Hollywood Producer-director Sydney Pollack passed away on Monday local time at his home in Los Angeles. He was 73 years old. The cause of death was cancer, said a representative of the family. Pollack’s illness came to public attention after he withdrew in August 2007 as the director an HBO television movie for unspecified health reasons.

Among Mr. Pollack’s survivors are daughters, Rachel & Rebecca & his wife, Claire Griswold, who was once among his acting students. The couple married in 1958, while Mr. Pollack was serving a two-year hitch in the Army.