Sidney Lumet

New York, April 9 (AP): Sidney Lumet, the award-winning director of such acclaimed films as Network, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and 12 Angry Men, has died. He was 86.

Lumet’s death was confirmed today by Marc Kusnetz, who is the husband of Lumet’s stepdaughter, Leslie Gimbel. He said Lumet died during the night and had suffered from lymphoma.

A Philadelphia native, Lumet moved to New York city as a child, and it became the location of choice for more than 30 of his films. Although he freely admitted to a lifelong love affair with the city, he often showed its grittier side.

Such dramas as Prince of the City, Q&A, Night Falls on Manhattan and Serpico looked at the hard lives and corruptibility of New York police officers. Dog Day Afternoon told the true-life story of two social misfits who set in motion a chain of disastrous events when they tried to rob a New York city bank on an oppressively hot summer afternoon.

“It’s not an anti-LA thing,” Lumet said of his New York favouritism in a 1997 interview. “I just don’t like to live in a company town.”

Although he didn’t work in Los Angeles, the director maintained good relations with the Hollywood studios, partly because he finished his pictures under schedule and budget. His television beginnings had schooled him in working fast, and he rarely shot more than four takes of a scene.

He was nominated four times for directing Academy Awards, and although he never won, Lumet did receive an honorary Oscar in 2005 for lifetime achievement. He also received the Directors Guild of America’s prestigious D.W. Griffith Award for lifetime achievement in 1993.

Al Pacino, who produced a memorable performance for Lumet in Dog Day Afternoon, introduced the director at the 2005 Academy Awards. “If you prayed to inhabit a character, Sidney was the priest who listened to your prayers, helped make them come true,” the actor said.