Film Great Sidney Lumet dies at 86

SIDNEY Lumet, the film-director who pricked the conscience of a nation in films such as 12 Angry Men, The Verdict and Network, died yesterday at his home in New York. He was 86.

Lumet, who favoured the mean streets of his native city to the backlots of Hollywood, which he believed prevented him from winning an Oscar despite five nominations as best director, died of cancer. Although awarded an honorary Academy Award in 1995, it was described by one critic as "a consolation prize for a lifetime of neglect".

Lumet was one of the leading film directors of the second half of the 20th century. He was prolific, directing more than 40 movies, and versatile, dabbling in many genres, and, where possible, he filmed in his native New York.

In his first film, 12 Angry Men (1957) he took the viewer into a jury room where Henry Fonda set about convincing the other 11 jurymen of the innocence of the accused. Two decades later Lumet made a satire on television, Network (1976), in which Peter Finch, as a newscaster, announced: 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!'

The New York cop was a favoured subject, featuring in Serpico, for which Al Pacino was nominated for an Oscar, Prince of the City, for which Lumet was Oscar-nominated for Best screenplay and the film Q&A, one of his finest. He directed his final film, Before the Devil Knows Your Dead, at the age of 83.

Despite being described as a "movie-moralist", Lumet said he was never a crusader for social change, but when asked why he made films he replied: "I do it because I like it and it's a wonderful way to spend your life."