Mark Rydell, the American film director best known for The Rose and On Golden Pond, died Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, at 97, The Associated Press reported. His daughter, Amy Rydell, told The Hollywood Reporter that he died of natural causes.
Rydell trained at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse and acted on CBS soap operas before moving into television directing. He directed an episode of Ben Casey in 1963, then made his first feature film as director, The Fox, in 1967. The film won the Golden Globe for Best English-Language Foreign Film, while Rydell was nominated for Best Director.
After that feature debut, Rydell directed The Rose in 1979, with Bette Midler playing a self-destructive rock singer loosely based on Janis Joplin. The film was a major hit, and Midler received an Academy Award nomination for the performance.
In 1981, Rydell directed On Golden Pond. The film received 10 Academy Award nominations; Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn won acting awards, the screenplay won an Academy Award, and Rydell received a directing nomination. It earned more than $119 million at the box office and was the second-highest-grossing film released in 1981.
In 2001, Rydell returned to television to direct the television film James Dean, in which he played Warner Bros. chief Jack Warner. James Franco played Dean and won a Golden Globe for the performance.
In 2009, Rydell taught a film workshop at the University of California, Los Angeles, with Martin Landau and Lyle Kessler. He and Landau served as co-artistic directors of Actors Studio West, where Rydell coached actors, writers and directors.
