Mark Rydell, who received a best director nomination for the Oscar-winning “On Golden Pond” and directed Bette Midler in “The Rose” and “For the Boys,” died Friday. Midler posted about his death on her Instagram, writing, “Mark Rydell, the director or my first film, The Rose, died this morning. He was an actor of note before he became a director, and I was so lucky to have met him when I did; he taught me so much on The Rose and later on For The Boys.
Two Oscars nominations both because of him. He was the actor’s whisperer; just a few words was all it took to understand what was needed. So many happy memories.” He starting his directing career in television before graduating to film in the late ’60s with an adaptation of D.H.
Lawrence’s “The Fox.” As a director he elicited strong performances from his actors, guiding Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn to Oscars and Jane Fonda to a supporting actress nomination for “On Golden Pond” in 1981. He had previously worked similar magic for Midler in her screen debut, “The Rose” (and later in her career in “For the Boys”); Marsha Mason in “Cinderella Liberty”; Sissy Spacek in “The River”; and Rupert Crosse, who drew a supporting nom for 1969’s “The Reivers.” His greatest screen success was “On Golden Pond,” adapted from Ernest Thompson’s stage drama about family relationships. It was nominated for best picture and brought Rydell a directing nom.
The seriously ill Henry Fonda won an Oscar in what would be his last starring role — and his only co-starring role with daughter Jane, who was also nominated. Hepburn won an unprecedented fourth acting Oscar for her work, and Thompson won for adapting his work to the screen. In front of the camera he started as an actor on the soap opera “As the World Turns” in the 1950s and made his feature debut as a juvenile delinquent in the gritty 1956 drama “Crime in the Streets,” and he appeared on Broadway “Seagulls Over Sorrento,” “Handful of Fire” and “Moonbirds” during the period; in later years he would take on the occasional supporting role, most impressively as the psychotic gangster in Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye” — the kind of performance that would have made the career of a full-time working actor.
But Rydell preferred to direct, if somewhat sporadically, and to produce, forming a partnership with Sydney Pollock in the mid-1980s, Sanford Prods. The young actor had crossed behind the camera by the early ’60s, racking up an impressive resume of episodic television helming credits, including episodes of “Gunsmoke,” “Ben Casey,” “The Fugitive,” “I Spy” and “The Wild, Wild West.” His reputation for speed and for drawing smart performances led to his first film directing job, “The Fox,” a controversial love triangle story that raised the hackles of censors (for lesbian content and a famous masturbation scene) but was warmly received by arthouse audiences in the late ’60s. The film starred Sandy Dennis and Keir Dullea.
Next up was Western comedy “The Reivers,” a star vehicle for Steve McQueen, which brought Crosse an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor. Three years later in 1972 he directed (and produced) another Western, “The Cowboys,” starring John Wayne. The following year he also did double duty on the romantic drama “Cinderella Liberty,” starring James Caan and Mason, for which Mason picked up an Oscar nomination.
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