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Burt Lancaster encouraged him to pursue a career as a director. He directed episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962-63), Ben Casey (1962-63) and The Fugitive (1964). His first feature as director was The Slender Thread (1965), with Sidney Poitier as a volunteer at a crisis centre and Anne Bancroft as a woman on the point of suicide. It was infused with the liberalism and social conscience that would be central to Pollack’s career as a director.

It was followed by This Property is Condemned and The Scalphunters (1968) and Castle Keep (1969), both of which starred Burt Lancaster. Pollack also did some uncredited directing on Lancaster’s The Swimmer (1968), on which the original director Frank Perry had “creative differences” with others on the project.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? propelled Pollack into the front rank of Hollywood directors. A poignant and haunting story, set during the Depression, it revolved around a dance marathon that lasts for weeks, with a cash prize for the last ones standing.

Jane Fonda headed an impressive cast. Her character’s spirit is finally crushed and she asks her sweet, simple dance partner (Michael Sarrazin) to put an end to her misery. When a policeman confronts him, he delivers the immortal line that gave the film its name. The pop group The Racing Cars used it as the title of a rather maudlin hit in 1977. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? was nominated for nine Oscars and Gig Young won the award for best supporting actor.

Pollack was reunited with Redford on his next two films, Jeremiah Johnson (1972), a western reflecting new liberal attitudes towards Native Americans and the environment, and The Way We Were, a big-budget romantic drama that charted the relationship over many years of an apolitical sports star (Redford) and a committed left-wing activist (Barbra Streisand). Pollack’s films frequently had strong female characters and provided actresses with prestigious, high-profile roles.

The Way We Were was a major hit and another Oscar contender. Pollack subsequently directed the political thriller Three Days of the Condor (1975), with Redford, the legal drama Absence of Malice (1981), with the other half of the Butch-Sundance team Paul Newman, and Tootsie, before finally cleaning up at the Oscars with Out of Africa, a film that still divides viewers and critics.

It would be another five years before his next film, Havana (1990), once more with Redford. Redford’s own star was beginning to slip, the film was an expensive flop and Pollack would direct just four more features and one documentary, while taking on a wide range of films as a producer and actor. His last feature as director was The Interpreter (2005), a political thriller with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn.

Detractors have complained that Pollack’s (and indeed Redford’s) films are overblown and emotionally bland. They have been hugely expensive, but Pollack repeatedly brought a lyricism and humanity to his work and there was an old-fashioned emphasis on character and story. He habitually tackled social, moral and politicial issues. Those looking for more specific directorial signatures might find it in the circular nature of his stories and his passion for aerial shots.

In 1958 Pollack married Claire Griswold, who had been one of his drama students, and they remained married until his death. They had three children, one of whom died in a plane crash in 1993. He is also survived by his brother, Bernie, costume designer on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Sydney Pollack, film director, producer and actor, was born on July 1, 1934. He died of cancer on May 26, 2008, aged 73