Alan Arkin
| Alan Arkin | |
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 Arkin in 1975 |
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| Born | Alan Wolf Arkin March 26, 1934 Brooklyn, New York, US |
| Occupation | Actor, director, musician, singer |
| Years active | 1957–present |
| Spouse(s) | Jeremy Yaffe (1955–1961; divorced; 2 children) Barbara Dana (1964–199?; divorced; 1 child) Suzanne Newlander (1996–) |
Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, Little Miss Sunshine, and Argo, the last two of which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He is the father of actors Adam Arkin, Anthony Arkin, and Matthew Arkin.
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Early life [edit]
Arkin was born in Brooklyn, New York City, son of David I. Arkin, a painter and writer, and his wife Beatrice Wortis, a teacher.[1] He was raised in a Jewish family with "no emphasis on religion". His grandparents were immigrants from Ukraine, Russia, and Germany.[2][3] His parents moved to Los Angeles when Alan was 11,[2] but an eight-month Hollywood strike cost his father his job as a set designer. During the 1950s Red Scare, Arkin's parents were accused of being Communists, and his father was fired when he refused to answer questions about his political ideology. David Arkin challenged the dismissal, but he was only vindicated after his death.[4]
Career [edit]
Early work [edit]
Arkin, who had been taking acting lessons since age 10, became a scholarship student at various drama academies, including one run by the Stanislavsky student Benjamin Zemach, who taught Arkin a psychological approach to acting.[5] Arkin attended Los Angeles City College from 1951 to 1953. He also attended Bennington College. With two friends, he formed the folk music group The Tarriers, in which Arkin sang and played guitar. The band members co-composed the group's 1956 hit "The Banana Boat Song", a reworking, with some new lyrics, of a traditional, Jamaican calypso folk song of the same name, combined with another titled "Hill and Gully Rider".[6] It reached #4 on the Billboard magazine chart the same year as Harry Belafonte's better-known hit version.[7] The group appeared in the 1957 Calypso-exploitation film Calypso Heat Wave, singing "Banana Boat Song" and "Choucoune".[citation needed]
From 1958 to 1968, Arkin performed and recorded with the children's folk group, The Baby Sitters.[8] He also performed the role of Dr. Pangloss in a concert staging of Leonard Bernstein's operetta Candide, alongside Madeline Kahn's Cunegonde. Arkin was an early member of The Second City comedy troupe in the 1960s.[9] Arkin and his second wife, Barbara Dana, appeared together on the 1970–71 season of Sesame Street as a comical couple named Larry and Phyllis who resolve their conflicts when they remember how to pronounce the word "cooperate." In 1985, he sang two selections by Jones & Schmidt on Ben Bagley's album Contemporary Broadway Revisited.
Acting [edit]
Arkin is one of only six[10] actors to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance (for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming in 1966). Two years later, he was again nominated, for The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.
In 1968, he appeared in the title role of Inspector Clouseau, after Peter Sellers disassociated himself from the role, but the film was not well received by Sellers' fans.
His best known films include his Oscar-nominated Wait Until Dark, as the erudite killer stalking Audrey Hepburn; The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter; Catch-22; The Seven-Per-Cent Solution; Little Murders; The In-Laws; Glengarry Glen Ross; and Little Miss Sunshine, for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar; and Argo. His portrayal of Dr. Oatman, a scared and emotionally conflicted psychiatrist treating John Cusack's hit man character Martin Q. Blank in Grosse Point Blank was also well received.
His role in Little Miss Sunshine, as the foul-mouthed Grandfather Edwin with a taste for heroin, won him the BAFTA Film Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. On receiving his Academy Award on February 25, 2007, Arkin said, "More than anything, I'm deeply moved by the open-hearted appreciation our small film has received, which in these fragmented times speaks so openly of the possibility of innocence, growth and connection".[11] At 72 years old, Arkin was the sixth oldest winner of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
In 2006–07, Arkin was cast in supporting roles in Rendition as a US senator and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause as Bud Newman (Carol's Dad), starring with Tim Allen, Martin Short, Elizabeth Mitchell, Judge Reinhold and Wendy Crewson.
On Broadway, Arkin starred in Enter Laughing, for which he won a Tony Award, and Luv. He also directed The Sunshine Boys, among others.
Directing [edit]
Arkin's directorial debut, in 1969, was a 12-minute children's film, People Soup, starring his sons Adam Arkin and Matthew Arkin. Based on a story he had published in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in the 1950s, People Soup is a fantasy about two boys who experiment with various kitchen ingredients until they concoct a magical soup which transforms them into different animals and objects.
Arkin's most acclaimed directorial effort is Little Murders, released in 1971. Written by cartoonist Jules Feiffer, Little Murders is a black comedy film starring Elliott Gould and Marcia Rodd about a girl, Patsy (Rodd), who brings home her boyfriend, Alfred (Gould), to meet her severely dysfunctional family amidst a series of random shootings, garbage strikes and electrical outages ravaging the neighborhood. The film opened to a lukewarm review by Roger Greenspan,[12] and a more positive one by Vincent Canby[13] in the New York Times. Roger Ebert's review in the Chicago Sun Times was more enthusiastic, saying, "One of the reasons it works, and is indeed a definitive reflection of America's darker moods, is that it breaks audiences down into isolated individuals, vulnerable and uncertain."[14]
Arkin also directed Fire Sale (1977), Samuel Beckett Is Coming Soon (1993) and Arigo (2000).
Writing [edit]
Arkin is the author of many books, including the children's stories Tony's Hard Work Day (illustrated by James Stevenson, 1972), The Lemming Condition (illustrated by Joan Sandin, 1976), Halfway Through the Door: An Actor's Journey Toward Self (1979) and The Clearing (1986 continuation of Lemming). In March 2011, he released his memoir, An Improvised Life.[15]
Personal life [edit]
Arkin has been married three times. He and Jeremy Yaffe, to whom he was married from 1955 to 1961, have two sons: Adam Arkin, born August 19, 1956, and Matthew Arkin, born March 21, 1959. In 1967, Arkin had son Anthony (Tony) Dana Arkin with actress-screenwriter Barbara Dana (born 1940), to whom he was married from June 16, 1964 to the mid-1990s. In 1996, Arkin married a psychotherapist, Suzanne Newlander.[4] As of 2007, they live in New Mexico.
Filmography [edit]
Film [edit]
Television [edit]
| Year | Title | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | East Side/West Side | Ted Miller | "The Beatnik and the Politician" |
| 1966 | ABC Stage 67 | Barney Kempinski | "The Love Song of Barney Kempinski" Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama |
| 1970–71 | Sesame Street | Larry | unknown episodes |
| 1979 | Carol Burnett & Company | Himself | Episode 1, Season 2 |
| 1980 | The Muppet Show | Himself | Episode 20, Season 4 |
| 1983 | St. Elsewhere | Jerry Singleton | 3 episodes: "Ties That Bind", "Lust En Veritas", "Newheart" |
| 1985 | Faerie Tale Theatre | Bo | "The Emperor's New Clothes" |
| 1987 | Harry | Harry Porschak | March 4–25, ABC TV series |
| 1997 | Chicago Hope | Zoltan Karpathein | "The Son Also Rises" Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – Drama Series |
| 2001–02 | 100 Centre Street | Joe Rifkind | A&E TV series |
| 2005 | Will & Grace | Marty Adler | "It's a Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad World" |
| 2006–07 | Boston Legal | Prosecutor | Two episodes in Season 3 |
References [edit]
- ^ "Alan Arkin Biography". filmReference.com. Retrieved May 12, 2008.
- ^ a b Sierchio, Pat (February 16, 2007). "Alan Arkin—not just another kid From Brooklyn". The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. Archived from the original on February 23, 2007. Retrieved February 16, 2007.
- ^ "Actor brings creative ways to Honolulu for workshops | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper". The Honolulu Advertiser. 2004-01-27. Retrieved 2013-03-28.
- ^ a b "Alan Arkin biography". Yahoo! Movies. 2008. Archived from the original on December 16, 2006. Retrieved December 9, 2006.
- ^ Farrell, Barry. "Yossarian in Connecticut: Since Catch-22, actor's actor Alan Arkin finally stars as ... Alan Arkin" Life magazine. October 1970.
- ^ Lovece, Frank. "Fast Chat: Alan Arkin". New York Newsday. January 7, 2007.
- ^ FolkEra.com: The Tarriers. FolkEra.com.
- ^ "Alan Arkin Biography". Hollywood.com. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
- ^ Rabin, Nathan (August 2, 2006). "Interview: Alan Arkin". The Onion AV Club. Archived from the original on February 09 2009. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
- ^ Best Actor. FilmSite.org.
- ^ "Dreamgirl" Jennifer Hudson Wins Oscar. NewsMax.com, February 26, 2007.
- ^ Little Murders Is Back as Film Arkin Directed
- ^ Canby, Vincent (February 21, 1971). "What's So Funny? Murders". New York: New York Times. p. D1. "Little Murders succeeds, at times triumphantly, and it does everything more or less backwards."
- ^ "Roger Ebert's review". Rogerebert.suntimes.com. Retrieved 2013-03-28.
- ^ "Alan Arkin Biography - life, family, children, name, story, school, mother, young, son - Newsmakers Cumulation". Notablebiographies.com. Retrieved 2013-03-28.
External links [edit]
- Alan Arkin at AllRovi
- Alan Arkin at the Internet Broadway Database
- Alan Arkin at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Alan Arkin at the Internet Movie Database
- Q&A with Arkin at Time.com
- Folkera Tarriers article
- Stephen Capen Interview on Worldguide, Futurist Radio Hour – October 10, 1995
Videos [edit]
- "Tribute to Alan Arkin photo compilation
- trailer, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming
- trailer, The In-Laws
- trailer, Last of the Red Hot Lovers
- National Screen Institute interview, 1985
- CBS interview, 2007
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- American children's writers
- American film actors
- American television actors
- BAFTA winners (people)
- Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award winners
- Bennington College alumni
- Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
- Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners
- Drama Desk Award winners
- Genie Award winners for Best Performance by a Foreign Actor
- Genie Award winners for Best Supporting Actor
- Independent Spirit Award winners
- Jewish American actors
- Jewish American writers
- Actors from New York
- American people of German-Jewish descent
- American people of Russian-Jewish descent
- American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
- Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- People from Brooklyn
- Second City alumni
- Tony Award winners
- 1934 births
- Living people
- 20th-century American actors
- 21st-century American actors
- American male actors
