Tribute: Eli Wallach
Posted on June 25, 2014 at 9:35 am
One of the all-time great character actors, Eli Wallach, has died at age 98. He leaves behind an extraordinary range of work, from iconic bad guys (The Magnificent Seven
He appeared with Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift, and Marilyn Monroe in “The Misfits.”
He was already fully at home on screen in his first film role, “Baby Doll” with Carroll Baker.
He appeared opposite Clint Eastwood in “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”
Eastwood later directed him in “Mystic River.”
Wallach often worked with his wife, actress Anne Jackson. Here she toasts him for his honorary Oscar.
His autobiography is The Good, the Bad, and Me: In My Anecdotage
earned him overnight fame and put him on the road to becoming one of his generation’s most accomplished and charismatic actors.” His electrifying blue eyes and thrum of neurotic intensity suited him perfectly to play the British man who helped lead an Arab revolt against the Turks in the 1917-18 and to become an icon for the upheavals of the 1960’s. He had the tradition and technique classically trained actor and the legendary excesses of a rock star. I love the interview that frequently runs on Turner Classic Movies, where he tells a story about working with David Lean on “Lawrence of Arabia.” Lean told him to improvise a few moments of Lawrence enjoying his Arab garb. O’Toole came up with the idea that Lawrence might have wanted to look at himself and, without a mirror, checked out his reflection in the shiny blade of his knife. O’Toole still remembered, years later, Lean watching him and his approving murmur, “Clever boy.” With more Oscar nominations without winning than anyone else, O’Toole initially declined a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award in his 70’s, saying he was “still in the game and might win the bugger outright.” He finally accepted one in 2003.
opposite Katherine Hepburn.
, making a movie about WWI and covering up an accidental death on set by hiring a fugitive to take his place. He enters in a helicopter, a god descending from Olympus to order the lives of mortals.
as a dissipated but still game swashbuckling movie star who is about to appear on a live television show. And as the art thief who steals Audrey Hepburn’s heart as well as her fake Cellini statue in 
. When she breathes, “Maaarvelous” at his strategy for getting around the art museum’s security system, we know she is really expressing her assessment of O’Toole’s character and the actor who plays him. And we agree.
starring Paul Newman, Dick Van Dyke, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, and Gene Kelly and some of the wildest costumes ever!
with Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix.
originally titled “Jeux D’Enfants.”
with Michael Vartan and Natasha Henstridge.
with Goldie Hawn and Warren Beatty.