Montreal World Film Festival

 Mark Rydell Directs Katharine Hepburn in ON GOLDEN POND

by Sandy Mandelberger, Montreal FF Dailies Editor 

Wednesday, August 20-------Mark Rydell, an Academy Award-nominated director, a classically trained actor, and an accomplished jazz pianist, will serve as the President of the Jury at the Montreal World Film Festival, which kicks off a twelve day marathon of international cinema this coming Thursday.

Throughout his multi-hyphenated career, Rydell's films have received twenty-six Oscar nominations. Born in the Bronx, he studied jazz at the Juilliard School of Music before turning to acting at Sanford Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse and the Actors' Studio. He made his Broadway debut in Seagulls Over Sorrento with Rod Steiger, and his feature film acting debut opposite John Cassavetes and Sal Mineo in Don Siegel's CRIME IN THE STREETS (1956).

After a stint directing serial television he made directorial debut in features with THE FOX (1968), based on the D.H. Lawrence novella. THE FOX won the Golden Globe for Best English Language Foreign Film. Among his other notable films are THE ROSE (1979), which earned Bette Midler an Oscar nomination and THE RIVER (1984, five Oscar nominations) starring Sissy Spacek and Mel Gibson. 

He is probably best remembered for his adaptation of the Broadway play, ON GOLDEN POND (1981), which earned Rydell an Oscar nomination and won Oscars for Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn and writer Ernest Thompson,  His most recent film was EVEN MONEY (2006), starring Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito and Kelsey Grammer.