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|
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 bomb group as
Jimmy Stewart. He reached the rank of staff sergeant and became interested
in acting. 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. He
appeared in many movies 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 and the notorious
flop Onionhead starring Andy Griffith and Erin O'Brien. Matthau also
directed a low budget 1960 movie called The Gangster Story. In 1962, he
won acclaim as a sympathetic sheriff in Lonely are the Brave. He also
played a villainous war veteran in Charade, which starred Cary Grant and
Audrey Hepburn.
He commonly appeared on television too, including two appearances in 1960
and 1962 on ABC's police drama Naked City and in the role of Charles
Thatcher in the 1963 episode "A Tumble from a Tall White House" of the NBC
medical drama about psychiatry, The Eleventh Hour. He appeared eight times
between 1962 and 1964 on The DuPont Show of the Week He appeared as
Franklin Gaer in 1964 in the episode "Man Is a Rock" of the other NBC
medical drama Dr. Kildare.
In addition to his busy movie and stage schedule, Matthau made many
television appearances in live TV plays. Although he was constantly
working, it seemed that the fact that he was not handsome in the
traditional sense would keep him from being a top star.
Success came late for Matthau. In 1965, aged 44, Neil Simon cast him in
the hit play The Odd Couple opposite
Art Carney.
He would later star along with
Jack Lemmon
in a movie version of the play. In 1966, he again achieved success as a
shady lawyer opposite future friend and frequent co-star, actor Jack
Lemmon, in The Fortune Cookie. During filming, the film had to be placed
on a five month hiatus after he suffered a heart attack.
He won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for that
movie, and also made a memorable acceptance speech. He was visibly banged
up, having been involved in a bicycle accident shortly before the awards
show. He scolded nominated actors who were perfectly healthy and had not
bothered to come to the ceremony, especially three of the other four major
award winners: Elizabeth Taylor, Sandy Dennis and Paul Scofield.
Matthau also received Oscar nominations for 1972's Kotch, (directed by
Lemmon) and 1975's The Sunshine Boys. For the latter role he won a Golden
Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.
Matthau and Lemmon became lifelong friends after making The Fortune Cookie
and made a total of ten movies together (eleven including Kotch, in which
Lemmon has a cameo as a sleeping bus passenger), including the movie
version of The Odd Couple (with Lemmon playing the Art Carney role) and
the popular 1993 hit Grumpy Old Men and its sequel Grumpier Old Men with
Sophia Loren.
Matthau hummed the same tune in most of his movies, The Fortune Cookie,
Grumpy Old Men, Grumpier Old Men etc. |
