Walter Matthau

Walter Matthau Born Walter John Matthow, (1920-10-01)October 1, 1920, New York City, New York, U.S. Died July 1, 2000(2000-07-01) (aged 79), Santa Monica, California, U.S. Cause of death heart attack Resting place Westwood Village Memorial Park Residence Santa Monica, California Nationality American Education Seward Park High School Alma mater The New School Occupation Actor Years active 1948-2000 Notable work(s) The Odd Couple, The Bad News Bears, The Fortune Cookie, I.Q., Grumpy Old Men Home town Manhattan, New York City, NY Height 6' 2" (1.89 m) Religion Jewish Spouse(s) Grace Geraldine Johnson (1948-58; divorced; 2 children), Carol Grace (1959-2000; his death; 1 child) Children Charles Matthau, Jenny Matthau, David Matthau Parents Milton Matthau, Rose (née Berolsky) Matthau Awards Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Tony Award, Golden Globe Award Website Walter Matthau Walter Matthau (October 1, 1920 - July 1, 2000) was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears. He won an Academy Award for his performance in the 1966 Billy Wilder film The Fortune Cookie. Early life edit: Matthau was born Walter John Matthow in New York City's Lower East Side on October 1, 1920, the son of Rose (née Berolsky; from Lithuania), who worked in a sweatshop, and Milton Matthow, an electrician and peddler (from Russia), both Jewish immigrants. His surname has often incorrectly been listed as Matuschanskayasky (see below for a detailed discussion). As a young boy, Walter attended a Jewish non-profit sleepaway camp, Tranquillity Camp, where he first began acting in the shows the camp would stage on Saturday nights. He also attended Surprise Lake Camp. His high school was Seward Park High School. Matthau had a brief career as a Yiddish Theater District concessions stand cashier. Career edit: During World War II, Matthau served in the U.S. Army Air Forces with the Eighth Air Force in England as a B-24 Liberator radioman-gunner, in the same 453rd Bombardment Group as James Stewart. He reached the rank of staff sergeant and became interested in acting. He took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator. He often joked that his best early review came in a play where he posed as a derelict. One reviewer said, "The others just looked like actors in make-up, Walter Matthau really looks like a skid row bum!" Matthau was a respected stage actor for years in such fare as Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and A Shot in the Dark. He won the 1962 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a play. In 1952, Matthau appeared in the pilot of Mr. Peepers with Wally Cox. For reasons unknown he used the name Leonard Elliot. His role was of the gym teacher Mr. Wall. In 1955, he made his motion picture debut as a whip-wielding bad guy in The Kentuckian opposite Burt Lancaster. Matthau appeared as a villain in subsequent movies, such as 1958's King Creole (in which he is beaten up by Elvis Presley). That same year, he made a western called Ride a Crooked Trail with Audie Murphy and Onionhead starring Andy Griffith and Erin O'Brien, which was a flop. Matthau had a featured role opposite Griffith in the well received drama A Face in the Crowd, directed by Elia Kazan. Matthau also directed a low-budget 1960 movie called The Gangster Story. In 1962, he was a sympathetic sheriff in Lonely are the Brave, which starred Kirk Douglas. He appeared opposite Audrey Hepburn in Charade. Appearances on television were common too, including two on ABC's police drama, Naked City, as well as the 1963 episode "A Tumble from a Tall White House" of The Eleventh Hour. He appeared eight times between 1962 and 1964 on The DuPont Show of the Week and as Franklin Gaer in 1964 in the episode "Man Is a Rock" on Dr. Kildare. Lastly, he starred in the syndicated crime drama Tallahassee 7000, as a Florida-based state police investigator, in the 1961-1962 season. Comedies were rare in Matthau's work at that time. He was cast in a number of stark dramas, such as 1964's Fail-Safe, in which he portrayed Pentagon adviser Dr. Groeteschele, who urges all out nuclear attack on the Soviet Union in response to an accidental transmission of an attack signal to U.S. Air Force bombers, in the tense, and timely cold-war thriller. In 1965, however, a plum comedy role came Matthau's way when Neil Simon cast him in the hit play The Odd Couple playing the slovenly sportswriter Oscar Madison opposite Art Carney as Felix Ungar. Matthau would later reprise the role in the film version opposite Jack Lemmon as Felix Ungar. Also in 1965, he played detective Ted Casselle in the Hitchcockian thriller Mirage, with Gregory Peck and Diane Baker, a film directed by Edward Dmytryk, based on a novel by Howard Fast. He achieved great film success in a 1966 comedy as a shyster lawyer called William H. "Whiplash Willie" Gingrich starring opposite Lemmon in The Fortune Cookie, the first of numerous collaborations with Billy Wilder, and a role that would earn him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Filming had to be placed on a five-month hiatus after Matthau suffered a heart attack. Matthau was visibly banged up during the Oscar telecast, having been involved in a bicycle accident, nonetheless he scolded actors who had not bothered to come to the ceremony, especially the other major award winners that night: Elizabeth Taylor, Sandy Dennis and Paul Scofield. Oscar nominations would come Matthau's way again for 1972's Kotch, directed by Lemmon, and 1975's The Sunshine Boys, another Simon vehicle transferred from the stage, this one about a pair of former vaudeville stars. For the latter role he won a Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. Broadway hits turned into films continued to cast Matthau in the leads with 1969's Hello, Dolly! and that same year's Cactus Flower, for which co-star Goldie Hawn received an Oscar. He played three different roles in the 1971 film version of Simon's Plaza Suite and was in the cast of its followup California Suite in 1978. Matthau starred in three crime dramas in the mid-1970s, as a detective investigating a mass murder on a bus in The Laughing Policeman, as a bank robber on the run from the Mafia and the law in Charley Varrick and as a New York transit cop in the action-adventure The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. A change of pace about misfits on a Little League baseball team turned out to be a solid hit in 1976 when Matthau starred as coach Morris Buttermaker in the comedy The Bad News Bears In 1982, Matthau portrayed Herbert Tucker in I Ought to Be in Pictures. There he worked with Ann-Margret and Dinah Manoff, the daughter of the actress whom Matthau starred with in Plaza Suite, Lee Grant. Matthau played Albert Einstein in the film "IQ", also starring Tim Robbins and Meg Ryan. His partnership with Lemmon became one of the most successful pairings in Hollywood. They became lifelong friends after making The Fortune Cookie and would make a total of 10 movies together--11 counting Kotch, in which Lemmon has a cameo as a sleeping bus passenger. Apart from their many comedies, the two appeared (though not on screen together) in the 1991 Oliver Stone drama about the presidential assassination, JFK. Matthau played the role of Mr. Wilson in the 1993 movie Dennis the Menace. They had a surprise box-office hit in the comedy Grumpy Old Men, reuniting for a sequel, Grumpier Old Men, that co-starred Sophia Loren and Ann-Margret. That led to more pairings late in their careers, notably Out to Sea and a Simon-scripted sequel to one of their great successes, The Odd Couple II. Hanging Up, a 2000 film directed by Diane Keaton, was Matthau's final appearance on screen. Personal life edit: Marriages edit: Matthau was married twice; first to Grace Geraldine Johnson from 1948 to 1958, and then from 1959 until his death in 2000 to Carol Marcus. He had two children, Jenny and David, by his first wife, and a second son, Charlie Matthau, with his second wife. David is a radio news reporter, currently at WKXW "New Jersey 101.5" in Trenton, New Jersey. Jenny is president of the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City. Matthau also helped raise his stepchildren, Aram Saroyan and Lucy Saroyan. His grandchildren include William Matthau, an engineer, and Emily Rose Roman, a student at SUNY Binghamton. Charlie Matthau directed his father in The Grass Harp (1995). Death edit: Matthau died of a heart attack in Santa Monica on July 1, 2000. He was 79 years old. His remains are interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Less than a year later, remains of Jack Lemmon (who died of colon and bladder cancer) were buried at the same cemetery. After Matthau's death, Lemmon as well as other friends and relatives had appeared on Larry King Live in an hour of tribute and remembrance; many of those same people appeared on the show one year later, reminiscing about Lemmon. Carol Marcus, also a native of New York, died of a brain aneurysm in 2003. Her remains are buried next to Matthau's. The remains of actor George C. Scott are also buried next to those of Walter Matthau, in an unmarked grave... Jokey pseudonyms edit: There have been persistent but erroneous beliefs about Matthau's birth name. Among the names that have been incorrectly asserted as having been the name he was born under are Matuschanskayasky, Matashansky and Matansky. As reported by the authors of Matthau: A Life by Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferberg (along with Charlie Matthau), Walter Matthau often told tall tales. In his youth, he found that the joy of embellishment lifted a story (and the listener) to such enjoyable heights that he could not resist trying to pass off the most bogus of information, just to see who was gullible enough to believe it. Matthau told many stories to many reputable people, including, reportedly, the Social Security Administration. When he registered for a number, he was amazed that they only wanted him to write his name, and offer no proof of his identity. So, as another of his traditional goofs, he wrote that his true name was "Walter Foghorn Matthau". The rumor that his birth name was "Matuschanskayasky" was given additional credence by the release of the 1974 film Earthquake in which Matthau had agreed to provide a cameo performance without compensation on the condition that he not be credited under his real name. His character was credited to Walter Matuschanskayasky. Though this was a jokey pseudonym, its appearance in the film's end credits contributed to the urban legend that this was his real name. As recently as 2009, this erroneous information appeared in the World Almanac and Book of Facts section on "Original Names of Selected Entertainers" on Page 278. (The most recent edition of the World Almanac does not contain this reference in its Original Names section). Work edit: Filmography edit: Year Film Role Notes 1950 Atomic Attack Short subject 1955 The Kentuckian Stan Bodine 1955 The Indian Fighter Wes Todd 1956 Bigger Than Life Wally Gibbs 1957 A Face in the Crowd Mel Miller 1957 Slaughter on Tenth Avenue Al Dahlke 1958 King Creole Maxie Fields 1958 Voice in the Mirror 1958 Ride a Crooked Trail Judge Kyle 1958 Onionhead Red Wildoe 1960 Gangster Story Jack Martin Also director 1960 Strangers When We Meet Felix Anders 1962 Lonely Are the Brave Sheriff Morey Johnson 1962 Who's Got the Action? Tony Gagouts 1963 Island of Love 1963 Charade Carson Dyle aka Hamilton Bartholomew 1964 Ensign Pulver Doc 1964 Fail-Safe Professor Groeteschele 1964 Goodbye Charlie Sir Leopold Sartori 1965 Mirage Caselle 1966 The Fortune Cookie William H. "Whiplash Willie" Gingrich Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy 1967 A Guide for the Married Man Paul Manning 1968 The Odd Couple Oscar Madison Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy 1968 The Secret Life of an American Wife The Movie Star Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role 1968 Candy General 1969 Hello, Dolly! Horace Vandergelder Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role 1969 Cactus Flower Dr. Julian Winston 1971 A New Leaf Henry Graham 1971 Plaza Suite Sam Nash/Jesse Kiplinger/Roy Hubley 1971 Kotch Joseph P. Kotcher Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actor 1972 Pete 'n' Tillie Pete Seltzer BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role 1973 The Laughing Policeman Detective Sergeant Jake Martin 1973 Charley Varrick Charley Varrick BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role 1974 The Taking of Pelham One Two Three Lieutenant Zachary "Z" Garber 1974 Earthquake Drunk Credited as Walter Matuschanskayasky 1974 The Front Page Walter Burns David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actor, Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy 1975 The Lion Roars Again Himself Short subject 1975 The Gentleman Tramp Documentary 1975 The Sunshine Boys Willy Clark Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actor, Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role 1976 The Bad News Bears Morris Buttermaker 1978 Casey's Shadow Lloyd Bourdelle 1978 House Calls Dr. Charles "Charley" Nichols 1978 California Suite Marvin Michaels 1980 La polizia ha le mani legate Documentary 1980 Little Miss Marker Sorrowful Jones 1980 Hopscotch Miles Kendig 1981 First Monday in October Associate Justice Daniel Snow 1981 Buddy Buddy Trabucco 1982 Neil Simon's I Ought to Be in Pictures Herbert Tucker 1983 The Survivors Sonny Paluso 1985 Movers & Shakers Joe Mulholland 1986 Pirates Captain Thomas Bartholomew Red 1988 The Little Devil Father Maurice 1988 The Couch Trip Donald Becker 1991 JFK Senator Russell B. Long 1992 Beyond 'JFK': The Question of Conspiracy Documentary 1992 How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Narrator 1993 Dennis the Menace George Wilson 1993 Grumpy Old Men Max Goldman 1994 I.Q. Albert Einstein 1995 The Grass Harp Judge Charlie Cool 1995 Grumpier Old Men Max Goldman 1996 I'm Not Rappaport Nat Moyer 1997 Out to Sea Charlie Gordon 1998 The Odd Couple II Oscar Madison 1998 Love After Death 1998 The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg Himself Documentary 2000 Hanging Up Lou Mozell Stage edit: Year Stage Role Notes 1948 Anne of the Thousand Days 1950 The Liar 1951 Twilight Walk Sam Dundee 1952 Fancy Meeting You Again Sinclair Heybore 1952 One Bright Day George Lawrence 1952 In Any Language Charlie Hill 1952 The Grey-Eyed People John Hart 1953 The Ladies of the Corridor Paul Osgood 1953 The Burning Glass Tony Lack 1955 Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? Michael Freeman 1955 Guys and Dolls Nathan Detroit 1958 Once More, with Feeling! Maxwell Archer Nominated - Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play 1961 Once There Was a Russian Potemkin 1961 A Shot in the Dark Benjamin Beaurevers 1963 My Mother, My Father and Me Herman Halpern 1965 The Odd Couple Oscar Madison Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play Television edit: Year Title Role Notes 1954 Justice 1958 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Episode: "The Crooked Road" 1959 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Episode: "Dry Run" 1960 Juno and the Paycock 1961 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Episode: "Cop for a Day" 1961 Route 66 Episode: "Eleven, the Hard Way" 1961 Tallahassee 7000 Cast member 1961-1962 Target: The Corruptors! Two episodes 1972 Awake and Sing! Moe Axelrod 1978 Actor 1978 Saturday Night Live Host Season 4, Episode 7 (2 December 1978) 1978 The Stingiest Man in Town Ebenezer Scrooge Voice role 1990 The Incident Harmon J. Cobb 1991 Mrs. Lambert Remembers Love 1992 Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore Harmon J. Cobb 1994 Incident in a Small Town Harmon J. Cobb 1998 The Marriage Fool

Source: Wikipedia

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