The Firm [1993 film]

Actor, director and producer Sydney Pollack was born in Lafayette, Indiana on July 1, 1934. After graduating from high school, he moved to New York City and enrolled in the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater. While there, he studied under Stanford Meisner from 1952 to 1954 and became his assistant from 1954 to 1959. He directed about 20 show more films including The Way We Were, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, and Tootsie. He won two Oscars for Out of Africa, one as director and one as producer of the film. He produced more than 40 films including Presumed Innocent, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Michael Clayton. He also acted in numerous films and television shows including Husbands and Wives, Eyes Wide Shut, Michael Clayton, Frasier, Will and Grace, and The Sopranos. He received the first annual Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking award from the Austin Film Festival on October 21, 2006. He died of cancer on May 26, 2008. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Born in Dubuque, Iowa, Rabe was educated at Loras College and Villanova. His service in Vietnam has had a major influence on his work, particularly in his early plays. In 1971 both The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, which traces a soldier's life from basic training to an ugly and ironic death in Vietnam, and Sticks and Bones, a slightly absurdist show more play that combines broad satire of U.S. family life with a realistic portrayal of the suffering of a blind veteran, were produced at Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival. Rabe's other plays of the 1970s were also produced there. Streamers (1976), which won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, is the most notable of his Vietnam plays. Set in an army barracks, it is a powerful presentation of the destruction that can result from blind, uncontrolled rage. Hurlyburly (1985), which concerns the hollow lifestyle of a group of hip southern California men, began a long run on Broadway in 1984. As with many of Rabe's other plays, it explores the horrors that can result from distorted ideas of masculinity. Another recent play, Goose and Tomtom (1987), is a forceful drama about two small-time jewel thieves. In it, Rabe explores the theme of the illusory nature of reality. (Bowker Author Biography) show less