecca (née Miller) and David Pollack, a semi-professional boxer and pharmacist.<ref name="guardiansuccess">{{cite news| title=The secret of my success?| newspaper=[[The Guardian]]| date=August 14, 2002| url=http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,6737,774328,00.html| access-date=May 29, 2008| location=London| first=Geoffrey| last=MacNab}}</ref> The family relocated to [[South Bend, Indiana|South Bend]] and his parents divorced when he was young. His mother, who suffered from alcoholism and emotional problems, died at the age of 37, when Pollack was 16.<ref name="guardiansuccess"/><ref name="sfgate">{{cite news| last=McLellan| first=Dennis| title=Sydney Pollack: 1934–2008, Prolific director known for A-list casts| work=[[SFGate]]| date=May 27, 2008| url=https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Prolific-director-known-for-A-list-casts-3212609.php| access-date=October 15, 2020}}</ref>

Despite earlier plans to attend college and then medical school, Pollack left Indiana for New York City soon after finishing high school at age 17.<ref name="revered">{{cite news| last=Macnab| first=Geoffrey| title=Sydney Pollack, film director revered by stars, dies aged 73| newspaper=[[The Independent]]| date=May 28, 2008| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-and-tv/news/sydney-pollack-film-director-revered-by-stars-dies-aged-73-835191.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-and-tv/news/sydney-pollack-film-director-revered-by-stars-dies-aged-73-835191.html |archive-date=May 26, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live| access-date=May 29, 2008| location=London}}</ref> Pollack studied acting with [[Sanford Meisner]] at the [[Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre]] from 1952 to 1954, working on a lumber truck between terms.<ref name="revered"/>

He was drafted for two years of army service as a truck driver at [[Fort Carson, Colorado]]<ref>{{cite web|title=From the S&S archives: Sydney Pollock: A man for the stars|author=Trott, Walt|date=June 18, 1973|work=Stars and Stripes|url=https://www.stripes.com/news/from-the-s-s-archives-sydney-pollock-a-man-for-the-stars-1.79356}}</ref> ending in 1958. He returned to the Playhouse at Meisner's invitation to become his assistant.<ref name="telegraph"/> In 1960, [[John Frankenheimer]], a friend of Pollack, asked him to come to Los Angeles to work as a dialogue coach for the child actors on Frankenheimer's first big picture, ''[[The Young Savages]]''. It was during this time that Pollack met [[Burt Lancaster]], who encouraged the young actor to try directing.<ref name="telegraph">{{cite news| title=Obituary: Sydney Pollack| newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]| date=May 28, 2008| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/2035489/Sydney-Pollack.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528084458/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/2035489/Sydney-Pollack.html|url-status=dead| archive-date=May 28, 2008| access-date=May 29, 2008| location=London}}</ref>