Karl’s curtain call
RANDOR GUY
|
On Hollywood actor Karl Malden, who passed away recently.
|
Photos: AP
Versatile: Karl Malden (left). A still from Baby Doll.
He won the coveted golden statuette for his brilliant portrayal of the shy suitor in the Elia Kazan stage and screen classic, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire,’ and received an Oscar nomination for his stirring role as the priest in yet another
Kazan classic, ‘On The Waterfront.’ He is Karl Malden, one of the respected figures of American Cinema, who passed away recently in Los Angeles at the age of 97.
Malden also served as the president of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, during 1989-1992. Malden was successful on television too playing the lead role in the long-running TV series, ‘The Streets of San Francisco’ (120 episodes in which his sidekick was a young and handsome Michael Douglas). Although he received four Emmy nominations for ‘The Streets of San Francisco,’ he won one for the TV series, ‘Fatal Vision’ (1984).
Karl Malden had also been the spokesman for American Express, promoting their credit cards with the slogan “Don’t leave home without them!” Malden George Sekulovich was born on March 12, 1912 in Chicago, to a Czech mother and Bosnian father. He broke his nose twice, while playing football and basketball in school, which gave it the bulbous shape. “God knows I didn’t have a pretty face to help me get parts, so in order to stay in this profession, I realised early on that I’d better know my business,” he wrote in a 1997 memoir, ‘When Do I Start?’ With interest in theatre, he graduated from the Chicago Art Institute in 1937. Soon he relocated to New York where he joined the Group Theatre and met Elia Kazan. A meeting that would change his life. He served in the Second World War (1939-1945), which helped him bag a supporting role in the play and film ‘Winged Victory.’ He also played a major role as a man seeking revenge against a war profiteer in the Arthur Miller hit play, ‘All My Sons,’ directed by Elia Kazan.
Then came ‘A Streetcar Named Desire,’ (1951), which catapulted him to the front rank of character actors and led him to a long and eventful Hollywood innings. Both on stage and screen he played the shy suitor seeking the hand of the lovely but disturbed woman, Blanche Dubois. In spite of Marlon Brando’s brilliant portrayal of the lead role, Malden won an Oscar for ‘Best Supporting Actor.’
Major role
Another major role Malden played was in Elia Kazan’s multi-layered masterpiece, ‘On the Waterfront,’ (1954) in which he co-starred with Brando. A major success, it swept the Oscars winning as many as eight awards including Best Picture, Actor (Brando), Director ( Elia Kazan), Script (noted writer Budd Schulberg), Supporting Actress (Eve Marie Saint) and Cinematography (famed lensman Boris Kaufman). The movie also received four nominations including one for Malden.
Malden was the male lead in the Elia Kazan controversial ‘Baby Doll’ (1956) written by Tennessee Williams. He played a middle-aged near-impotent husband of a young childish bride (Carroll Baker). A despicable man lusting after his delicious but mentally unbalanced woman – she sucks her thumb and sleeps in a baby crib!
Malden’s other movies include ‘I Confess’ (Hitchcock), ‘Boomerang’ (Kazan), ‘The Gunfighter’ (Henry King) and ‘One-eyed Jacks’ (Brando), ‘Patton’ (Franklin Schaffner).
Karl Malden married actress Mona Greenberg in 1938 and their marriage was one of the happiest in Hollywood, lasting 71 years. He leaves behind wife, daughters, sons-in-law, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
