Roger Ebert says of Lumet's book Making Movies that it "has more common sense in it about how movies are actually made than any other I have read.".
After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001 he caused some controversy by continuing to shoot his New York based series "100 Centre Street" (2001) for the remainder of the day. Lumet said he told the crew that they could leave if they wanted but that no one did.
Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985." Pages 610-617. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.
Children: sound editor Amy Lumet and actress Jenny Lumet.
Directed 17 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Katharine Hepburn, Rod Steiger, Al Pacino, Ingrid Bergman, Albert Finney, Chris Sarandon, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Beatrice Straight, William Holden, Ned Beatty, Peter Firth, Richard Burton, Paul Newman, James Mason, Jane Fonda and River Phoenix. Bergman, Dunaway, Finch and Straight won oscars for their performances in one of Lumets movies.
Directed two of the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest Movies: Network (1976) at #64 and 12 Angry Men (1957) at #87.
Ex-father-in-law of Bobby Cannavale and P.J. O'Rourke.
Former son-in-law of Lena Horne; was married to her daughter, the journalist and author Gail Lumet Buckley (nee Gail Jones).
Given a lifetime achievement award by the Savannah College of Art and Design at the 2005 Savannah Film Festival. The same award was later found hidden in a patch of shrubbery at a three-point intersection in Brooklyn.
He is survived by his wife, Mary Gimbel of New York City; stepdaughter, Leslie Gimbel; two daughters, Amy Lumet and Jenny Lumet, from his marriage to Gail Lumet Buckley; stepson, Bailey Gimbel; nine grandchildren; and a great-grandson.
He lived in New York City and East Hampton, Long Island, New York.
He served the United States Army as a radar technician in the Far East during World War II.
His final resting place is New Mount Carmel Cemetery in Glendale, New York.
Interviewed in Peter Bogdanovich's "Who the Devil Made It: Conversations With Robert Aldrich, George Cukor, Allan Dwan, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Chuck Jones, Fritz Lang, Joseph H. Lewis, Sidney Lumet, Leo McCarey, Otto Preminger, Don Siegel, Josef von Sternberg, Frank Tashlin, Edgar G. Ulmer, Raoul Walsh." NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
It was Lumet's idea to make the characters Cuban and to include the 1980 Mariel harbor boat lift in the story in Scarface (1983).
Longtime friend of John Connell.
Lumet is often a favorite director for actors, encouraging the creative collaboration of his stars.
Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982.
One of the original Sidney Kingsley's "Dead End" kids, on Broadway. The play was later adapted as Dead End (1937) by William Wyler.
Served in the Army during WWII.