Cinema VinesMark Rydell, the celebrated director best known for the 1981 classic On Golden Pond, has died at the age of 97. The Los Angeles-based filmmaker passed away Thursday at a retirement community for entertainment industry professionals in Woodland Hills, according to his daughter Amy Rydell, who confirmed the death on her Instagram account. She wrote, “Hard to put into words how much I loved my dad. He was truly one of a kind. Funniest and most talented person I’ve ever known.”
Rydell’s career spanned more than six decades and included work with some of Hollywood’s most iconic actors. He directed On Golden Pond with Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, and Fonda’s daughter Jane, a film that earned ten Oscar nominations and won three awards, including Best Screenplay for Ernest Thompson’s adaptation of the play. The picture grossed over $119 million worldwide, making it the second‑highest‑grossing film of 1981 after Raiders of the Lost Ark. Rydell was nominated for Best Director but lost to Warren Beatty for Reds.
Other Oscar‑nominated projects from Rydell include The Fox (1967), The Reivers (1969) with Steve McQueen, Cinderella Liberty (1973) starring James Caan and Marsha Mason, The Rose (1979) featuring Bette Midler, and The River (1984) with Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek. His filmography also contains the 1973 Robert Altman feature The Long Goodbye and Woody Allen’s 2002 comedy Hollywood Ending.
Born Mortimer Harold Rydell on March 23, 1929, in New York City, he studied jazz piano under Teddy Wilson at Juilliard before serving two years in the U.S. Army in Japan, where he produced entertainment for troops. He earned a degree in English and philosophy from New York University and later trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse, launching an acting career that saw early roles on CBS soaps such as The Edge of Night and As the World Turns. He appeared on Broadway in Seagulls Over Sorrento with Rod Steiger and made his film debut in Don Siegel’s Crime in the Streets (1956) opposite John Cassavetes and Sal Mineo.
Transitioning to directing, Rydell helmed episodes of television series including Mr. Novak, Ben Casey, I Spy, The Wild Wild West, The Long, Hot Summer, The Fugitive, and Gunsmoke. His first feature film, The Fox (1967), starring Sandy Dennis, was a critical and commercial success and set the tone for a prolific directorial career that would leave a lasting imprint on American cinema.
