Director Dies In Freak Accident

Alan Pakula, one of Hollywood's most respected directors and the helmist behind the Oscar-winning dramatisation of the Watergate scandal, All the President's Men, has been killed in a freak car accident in New York. Mr Pakula, 70, was killed after a metal pole lying in the road ripped through his car windscreen and hit him on the head. Alan J Pakula produced and directed more than a dozen films during his lengthy career, with tales of IRA terrorism, Nazi oppression, political intrigue and racism in the American South, all being treated to his unique style. Apart from All the President's Men, which starred Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in the true story of the Watergate scandal that led to Richard Nixon's resignation, Pakula's more memorable movies include To Kill A Mockingbird, which starred Gregory Peck as a white lawyer defending a black client and the Meryl Streep starrer, Sophie's Choice, about a mother who is forced to choose one child to hand over to the Nazis. Pakula began his Hollywood career as a production assistant at the age of 22 and progressed first into the realms of producing before winning acclaim as a director and a writer. He was nominated three times for an Academy award but failed to win. Other notable films were Klute, Inside Daisy Clover and his last film last year, The Devil's Own , which starred Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford in the tale of an IRA terrorist who escapes to New York, where he lives under an assumed name.