KARL MALDENwas a film and television actor of Oscar pedigree.He died on 1 July, 2009, at the age of 97, ending a great life and a career that spanned 60 years on the screen.His best remembered appearances were alongside Marlon Brando in iconic films, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) for which he won the ‘Best Supporting Actor’ Oscar. He was nominated for the same award for On the Waterfront (1954).Other recognition included a Bafta nomination for another Elia Kazan film, Baby Doll (1956), in which he starred, and three Golden Globe nominations for Baby Doll (1956), Gypsy (1962), in which he supported Natalie Wood as Gypsy Rose Lee, and his long running role alongside Michael Douglas in TV detective series The Streets of San Francisco (1972-1977).He was born Mladen George Sekulovich into a Czech family living in Chicago, Illinois on 22 March, 1912. He sang with choirs as a youngster and began acting in community plays staged by his father. He was also the star of the high school basketball team, for whom he twice broke his nose.He changed his name in his early 20s and paid his own way through acting college by working at a steelworks. He then travelled to New York where he made a Broadway debut in 1937 and entered films with They Knew What They Wanted (1940). After Air Force service during the Second World War he resumed his acting career, working with both Brando and Kazan before their film careers took off.His broken nose meant he was never going to make it as a leading man, but with an adaptable method acting technique he was able to establish a reputation as one of Hollywood’s most reliable supporting actors, taking on challenging roles, both sympathetic and villainous.He worked alongside a huge range of talented in a wide spread of film genres, including film noirs like Kiss of Death (1947) with Victor Mature and Richard Widmark, classic Westerns such as The Gunfighter (1950) starring Gregory Peck, thrillers like Hitchcock’s I Confess which starred Montgomery Clift, and drama like Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) with Burt Lancaster in the title role.From the 1970s he was better known as a television actor. He played veteran detective Lt Mike Stone in 120 episodes of highly-rated cop show The Streets of San Francisco. It earned him four Prime Time Emmy Award nominations. He also starred in the short-lived but critically-acclaimed Skag, set at a Pittsburgh steel mill. He eventually won an Emmy for the TV film Fatal Vision (1984) alongside Eva Marie Saint.Away from acting he was known for advertising American Express Traveller’s Cheques – “Don’t leave home without them!” – and sitting on a United States Postal Service committee which commissioned commemorative stamps.He was also know for his unusually long (by Hollywood standards) marriage to Mona Greenberg. They wed in 1938 and she survived him, as did daughters Mila and Cara, his sons-in-law, three granddaughters and four great-grandchildren.
Keep me informed of updates
