Sidney Lumet

Director -- via the New York Times. What a genius! He started in television and moved on to feature films. Listen to this very short list -- "12 Angry Men," the Robards staging of "The Iceman Cometh," the 1960 "Long Day's Journey into Night," "The Pawnbroker," "Fail-Safe," "Serpico," "Dog Day Afternoon," "Murder on the Orient Express," "Network," "Prince of the City," "The Verdict," "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead." One of the greats, especially when it came to exploring the dark corners of big cities and the human souls dwelling in those shadows.

ALL of those films influenced me profoundly. A personal anecdote: the first time "Network" was shown on network TV, I was living on New York City. During the famous "I'm mad as hell and I can't take it anymore!" scene, I opened my window and looked up Madison Avenue -- people were leaning out of every window, yelling out that phrase just as the characters in the film were. Hilarious, and an incredible tribute to Lumet's impact. We were all watching, Sidney, and it was brilliant. Thank you for everything!

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