Jump to content

Karl Malden

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 203.26.16.66 (talk) at 23:19, 18 March 2007 (→‎Film career and character actor before and after World War II: brackets). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Karl Malden
from the trailer for the film I Confess (1953)
Born
Mladen George Sekulovich

Karl Malden (born on March 22, 1912) is an Emmy Award-winning, Oscar-winning and Golden Globe-nominated American actor, known for his expansive manner. In a career that spanned over seven decades, he starred in films such as A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront and One-Eyed Jacks, with Marlon Brando, and also starred in the blockbuster movie, Patton. Among other notable film roles are Archie Lee Meighan in Baby Doll and Zebulon Prescott in How the West Was Won both starring Carroll Baker. His best-known role was on television as Lt. Mike Stone on the popular 1970s crime drama, The Streets of San Francisco. Towards the end of his acting career, he guest-starred on an episode of The West Wing.

Early life

The eldest of three brothers and star and breadwinner of his family, Malden was born Mladen George Sekulovich (or, Mladen George Sekulović, Serbian: Младен Секуловић) in Chicago, Illinois on 22 March, 1912. He was the product of a Serb father, Petar Sekulovich, and Minnie Sekulovich, a Czech mother who was a seamstress. The family moved from Chicago to the Serbian neighborhood of Gary, Indiana in 1917, when Malden was five years old. It is in Gary where his father would work in the steel mills and as a milk man. The Sekulovich family roots trace back to the city of Bileća in Herzegovina. Malden spoke Serbian until he was in kindergarten. Malden's father had a passion for music, as Petar began organizing for the choir. As a teenager, he joined the Carol George Choir. In addition, his father produced Serbian plays at his church. Petar also taught students how to act. Young Malden took part in many of these plays, including a version of Jack and the Beanstalk but most centering on the community's Serbian heritage. In high school, while he spoke two different languages, including English, he was a popular student and was the star of the school's basketball team. His team was 1 point short of winning the game, he threw the ball into the hoop, with only 1 second left to spare, and his team won the game at the very last minute, and he saved the team's victory. His school's team also went to a series of regional tryouts, from sectional to regional. He also participated in the drama department, and was narrowly elected senior class president. Due to the financial situation of the family, neither of his parents attended his plays or his basketball games. According to his autobiography, it was playing basketball where Malden broke his nose twice by taking elbows to the face. He has a large, trademark nose. After his graduation from Emerson High School in 1931, with high grades, he briefly planned to leave Gary, to move to Arkansas, where he would hoped to get a college athletics scholarship. But upon his arrival during the depression, the college did not admit him due to his focus on basketball and refusal to play football; and he went back to his native Gary. From 1931 until 1934, he worked as a factory worker in the steel mills, just like his father had.

From his uncle, he changed his name from Mladen Sekulovich to Karl Malden, when he became an actor at age 26.

Stage work and education

In September of 1934, Malden decided to leave his native Gary, Indiana to pursue formal dramatic training at the Goodman Theater, the dramatic arm of the Chicago Art Institute. He had been working in the steel mills in Gary, Indiana for the last three years, but had not even saved enough money to pay for one semester of schooling. Making a deal with the director of the program, he gambled what little money he did have, agreeing that if he impressed the staff during his first semester, he would be given a full scholarship to the Goodman, which he eventually was. He spent a lot of his time at the school performing in the children's theater branch of the program and this is where he would meet his future wife, Mona Greenberg. He graduated from college in 1937, but soon after, being short of funds once again, Malden had no choice other than to head back to Gary, Indiana.

Film career and character actor before and after World War II

His miserable life in his hometown came to an end as he traveled to New York City, and found some more appropriate plays for the city. He first appeared as an actor on Broadway in 1937, then did some radio work, before becoming a movie character actor in 1940, where his first film was They Knew What They Wanted (1940). He also attended the Group Theatre where he began acting in many plays and was introduced by a young Elia Kazan, who would soon work with him on A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and On the Waterfront (1954). His acting career was interrupted by World War II and Malden served as a noncommissioned officer in the US 8th Air Force. While in the War, he was offered a small and important role in Winged Victory (1944). After the war in 1945, he resumed his acting career, receiving yet another small supporting role in the play, Truckline Cafe, with a young, unfamiliar actor, Marlon Brando. He also guest-starred in both The Ford Theatre and The Armstrong Circle Theatre. Jobs were getting harder to find for him as he was in his mid-30s and was about to give up. He received a co-starring role in the play, All My Sons with the help of director, Elia Kazan. With that success, he then crossed over into movies.

Film career: 1950s to 1970s

Malden resumed his film acting career in the 1950s, starting with The Gunfighter (1950), which followed by Halls of Montezuma (1950). The following year, he starred in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), where he played Mitch, Stanley Kowalski best friend and started a romance with Blanche DuBois (Vivian Leigh), On the Waterfront (1954), where he played a priest who influenced Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando)to testify against mobster-union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb). Baby Doll (1956), he played a power-hungry sexual man who had been frustrated by a teenaged wife. When that movie was in theaters, the Catholic Churches thought it was a sin; as Malden would be the star of his own family, in real-life. Before and after he arrived in Hollywood, he starred in dozens of films of the late 1950s to the early 1970s, such as, Fear Strikes Out (1957), Pollyanna (1960), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), How the West Was Won (1962), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), and Patton (1970) (playing Gen Omar Bradley, who incidentally was an advisor for the film). On this film, he played an officer who had an injured brother, in real-life, which proved to be the blockbuster movie of 1970, after all the movies he starred in (A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront). After his last film, Summertime Killer (1972), movies were getting harder to find, however, he also starred in the television movie The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro (1989) (as wheelchair-bound senior citizen Leon Klinghoffer, who was murdered by the Islamic extremists).

Television work

The Streets of San Francisco

You must add a |reason= parameter to this Cleanup template – replace it with {{Cleanup|July 2006|reason=<Fill reason here>}}, or remove the Cleanup template.
 After years of starring in film and theater, producer Quinn Martin approached Malden in 1972 with a view to doing The Streets of San Francisco. While the concept originated as a made-for-television movie, ABC quickly signed on to carry it as television series.

In order for Malden to star in the show, he was on the search for a co-star. Since the early 1930s, Malden had attended New York Summer Stock with then-unknown Kirk Douglas. Four decades later, Martin hired a then-unfamiliar actor, Michael Douglas to play Lt. Stone's young partner, Inspector Steve Keller, alongside Malden. The show would take off from there.

On Streets, Malden played Lt. Mike Stone, a widowed veteran cop whose more than 20 years of experience is paired with a young officer recently graduated from college. During its first season, it was a ratings winner among many other 1970s crime dramas, where it served as ABC's answer to such shows such as Hawaii Five-O, Ironside, Kojak and The Rockford Files.[citation needed]

On many episodes, both Malden & Douglas would perform a lot of car chase scenes as well as a lot of detective work. The series also moved its production from Los Angeles to San Francisco, during the second season. At one time, Malden wanted to bring his father, Petar Sekulovich, to San Francisco, California, to guest-star on one episode of Streets, but he refused because the father's son was meant to go there, and just because he was a Sekulovich. For his work as Lt. Stone, Malden was nominated for Emmys four times between 1974 and 1977, for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series; but he never won. In 1976, his co-star, Douglas left the show professionally, not only to become a successful movie actor and producer, therefore following his father's Kirk Douglas's and Karl Malden's footsteps, in-between. He also produced the movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which was the #1 movie of 1976. Douglas was replaced by character actor Richard Hatch, for the series' fifth, and final season; and the show took a nosedive in the ratings as the storyline involved on Inspector Keller's job as a teacher; while his boss was still at work with a new partner. ABC decided to cancel The Streets of San Francisco series after a run of 5 seasons and 119 episodes, but Malden enjoyed playing an enduring cop and will probably always be best remembered for this role.

After Streets was cancelled for more than 25 years, in 2004, and after his name has been a household word to millions of audiences in box office movies, the now Oscar-winning actor and co-star, Douglas wanted to congratulate his longtime mentor and friend of more than 30 years for Malden's performance, and at the same time, he also presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Malden at the 2003 Screen Actors Guild Awards, for his six decades of his own acting. At the same time, Douglas was also praised for his relationship with Malden, as he named him one of his all time favorite actors. Late in 2005, Douglas did not attend his co-star's ceremony for Malden's post office, due to scheduling conflicts. Years before then, Douglas also did not appear in the movie Back to The Streets of San Francisco with Malden in 1992, due to him starring in Basic Instinct, which was the #1 movie, that same year. He also said of Malden that the minute he first met him, he was nervous and Douglas realized that all this time, it was theatrical driving, instead of real driving, thus, Malden headed back to his original trailer. On many occasions, Douglas learned from him that he only had daughters, and thought that it would be appropriate for Malden to call his co-star Buddy Boy, because Michael had believed to be Karl's adoptive son to him. Douglas was getting sick and tired of his star calling him that, each time, as Douglas was trying to be a wonderful friend with the star.

American Express

He famously delivered the line "Don't leave home without it!" in a series of US television commercials for American Express in the 1970s and 1980s.

Awards

Karl Malden won the 1951 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for A Streetcar Named Desire and was nominated in 1954 for his supporting role in On the Waterfront. Karl Malden is a past president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In October of 2003, Malden was named the 40th recipient of the Screen Actors Guild's Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment.

On November 12, 2005, the L.A. Barrington Station renamed the building, Karl Malden Post Office, in Los Angeles, California, in honor of his proud achievements, which was followed by a passage of a bill founded by U.S. Congressman, Henry Waxman.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Karl Malden has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6231 Hollywood Blvd. In 2005, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Karl Malden inspired the newsgroup alt.fan.karl-malden.nose.

Preceded by Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1951
for A Streetcar Named Desire 		Succeeded by

Trivia

Malden often finds ways to say "Sekulovich" (his real last name) in the movies and television shows he appears in. For example, as General Omar Bradley in "Patton", as his troops slog their way through enemy fire in Sicily, Malden says "Hand me that helmet, Sekulovich" to another soldier.

Private life

In 1976, his father, Petar Sekulovich, died of old age. To honor the memory of his father, Malden had a big role in Twilight Time six years later. It was a private film that was watched by a few people.

Malden has been married to Mona Graham since December 18, 1938. Their marriage is the third longest in Hollywood history. Actor Charles Lane's marriage to Ruth Covell Lane, from 12 April 1931 until her death on 30 November 2002, is the longest.

Filmography

See the Internet Movie Database for the complete list.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Karl_Malden&oldid=116124816"