Sidney Lumet, 1924–2011
The director who favored New York grit over L.A. glitz
Actors loved Sidney Lumet. Al Pacino, who played two of his most memorable roles in the Lumet-directed vehicles Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon, called him “an actor’s director.” Rod Steiger, who played a haunted Holocaust survivor in The Pawnbroker, praised Lumet for “his compassion for creative people.” For Philip Seymour Hoffman, Lumet was “a true master who loved directing and working with actors like no other.”
Lumet was born in Philadelphia but always loved New York City, which he portrayed in all its gritty glory in films ranging from 12 Angry Men to Prince of the City, said the Chicago Tribune. His parents were both distinguished actors in the Yiddish theater, and Lumet grew up backstage. He twice played Jesus in stage productions. Like many show-business kids of that time, he attended the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan, then entered Columbia University. He dropped out after only one year, joined the Army, and saw service in India and Burma. When he returned to New York, Lumet soon found work as an assistant director for CBS, doing live television. He worked on the historical re-enactment series You Are There, starring Walter Cronkite, and 150 episodes of the thriller Danger.
Lumet’s “social engagement and restless, probing moralism” were on display in his 1957 feature-film debut, 12 Angry Men, said Daily Variety. Shot almost entirely on a single set portraying a jury’s deliberation room—with skillful use of lenses and camera angles to emphasize the cramped, pressured setting—the drama pits a holdout juror, played by Henry Fonda, against 11 peers
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
who are initially bent on conviction. The film bears an unlikely resemblance to a later Lumet film, 1974’s Murder on the Orient Express, a “star-studded bauble of a thriller” that most critics considered a departure for a director more often associated with urban realism. The adaptation of an Agatha Christie mystery “could well have been titled 12 Angry Passengers,” considering how Lumet’s direction brought out the rage, anxiety, and insecurity masked by the cast’s superficially lighthearted comic performances.
The 1970s marked Lumet’s critical and artistic zenith, said the London Guardian. His credits during that decade include Network, to this day considered the most biting satire of the television industry; Serpico, a study of one honest cop battling a culture of corruption; and Dog Day Afternoon, a sweaty drama about a Brooklyn bank heist gone horribly, hilariously awry, which propelled Pacino into the top tier of American movie stars.
So prolific was Lumet—he directed 43 films in a 50-year career—that the occasional flop was inevitable, said the London Independent. He was fired from Funny Girl after clashing with star Barbra Streisand and producer Ray Stark, and his drama about a mistaken nuclear attack on Russia, Fail-Safe, withered in the shadow of the darkly funny Dr. Strangelove, which tackled similar themes. Other flops included an “over-studied transcription” of Peter Shaffer’s play Equus and a filmed adaptation of the stage hit The Wiz, a retelling of The Wizard of Oz starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. “Even Lumet could not draw the necessary sparkle from Ross as Dorothy.”
Nominated for a Best Director Oscar several times, Lumet never won, although he was awarded an honorary statuette in 2005. Though never one to openly seek awards, Lumet was understandably somewhat bitter about having been passed over in favor of inferior competition. “On two occasions I got so pissed off about what beat us,” he said. “With Network we were beaten out by Rocky, for Christ’s sake.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Today's political cartoons - May 5, 2024
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - annoying noises, gag orders, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 highly educational cartoons about student protests
Cartoons Artists take on apolitical camping, the National Guard, and more
By The Week US Published
-
French schools and the scourge of teenage violence
Talking Point Gabriel Attal announces 'bold' intervention to tackle rise in violent incidents
By The Week UK Published
-
Benjamin Zephaniah: trailblazing writer who 'took poetry everywhere'
Why Everyone's Talking About Remembering the 'radical' wordsmith's 'wit and sense of mischief'
By The Week UK Published
-
Shane MacGowan: the unruly former punk with a literary soul
Why Everyone's Talking About The Pogues frontman died aged 65
By The Week UK Published
-
'Euphoria' star Angus Cloud dies at 25
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Legendary jazz and pop singer Tony Bennett dies at 96
Speed Read
By Devika Rao Published
-
Martin Amis: literary wunderkind who ‘blazed like a rocket’
feature Famed author, essayist and screenwriter died this week aged 73
By The Week Staff Published
-
Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk legend, is dead at 84
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Barry Humphries obituary: cerebral satirist who created Dame Edna Everage
feature Actor and comedian was best known as the monstrous Melbourne housewife and Sir Les Patterson
By The Week Staff Published
-
Mary Quant obituary: pioneering designer who created the 1960s look
feature One of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century remembered as the mother of the miniskirt
By The Week Staff Published