Lumet directed more than 40 feature films over a career spanning six decades and earned the reputation as a master of gritty, character-driven morality plays, many set in his hometown of New York.
Lumet began his career as a television director for CBS in 1951 and spent most of the next six years directing episodes for nearly a dozen different programs. On the strength of that work, he was offered his first feature assignment in 1957. The film was 12 Angry Men and it garnered him his first of four Academy Award nominations for Best Director. Next came The Fugitive Kind with Marlon Brando in 1960 and after a few more years of television, he committed to features full time in 1962 and never looked back.
At 83, Lumet directed his last film, 2007's Before The Devil Knows Your Dead with Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke. It received some of the best reviews of his career and earned him Best Director awards from several critic associations.
Other notable Lumet films include Serpico, Murder on the Orient Express, Prince of the City, The Verdict, Running on Empty, Family Business and Night Falls on Manhattan.
