An American film director, producer, and actor of Russian origin, whose ancestry goes back to the first Russian Jews who immigrated to the United States of America. Pollack was born in July 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana and moved to New York at the age of seventeen, where he learned the art of acting. He initially directed television series before starting the cinematic career in 1965 with the movie The Slender Thread. His first film that led to stardom and fame was They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, starring Gig Young, in which Yanke won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and Pollack was nominated for Best Director, but he lost the award because of his rejection of the Vietnam War. He died of cancer in 2008 at the age of seventy-three.