Paul Mazursky was Oscar-nommed five times and helmed hit movies including “Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice” and “An Unmarried Woman”. He died of cardiac arrest on Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 84.

Although he was never nominated by the Academy for director, he did cop four screenplay nominations for “Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice”, “Harry and Tonto,” “Enemies” and “An Unmarried Woman,” which gave him an Oscar nomination for best movie.

Critics considered Paul Mazursky as one of the few directors who had captured the spirit of the late ’60s and the ’70s. His films explored in an entertaining and humanistic way weighty issues such as marital fidelity, the merits of psychological therapy and modern divorce.

“No screenwriter has probed so deep under the pampered skin of this fascinating, maligned decade,” wrote critic Richard Corliss of Mazursky at the end of the ’70s.

Paul Mazursky was born in Brooklyn and was already working as an actor on TV and at small theaters of New York while attending Brooklyn College. He also appeared in Stanley Kubrick’s first film, “Fear and Desire”.

He returned to acting on TV in later years on popular series such as “The Sopranos” and “Once and Again”.