He was married to Claire Griswold since 1958 until his death in 1993, and they had three children. Pollack died on May 26, 2008, at the age of 73 in Pacific Palisades, California, from cancer.

Sydney Irwin Pollack was born on July 1, 1934, in Lafayette, IN, and raised in South Bend by David and Rebecca Pollock. His parents divorced when he was young and his mother, an alcoholic, died ...