Legendary Director Sidney Lumet Dies

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 his stepdaughter's husband. He said Lumet died during the night and had suffered from lymphoma. Lumet was nominated for four Academy Awards, and although he never won, Lumet did receive an honorary Oscar in 2005 for lifetime achievement.

"If you prayed to inhabit a character, Sidney was the priest who listened to your prayers, helped make them come true," Al Pacino once said. Lumet also received the Directors Guild of America's prestigious D.W. Griffith Award for lifetime achievement in 1993. Though he was a Philadelphia native, Lumet famously set most of his movies in New York City. "Any script that starts in New York has got a head start," he said in 1999. "It's a fact the city can become anything you want it to be." (More Sidney Lumet stories.)