Board of Actor-Directors: 30 Who Excel in Dual Role

SYDNEY POLLACK
The Way We Were (1973)
Two of the biggest stars of the '70s — Barbra Streisand and frequent Pollack leading man Robert Redford — teamed in this glossy romance set against the backdrop of Hollywood during the blacklist era. Really, it couldn't miss, and it didn't.

Tootsie (1982)
Pollack and Dustin Hoffman famously fought over the direction this cross-dressing comedy should take; their fractious relationship is echoed in the onscreen tug-of-war between Hoffman's combative actor and Pollack's exasperated agent. In the end, Hoffman won (he wanted to make the film broader and funnier), and he was right. He was also right to coax Pollack back onto the screen after a long absence from acting; the director would spend the rest of his career with a nice sideline performing acerbic cameos in his own films and in those of other directors.

Out of Africa (1985)
Pollack won Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for this picturesque epic, based on Isak Dinesen's (Meryl Streep) memoirs of her years spent managing a Kenyan coffee plantation and romancing a rugged outdoorsman (Redford, naturally).