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KARL MALDEN 1912-2009
TWO OF KARL MALDEN'S GREATEST FILM ROLES At left, Malden is Mitch, suitor to mentally unstable Blanche (Vivien Leigh) in Elia Kazan's 1951 film version of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire." Malden won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, reprising his Broadway role, and Leigh won the Best Actress Oscar. At right, Malden as Father Barry comforts Eva Marie Saint in Kazan's "On the Waterfront." Saint won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar and Malden was nominated in the Supporting Actor category. |
Malden was a consummate actor on stage and screen
of TheColumnists.com
I’d heard of a “nose for news”
but never a “nose for acting”. Not until I met Karl
Malden, the Academy Award-winning actor who died last month at
age 97.
.
Watching some very early Malden movies ("Boomerang,"
"The Gunfighter"), I just was not that aware of the
famous Malden proboscis.
But later on Malden’s nose seemed to swell and prosper as
he advanced through screen stardom.
Having a prominent nose never hurt W.C. Fields or Jimmy Durante
just as having a tiny one never impeded Jane Wyman or Nanette
Fabray.
When I asked Malden about it, in a pleasant way, he merely grinned
and said his nose had given him some great moments, acting wise.
It could glower all red and threatening in an angry confrontation
or seem to wilt in scenes of romance.
Well, it certainly worked. Malden was never a leading man but
frequently starred above the title because of his skills as a
character actor.
As such he ascended to the pantheon of character stars along
side such greats as Claude Rains, Walter Brennan and Edward Arnold.
But Malden perversely claimed his favorite movie was 1961’s
"Parrish" because “I got to romance Claudette
Colbert, whom I’d adored as a kid when I’d watch her
movies at the local theater. When I asked her if the age difference
mattered, she merely said ‘Why, Karl, I never realized
you were that much older than me!’ Which is positive
thinking I guess.”
The first time I met Malden was in 1972 over lunch at the Century
Plaza in Los Angeles hotel as he entertained press before jetting
off to begin production of "The Streets of San Francisco"
TV series. He was characteristically blunt in saying he accepted
a TV series only because movie parts were becoming scarce.
But his five years as Det. Lt. Mike Stone gave him newfound popularity
and he spent his later acting years mainly on TV.
The last time we heard from Malden was via a taped message at
the recent American Film Institute salute to Michael Douglas,
his former "Streets of San Francisco" co-star. The
frail Malden, then 97 years old, hailed his former TV sidekick
as “my adopted son” and he really meant it. A few weeks
later the veteran actor died at his Beverly Hills home.
Born Mladen Sukovich in 1912, Malden had determined to forge
a career in American theater but in 1947 he reluctantly accepted
a movie contract from 20th Century-Fox, turning up mostly in
background roles in films like Elia Kazan's "Boomerang."
But a trip back to Broadway gave him the role of a lifetime:
Mitch in "A Streetcar Named Desire."
“It was a huge hit and Jack Warner bought it for the movies.
But he’d already had a financial failure with Tennessee
Williams’ "The Glass Menagerie" with Jane Wyman.
So he said he needed a big star to sell it and got Vivien Leigh
who had done the London version. Only then did he hire the rest
of us from Broadway: Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter and me plus Elia
Kazan, the director.”
Malden told me this story in the late 1980s and noted the irony–that
Jessica Tandy, Broadway's original Blanche Dubois in "Streetcar,"
was the only one of the original cast still working consistently.
(She died in 1994, but had won the Best Actress Oscar for "Driving
Miss Daisy" in 1989, capping her brilliant career.)
“There were big clashes on the set. Kazan had seen Stanley
(Brando) as the equal of Blanche and directed the play a certain
way. Leigh’s (London stage) version, directed by her husband,
Laurence Olivier, had Blanche as the biggest character. Plus
Leigh did not like Marlon, considered him beneath her, which
was great for the part but did not make for harmony.
“On Oscar night three actors won but I was the only one
there. Leigh was back in England and a nervous Brando stayed
away and so did Kim Hunter. 'Gadge' (Kazan's nickname) lost best
director to George Stevens (for "A Place in the Sun").
But this was the first time three actors from the same movie
won. I was making a B movie at Warners that day and was due to
shoot all night. At 6 p.m. Jack Warner phoned and ordered me
to go get a rented tux and get over to the Pantages and I won.
I was so nervous I asked Humphrey Bogart, sitting beside me,
to look after my coat and he lost it.” (Bogart won his own
Oscar that night for "The African Queen," denying Brando
an Oscar for "Streetcar.")
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At left, Malden comes on strong to child bride Carroll Baker in "Baby Doll," Elia Kazan's controversial 1956 film from another Tennessee Williams play. At right, Malden and Eva Marie Saint help battered Marlon Brando in the dramatic conclusion of "On the Waterfront" (1954).
After that Malden was set as one of the kings of the stardust ballroom: he was the relentless prosecutor stalking Montgomery Clift in Alfred Hitchcock's "I Confess" (1953), got another Oscar nomination for Kazan’s "On The Waterfront" (1954), and had plum parts in "Baby Doll" (1956), "Fear Strikes Out" (1957), "The Hanging Tree" (1959) and "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962).
“But I loved making that musical with Roz Russell ("Gypsy"), romancing Bette Davis (in "Dead Ringer"), and it was sheer fun to prance around as the thief in "Hotel" (1967).”
One of Malden’s greatest assets was his loyalty. He remained loyal to Kazan, repeatedly urging the Academy to bestow an honorary Oscar on the controversial director and stood proudly on stage when Kazan finally got one.
And he maintained Brando was one of American cinema’s greatest talents even after some rough months being directed by Brando in Mexico for the flawed western "One-Eyed Jacks" (1962).
You’d never guess it but Malden had a sense of humor. At the Kirk Douglas AFI salute he stood up and said “This is Mladen Sukovich introducing Issur Danielovitch….” (Douglas' real name.)
When I last talked to Malden he was peddling his memoirs at the Toronto Film Festival in 1997. A frail 85-year-old his eyes would brighten when I told him scenes of his I particularly liked.
I once told him on the phone I’d had a bad flu bout and had ordered six Malden movies from my local video store for my own Karl Malden mini-festival.
“Why only six?” he snapped in mock outrage.
But a week later a parcel arrived with an autographed picture: “My hat off to you: Karl”.
Now my hat’s off to him, a consummate actor, a great conversationalist who completely mastered the craft of acting.
©2009 by Jim Bawden. The photos from "On the Waterfront" are courtesy of Columbia Pictures. The photos from "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Baby Doll" are courtesy of Warner Bros. This column first posted July 13, 2009.
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