Karl Malden, Oscar-winning actor who also starred on stage, television
March 22, 1912—July 1, 2009
LOS ANGELES (AP)—Karl Malden, the Academy Awardwinning actor whose intelligent characterizations on stage and screen made him a star despite his plain looks, died Wednesday, his family said. He was 97.
Malden died of natural causes surrounded by his family at his Brentwood home, they told the Academy of Motion Picture Arts&Sciences. He served as the academy’s president from 1989-92.
“Karl lived a rich, full life,” Academy president Sid Ganis said. “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 in the steel mills of Gary, Ind., after dropping out of college.
Malden said he got his celebrated bulbous nose when he broke it a couple of times playing basketball or football, joking that he was “the only actor in Hollywood whose nose qualifies him for handicapped parking.”
Malden won a supporting actor Oscar in 1951 for his role as Blanche DuBois’ naive suitor Mitch in “A Streetcar Named Desire”—a role he also played on Broadway.
He was nominated again as best supporting actor in 1954 for his performance as Father Corrigan, a fearless, friend-of-the- working man priest in “On the Waterfront.” In both movies, he co-starred with Marlon Brando.
“When you worked with [Malden], he was the character,” said Eva Marie Saint, who garnered a supporting actress Oscar for her role in “Waterfront.” “He was the consummate actor, and he loved acting. He was dear and smart. Whatever he did, he enjoyed life.”
Among Malden’s more than 50 film credits were: “Patton,” in which he played Gen. Omar Bradley, “Pollyanna,” “Fear Strikes Out,” “The Sting II,” “Bombers B-52,” “Cheyenne Autumn” and “All Fall Down.”
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.
“Karl ‘The Mentor’ Malden was a great actor, father and husband. I admired and loved him deeply,” Douglas, who was in Europe, said.
Douglas saluted Malden last month when he received the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
“It was Karl who, more than anyone, got me to understand that an actor is just one part of a whole team that makes a TV series or movie work,” Douglas said in the upcoming July 19 airing of the event on TV Land.
In the 1970s, 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.
“The Streets of San Francisco” earned him five 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.”
In 2004, Malden received the Screen Actors Guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Malden first gained prominence on Broadway in the late 1930s, making his debut in “Golden Boy” by Clifford Odets. It was during this time that he met Elia Kazan, who later was to direct him in “Streetcar” and “Waterfront.”
Among his other stage appearances were “Key Largo,” “Winged Victory,” Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons,” “The Desperate Hours” and “The Egghead.”
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 moved to Gary, Ind., when he was small. He quit his steel job in 1934 to study acting at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre “because I wasn’t getting anywhere in the mills,” he recalled.
Malden and his wife, Mona, had one of Hollywood’s longest marriages. They celebrated their 70th anniversary in December.
“That was sort of the last goodbye,” said Saint, who attended a party in the couple’s honor. “His wish was, ‘After I die, I don’t want you to do anything but have a party.’ So another party is coming up.”
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