Walter Matthau
Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park
Walter Matthau
was a popular, bloodhound-faced actor who was equally adept at serious
dramatic roles, or in comedy roles as the sloppy, scheming or just plain
cranky curmudgeons he seemed born to play.
The son of Russian Jewish immigrants in New York City,
Matthau started working at the age of 11, selling refreshments in a Yiddish
theater, and soon started performing on the stage. After serving in the
U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, Matthau returned to New York
and enrolled in acting school, and got his first role on Broadway in
1948 as an understudy in "Anne of a Thousand Days," starring Rex Harrison.
As proof that Matthau was "born old," his part in the play was that of an
83-year-old English bishop. Matthau was only 28 at the time.
Matthau also appeared regularly on television, in dramatic
anthology series, usually playing villians. He made his film debut
in "The Kentuckian" (1955), starring Burt Lancaster. After dramatic
supporting roles in "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" (1957), "A Face in the
Crowd" (1957), "King Creole" (1958) -- starring Elvis Presley -- "Lonely
Are the Brave" (1962), "Charade" (1963), "Ensign Pulver" (1964) and
"Fail-Safe" (1964), Matthau achieved stardom and won a Tony Award on
Broadway in "The Odd Couple" as slovenly sportswriter Oscar Madison in
a role written especially for him by Neil Simon. When Hollywood finally
noticed his comedic talents, Matthau co-starred with Jack Lemmon as
a crooked personal-injury lawyer in "The Fortune Cookie" (1966), and
won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor. Matthau and Lemmon
co-starred again in the film version of "The Odd Couple" (1968). The
pair co-starred in a dozen films, including "The Front Page" (1974),
"Buddy Buddy" (1981), "Grumpy Old Men" (1993), "Grumpier Old Men" (1995),
"Out to Sea" (1997) and "The Odd Couple II" (1998). Lemmon directed
Matthau in a dramatic role in "Kotch" (1971), the story of an elderly
man who refuses to be put out to pasture by his children, which earned
Matthau an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor.
Matthau continued to star in comedies including "Hello,
Dolly" (1969), "Cactus Flower" (1969) and "Plaza Suite" (1971), as well
as dramatic roles in "Charley Varrick" (1973), "The Laughing Policeman"
(1973) and "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" (1974). Matthau co-starred
with George Burns in Neil Simon's "The Sunshine Boys" (1975), as a pair
of cantankerous old ex-vaudeville stars who reunite for a television
special. The roles were originally to have been played by Red Skelton and
Jack Benny, but when Skelton dropped out and Benny died just before
production was scheduled to begin, Matthau and Burns got the parts. For
their performances, Burns won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
in his comeback role, and Matthau received an Academy Award nomination
as Best Actor.
Matthau's last screen appearance was in "Hanging Up" (2000),
in which he portrayed the dying father of Diane Keaton, Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow.
Matthau died July 1, 2000, in Santa Monica, CA, after suffering
a heart attack at his home. He was buried the next day, in a plain pine coffin,
with only about 50 family members and close friends attending his services,
according to his request.
One of Matthau's most enduring jokes concerns his real name,
which is usually listed as "Walter Matuschanskayasky," even in official
biographies. Throughout his life, Matthau seemed to enjoy making up names,
and he must've enjoyed giving out this tongue-twister during interviews. When
he filled in his Social Security forms in 1937, he listed his middle name
as "Foghorn," and he often said that his wife's real name was Carol
Wellington-Smythe Marcus, which he later admitted that he made up because
it sounded more "aristocratic."
After Matthau's death, his son, actor and director Charles
Matthau, admitted that his father made up the longer version of his "real" name
for his appearance in "Earthquake" (1974). Originally, Matthau agreed to
appear in the film when he thought his role would be much larger. When he
ended up playing a cameo appearance as a drunk in the film, he used the
name "Walter Matuschanskayasky" in the credits, and later told interviewers
that was his real name. In fact, his real name was Walter Matthow.
Matthau was born Walter Matthow on Oct. 1, 1920, in New York
City, NY. He died on July 1, 2000, in Santa Monica, CA.
1920 - 2000
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