No stranger to the Academy Awards, Pollack's films like the 1986 film, Out of Africa, won seven Oscars, including best director. Meryl Streep played a woman, whose passion was set against the landscape of colonial Kenya.
Though he didn't always win, his films like Tootsie, starring Dustin Hoffman and Jessica Lange (and Pollack played Hoffman's agent), and They Shoot Horses, Don't They? was nominated in several categories including best director.
His films also featured some of Hollywood's best talents like Sally Field and Paul Newman in Absence of Malice, Robert Mitchum in The Yakuza, Robert Redford in Three Days of the Condor and Tom Cruise in The Firm.
'Having the opportunity to know Sydney and work with him was a great gift in my life,' The Associated Press quoted Field as saying in a statement. 'He was a good friend and a phenomenal director and I will cherish every moment that I ever spent with him.'