‘Serpico,’ ‘Dog Day,’ ‘Network’ director dies

NEW YORK – Sidney Lumet, the award-winning director of such acclaimed films as “Network,” “Serpico,” “Dog Day Afternoon” and “12 Angry Men,” has died. He was 86.

Lumet’s death was confirmed Saturday by Marc Kusnetz, who is the husband of Lumet’s stepdaughter, Leslie Gimbel. He said Lumet died during the night and had suffered from lymphoma.

A Philadelphia native, Lumet moved to New York City as a child, and it became the location of choice for more than 30 of his films. Although he freely admitted to a lifelong love affair with the city, he often showed its grittier side.

Such dramas as “Prince of the City,” “Q&A,” “Night Falls on Manhattan” and “Serpico” looked at the hard lives and corruptibility of New York police officers. “Dog Day Afternoon” told the true-life story of two social misfits who set in motion a chain of disastrous events when they tried to rob a New York City bank on an oppressively hot summer afternoon.

He was nominated four times for directing Academy Awards, and although he never won, Lumet did receive an honorary Oscar in 2005 for lifetime achievement. He also received the Directors Guild of America’s prestigious D.W. Griffith Award for lifetime achievement in 1993.

Al Pacino, who produced memorable performances for Lumet in both “Dog Day Afternoon” and “Serpico,” introduced the director at the 2005 Academy Awards.

“If you prayed to inhabit a character, Sidney was the priest who listened to your prayers, helped make them come true,” the actor said.

Lumet immediately established himself as an A-list director with his first theatrical film, 1957’s “12 Angry Men,” which took an early and powerful look at racial prejudice as it depicted 12 jurors trying to reach a verdict in a trial involving a young Hispanic man wrongly accused of murder. It garnered him his first Academy Award nomination.

Other Oscar nominations were for “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975), “Network” (1976) and “The Verdict” (1982).

“Network,” a scathing view of the television business, proved to be Lumet’s most memorable film and created an enduring catch phrase when crazed newscaster Peter Finch exhorted his audience to raise their windows and shout, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

Although best known for his hard-bitten portrayals of urban life, Lumet’s resume also included films based on noted plays.

He directed a highly successful Agatha Christie mystery, the all-star “Murder on the Orient Express,” as well.

The director was born June 25, 1924, in Philadelphia to a pair of Yiddish stage performers, and he began his show business career as a child actor, appearing on radio at age 4.

After serving as a radar repairman in India and Burma during World War II, Lumet returned to New York and formed an acting company. In 1950, Yul Brynner, a friend and a director at CBS-TV, invited him to join the network as an assistant director. Soon he rose to director.

Lumet continued directing features into his 80s.

His final film was 2007’s “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,” starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke and Marisa Tomei.

His first three marriages ended in divorce: to actress Rita Gam, heiress Gloria Vanderbilt and Lena Horne’s daughter, Gail Jones. In 1980, he married journalist Mary Gimbel.