Mark Rydell, 'On Golden Pond' Director, Dies at 97

Mark Rydell, the Oscar-nominated director of On Golden Pond, died of natural causes on August 13, 2026, at a retirement community for the entertainment industry in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles. He was 97. His daughter, Amy Rydell, confirmed the death to The Hollywood Reporter and posted about it on her Instagram account.

Rydell was best known for On Golden Pond (1981), the late-career triumph that brought Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn together on screen. The film earned 10 Academy Award nominations, winning three: Best Actor for Fonda, Best Actress for Hepburn, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Ernest Thompson, who adapted his own play. Rydell received a Best Director nomination but lost to Warren Beatty for Reds. The film grossed over $119 million, making it the second-highest-grossing release of 1981 behind Raiders of the Lost Ark ABC News.

It was Henry Fonda's final film role. He died at 77, months after winning his only Oscar.

Born Mortimer Harold Rydell on March 23, 1929, in New York City, Rydell began his career as a musician, studying jazz piano with Teddy Wilson at the Juilliard School of Music before moving into acting and then directing. He built a reputation as an "actor's director," a label The New York Times used in its obituary headline. Variety's obituary, written by Carmel Dagan, and Deadline's breaking report all confirmed the same details: he died Thursday of natural causes in Los Angeles at 97.

Beyond On Golden Pond, Rydell directed The Rose (1979), the film that gave Bette Midler her breakout dramatic role. Midler posted on Instagram about his death, noting that Rydell directed her first film. His other directing credits included Cinderella Liberty (1973), starring Marsha Mason and James Caan, and For the Boys (1991), which reunited him with Midler. The Hollywood Reporter and The Wrap confirmed those credits in their respective obituaries The Hollywood Reporter.

Rydell's career spanned decades in which he moved fluidly between music, acting, and directing. The throughline was his reputation for drawing out performances, the quality that earned him that "actor's director" tag and that made On Golden Pond a film where two Hollywood legends delivered the work of their lives.

He is survived by his daughter, Amy.