Karl Malden: Died at ninety seven

Karl Malden: Died at ninety seven

Karl Malden, the Academy Award-winning actor whose intelligent characterizations on stage, screen and television made him a star despite his plain looks, passed away on Wednesday. He was ninety seven year old. His family members have confirmed the news.

Karl Malden had a natural death. He was being surrounded by his family at his Brentwood home. This bit of information has been revealed by the family members to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He served as the president of the academy from 1989-92.

Academy president Sid Ganis said, "Karl lived a rich, full life." "He has the greatest and most loving family; a career that has spanned the spectrum of the arts from theater to film and television, to some very famous commercial work."

While he tackled a variety of characters over the years, he was often seen in working-class garb or military uniform. His authenticity in grittier roles came naturally. He was the son of a Czech mother and a Serbian father, and worked for a time in the steel mills of Gary, Ind., after dropping out of college.

Karl Malden also said that he got his celebrated bulbous nose when he broke it a couple of times playing basketball or football. Often he jokingly used to say that he was "the only actor in Hollywood whose nose qualifies him for handicapped parking." He liked to say that he had "an open-hearth face."

Malden won Oscar in the category of supporting actor Oscar in the year 1951 for his role as Blanche DuBois' naive suitor Mitch in "A Streetcar Named Desire" . It was the same role that he played on Broadway.

He was nominated again as best supporting actor in 1954 for his performance as Father Corrigan, a fearless, friend-of-the-workingman priest in "On the Waterfront." In both movies, he co-starred with Marlon Brando.

"When you worked with him, he was the character," added Eva Marie Saint, who garnered a supporting actress Oscar for her role in "Waterfront." Marie further said, "He was the consummate actor and he loved acting. He was dear and smart. Whatever he did he enjoyed life."

Amongst his other memorable roles included "Birdman of Alcatraz" opposite Burt Lancaster; "I Confess" with Montgomery Clift; "How the West Was Won;" and "The Cincinnati Kid" opposite Steve McQueen and Edward G. Robinson.

His more than 50 credits were "Patton," in which he played Gen. Omar Bradley, "Pollyanna," "Fear Strikes Out," "Bombers B-52," "The Sting II," "Cheyenne Autumn," and "All Fall Down."

One of his most controversial films was "Baby Doll" in 1956, in which he portrayed a dullard husband whose child bride is exploited by a businessman. It was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency for what was termed its "carnal suggestiveness." The story was by "Streetcar" author Tennessee Williams.

Malden gained perhaps his greatest fame as Lt. Mike Stone in the 1970s television show "The Streets of San Francisco," in which Michael Douglas played the veteran detective's junior partner.
Douglas was twenty eight when he earned his first major break on the detective series with Malden, who was sixty year old. Douglas saluted Malden last month as a key mentor when the older actor received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, an event to be televised on 19th July on the TV Land channel.

Douglas told a famous television channel at the ceremony, "He was fantastic. He just had a tremendous discipline, tremendous ethics," "He insisted that next's week's script would be there when we were shooting that week's script. Every time between setups, between breaks, we'd go in the trailer and run lines for the next's week's show. That's the kind of discipline, training I got from Karl."

During '70s, Malden gained a lucrative 21-year sideline and a place in pop culture with his "Don't leave home without them" ads for American Express travelers checks.

"The Streets of San Francisco" earned him 5 Emmy nominations. He won one for his role as a murder victim's father out to bring his former son-in-law to justice in the 1985 miniseries "Fatal Vision." He and Saint played husband and wife.

Malden played Barbra Streisand's stepfather in the 1987 film "Nuts;" Adm. Elmo Zumwalt Jr. in the 1988 TV film "My Father, My Son;" and Leon Klinghoffer, the cruise ship passenger murdered by terrorists in 1985, in the 1989 TV film "The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro."

He acted sparingly in recent years, by making appearance in 2000 in a small role on TV's "The West Wing."

In the year 2004, Malden received the Screen Actors Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award, by saying that the group in his acceptance speech that "this is the peak for me."

Malden first gained prominence on Broadway in the late 1930s, by making his debut in "Golden Boy" by Clifford Odets. It was during this time that he met Elia Kazan, who later directed him in "Streetcar" and "Waterfront."

He steadily gained more prominent roles, with time out for service in the Army in World War II (and a role in an Army show, "Winged Victory.")

In the year 1947 "A Streetcar Named Desire" opened on Broadway and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle awards. Brando's breakthrough performance might have gotten most of the attention. However Malden did not want for praise. Once critic called him "one of the ablest young actors extant."

Amongst his famous stage appearances included "Key Largo," "Winged Victory," Arthur Miller's "All My Sons," "The Desperate Hours," and "The Egghead."

Malden was famous for his meticulous preparation, studying a script carefully long before he stepped into his role.

During a 1962 interview he said, "I not only figure out my own interpretation of the role, but try to guess other approaches that the director might like. I prepare them, too."  "That way, I can switch in the middle of a scene with no sweat."

He added, "There's no such thing as an easy job, not if you do it right,"

He was born Mladen Sekulovich in Chicago on March 22, 1912. Malden regretted that in order to become an actor he had to change his name. He insisted that Fred Gwynne's character in "On the Waterfront" be named Sekulovich to honor his heritage.

The family got shifted to Gary, Ind., when he was small. He recalled how to quit his steel job in 1934 in order to study acting at Chicago's Goodman Theatre "because I wasn't getting anywhere in the mills".

In the year 2005, the U.S. Postal Service honored Malden by naming the post office in Brentwood to honor his achievement in film and his contributions to the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee, which meets to discuss ideas for stamp designs.

Malden helped to create the "Legends of Hollywood" stamp series that has featured Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Gary Cooper, and another celebrating Hollywood's behind-the-scenes workers.

"As a kid, all the letters that would come from the old country, he would see the stamps and they always intrigued him." "He was such a regular guy." David Failor, executive director of stamp services for the Postal Service, said so.

Karl Malden and his wife, Mona, a fellow acting student at the Goodman, had one of Hollywood's longest marriages, having celebrated their 70th anniversary in the month of December.

Saint, who attended a party in the couple's honor, said, "That was sort of the last goodbye," "His wish was, 'After I die, I don't want you to do anything but have a party.' So another party is coming up."

Besides his wife, Malden is survived by daughters Mila and Cara, his sons-in-law, three granddaughters, and four great grandchildren.