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. In 1955, he made his film debut
as a whip-wielding bad guy in The Kentuckian opposite Kirk Douglas.
He appeared in many films after this as a villain such as the 1958
King Creole (where he is beaten up by Elvis Presley!). That same
year he made a Western called Ride A Crooked Trail with Audie Murphy,
the most decorated hero of World War II. Mister Matthau also directed
a low budget 1960 film called The Gangster Story. In 1962, Matthau
won acclaim as a sympathetic sheriff in Lonely Are The Brave. In
addition to his busy movie and stage schedule, Mister Matthau made
many television appearances in live tv plays. Although he was constantly
working, it seemed the fact he was not handsome in the traditional
sense would keep him from being a top star.
The sweet smell of success came late for Matthau. He was 45 when
in 1965 Neil Simon cast him in the hit play The Odd Couple. It was
also during this time that Matthau nearly died of a heart attack.
In 1966, he again achieved glory as a shady lawyer opposite Jack
Lemmon in The Fortune Cookie. He won an Academy Award as best supporting
actor. Matthau and Lemmon became lifelong friends afterwards and
in an amazing act of teamwork made a total of ten films together,
including the popular 1993 hit Grumpy Old Men.
Matthau had two children, Jennifer and David, by his first wife,
Grace Geraldine Johnson, and a son, Charles, by his second wife
and widow, Carol Marcus. Charles directed his father in the movie
The Grass Harp (1995).
Matthau died of a massive heart attack at the age of 79, and is
interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood,
California. About one year later, Lemmon, his old pal and frequent
co-star, was also buried at the cemetery.
Filmography (selected)
King Creole
Charade
The Fortune Cookie
The Odd Couple
Bad News Bears
Hopscotch
Grumpy Old Men
Grumpier Old Men
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
|
