{"id":5898,"date":"2026-08-14T18:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T18:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5898"},"modified":"2026-08-14T18:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T18:09:07","slug":"mark-rydell-on-golden-pond-and-the-rose-director-dies-at-97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5898","title":{"rendered":"Mark Rydell, \u2018On Golden Pond\u2019 and \u2018The Rose\u2019 Director, Dies at 97"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tMark Rydell, who received a best director nomination for the Oscar-winning \u201cOn Golden Pond\u201d and directed Bette Midler in \u201cThe Rose\u201d and \u201cFor the Boys,\u201d died Friday. He was 97.<\/p>\n

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\n\tMidler posted about his death on her Instagram, writing, \u201cMark Rydell, the director or my first film, The Rose, died this morning. He was an actor of note before he became a director, and I was so lucky to have met him when I did; he taught me so much on The Rose and later on For The Boys. Two Oscars nominations both because of him. He was the actor\u2019s whisperer; just a few words was all it took to understand what was needed. Devoted to Meisner. So many happy memories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe starting his directing career in television before graduating to film in the late \u201960s with an adaptation of D.H. Lawrence\u2019s \u201cThe Fox.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs a director he elicited strong performances from his actors, guiding Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn to Oscars and Jane Fonda to a supporting actress nomination for \u201cOn Golden Pond\u201d in 1981. He had previously worked similar magic for Midler in her screen debut, \u201cThe Rose\u201d (and later in her career in \u201cFor the Boys\u201d); Marsha Mason in \u201cCinderella Liberty\u201d; Sissy Spacek in \u201cThe River\u201d; and African-American actor Rupert Crosse, who drew a supporting nom for 1969\u2019s \u201cThe Reivers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHis greatest screen success was \u201cOn Golden Pond,\u201d adapted from Ernest Thompson\u2019s stage drama about family relationships. It was nominated for best picture and brought Rydell a directing nom. The seriously ill Henry Fonda won an Oscar in what would be his last starring role \u2014 and his only co-starring role with daughter Jane, who was also nominated. Hepburn won an unprecedented fourth acting Oscar for her work, and Thompson won for adapting his work to the screen.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn front of the camera he started as an actor on the soap opera \u201cAs the World Turns\u201d in the 1950s and made his feature debut as a juvenile delinquent in the gritty 1956 drama \u201cCrime in the Streets,\u201d and he appeared on Broadway \u201cSeagulls Over Sorrento,\u201d \u201cHandful of Fire\u201d and \u201cMoonbirds\u201d during the period; in later years he would take on the occasional supporting role, most impressively as the psychotic gangster in Robert Altman\u2019s \u201cThe Long Goodbye\u201d \u2014 the kind of performance that would have made the career of a full-time working actor.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Rydell preferred to direct, if somewhat sporadically, and to produce, forming a partnership with Sydney Pollock in the mid-1980s, Sanford Prods.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe young actor had crossed behind the camera by the early \u201960s, racking up an impressive resume of episodic television helming credits, including episodes of \u201cGunsmoke,\u201d \u201cBen Casey,\u201d \u201cThe Fugitive,\u201d \u201cI Spy\u201d and \u201cThe Wild, Wild West.\u201d His reputation for speed and for drawing smart performances led to his first film directing job, \u201cThe Fox,\u201d a controversial love triangle story that raised the hackles of censors (for lesbian content and a famous masturbation scene) but was warmly received by arthouse audiences in the late \u201960s. The film starred Sandy Dennis and Keir Dullea.<\/p>\n

\n\tNext up was Western comedy \u201cThe Reivers,\u201d a star vehicle for Steve McQueen, which brought actor Rupert Crosse an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor. Three years later in 1972 he directed (and produced) another Western, \u201cThe Cowboys,\u201d starring John Wayne. The following year he also did double duty on the romantic drama \u201cCinderella Liberty,\u201d starring James Caan and Marsha Mason, for which Mason picked up an Oscar nomination. That same year he made an indelible impression in front of the cameras as gangster Marty Augustine in Robert Altman\u2019s adaptation of Raymond Chandler\u2019s \u201cThe Long Goodbye,\u201d starring Elliott Gould.<\/p>\n

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\n\tHis 1976 period comedy \u201cHarry and Walter Go to New York\u201d was one of his lesser efforts despite an all-star cast of Caan, Gould and Diane Keaton. He bounced back in 1979 with \u201cThe Rose,\u201d a fictionalized version of the short, tempestuous life of Janis Joplin, expertly taking Midler through her feature debut perf, for which she was awarded her first Oscar nomination. He would later guide her to another nomination as a wartime USO performer with shades of Martha Raye in \u201cFor the Boys\u201d in 1991.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 1981 came the achievement of \u201cOn Golden Pond.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThough he was now a feature director and occasional actor, Rydell also served as an executive consultant on the critically lauded ABC drama \u201cFamily\u201d from 1976-80.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 1984 heartland drama \u201cThe River\u201d was not a notable success, though it brought Sissy Spacek another Oscar nomination as best actress. Rydell took a break from directing to star in the standup comedy drama \u201cPunchline\u201d and as another gangster, Meyer Lansky, in his friend Pollock\u2019s \u201cHavana.\u201d
In 1991, while directing \u201cFor the Boys,\u201d he also produced a small rural drama, \u201cThe Man in the Moon,\u201d starring Sam Waterston. His 1994 marital drama \u201cIntersection,\u201d starring Richard Gere and Sharon Stone, was moderately successful.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe returned to television in 1996 to direct \u201cCrime of the Century,\u201d about the Lindbergh kidnapping case, for HBO. In 2001 he helmed the critically acclaimed TNT telepic \u201cJames Dean,\u201d starring James Franco, and drawing 11 Emmy nominations including best director.<\/p>\n

\n\tRydell returned to the bigscreen to direct \u201cEven Money,\u201d starring Kim Basinger, Kelsey Grammer and Forest Whitaker and centering gambling addiction, in 2006. His last helming effort was a 2007 episode of the ABC series \u201cMasters of Science Fiction,\u201d hosted by Stephen Hawking.<\/p>\n

\n\tRydell continued his acting work. In the 2000s he appeared in his own \u201cJames Dean\u201d (playing studio mogul Jack Warner) and \u201cEven Money,\u201d as well as in Woody Allen\u2019s \u201cHollywood Ending\u201d and an episode of \u201cEverwood.\u201d And in 2006 he returned to the stage to star in an Elaine May trilogy of one-acts in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

\n\tMortimer H. Rydell was born in New York and attended the Juilliard School of Music, training as an actor both at the Neighborhood Playhouse and at the Actors Studio. In the 1950s, he appeared on Broadway while working as a jazz pianist to earn extra money. For six years he starred in \u201cAs the World Turns\u201d before his character was killed off. He also worked as an actor in television in episodes of such series as \u201cWanted: Dead or Alive\u201d before moving into directing for TV and then for the bigscreen.<\/p>\n

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Mark Rydell, director of ‘On Golden Pond,’ ‘The Rose’ and ‘For the Boys,’ has died at 97.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4597],"class_list":["post-5898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-on-golden-pond-2"],"yoast_head":"\nMark Rydell, \u2018On Golden Pond\u2019 and \u2018The Rose\u2019 Director, Dies at 97 - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5898\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mark Rydell, \u2018On Golden Pond\u2019 and \u2018The Rose\u2019 Director, Dies at 97 - 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