Director Mark Rydell no more

Mark Rydell, the Oscar-nominated director of the sentimental blockbuster On Golden Pond who worked with such Hollywood heavyweights as Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn and Mel Gibson has died. He was 97. 

His daughter, Amy Rydell, told an international entertainment portal that he died on Thursday of natural causes at a retirement community for the entertainment industry in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles. “Hard to put into words how much I loved my dad,” she posted Friday on her Instagram account. “He was truly one of a kind. Funniest and most talented person I've ever known.” 

Rydell’s other Oscar-nominated films were The Fox (1967), The Reivers (1969), Cinderella Liberty 1973, The Rose (1979), and The River (1984).