I remember when Billy Wilder died, talking a lot about his movies with my friends. He had done some of my all-time favorites (Some Like It Hot, etc). But he was in his 90s.

Sure, when Sydney Pollack died last week, he was in his early 70s. But, I want the great directors to make it into their 90s. Because, they can still crank out great films. Look at Lumet, who I believe is in his 80s, and gave us "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" last year.

I last saw Pollack in Michael Clayton. It's that part he's played way to often -- an older, wiser lawyer, giving the young cocky guy advice. He did that in Eyes Wide Shut and now in Clayton (unfortunately for him, his last performance was in the poorly reviewed film Maid of Honor.

His first Oscar nomination for directing came on his third film...the year I was born...1969. It was the movie "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" A great period piece on marathon dances during the Depression.

In the mid-70s, he did the great "Three Days of the Condor." A movie that was talked about in the more contemporary "Out of Sight," with Clooney telling Jennifer Lopez their situation reminds him of Redfords.

Condor is the type of film that a lot of current filmmakers can learn from. They think having Nicolas Cage steal a car and go thru a pick car chase and shoot out, is great filmmaking. It's crap. And those films are seldom done well. Sure, you occasionally get an Italian Job or something, but it's rare.

His film "Absence of Malice," is perhaps the best film on journalism ever done. Sure, Front Page is good. There are a handful of good films on the subject. But Malice is my favorite. I had a journalism teacher in 11th grade that let us watch it. I loved debating it with the class afterwards.

Out of Africa, brought Pollack the Oscar. And the strange thing is brother, who left with him from Indiana to make it as an actor in Hollywood, also took a different path. It wasn't into directing. It was into becoming the wardrobe guy on many of his (and Redfords) films.

My favorite film of his, and on my Top 10 of all-time list, is Tootsie. Simply one of the greatest comedies ever made.

His real life arguments with Dustin Hoffman, lead to a very funny scene in the movie in which he tells Hoffman, a struggling actor, that he no longer sends him out on jobs because he's difficult. The scene concludes with Pollack saying "That one commercial went a day over schedule, because you argued for two hours about whether or not a tomato sits down." Hoffman says, "Yeah, that's right! A tomato wouldn't sit down. I want to get the character right. Hell, I did a few different vegetables off-Broadway, that knocked the critics on their ass."

You all know the rest. He dons a wig, and gets a job, as a woman, on a soap opera.

I heard KGBs morning show saying they only knew Pollack for his acting. That makes sense. In his later years, he was in a number of Woody Allen and Robert Altman films.

But, if you haven't seen the movies mentioned above, go to Blockbuster this week.

Oh wait. What am I saying?

Add them to your Netflix cue.