Overview
- Rydell died Thursday at age 97, his daughter Amy Rydell told reporters, and he passed away of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills.
- He earned a Best Director Oscar nomination for On Golden Pond, the 1981 film that received 10 Academy Award nominations and won acting Oscars for Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn.
- Rydell began as a 1950s actor before moving into television directing in the early 1960s and then feature films, making his movie debut with The Fox in 1967.
- Colleagues and collaborators, including Bette Midler, credited him as an "actor’s whisperer" who helped elicit Oscar-nominated work from performers in films such as The Rose, Cinderella Liberty and The River.
- Beyond his films, Rydell taught and mentored at institutions like The Actors Studio and through workshops, and he is survived by his three children, Amy, Christopher and Alexander Rydell.