Walter Matthau - Wikipedia

Thank you, my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that October 1 is the anniversary of the birth of American actor and comedian Walter Matthau who may well be best known for "his film roles opposite Jack Lemmon, playing Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple, (1968) and its 1998 sequel, The Odd Couple II, and Max Goldman in Grumpy Old Men (1993) and its sequel, Grumpier Old Men (1995)."
He served with the U.S. Army Air Forces [1942-1945] with the Eighth Air Force in Great Britain as a radioman-gunner on a Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber from 1943–45.
"He was with the same 453rd Bombardment Group [under the command of Colonel] James Stewart. While based in England at RAF Old Buckenham, in Norfolk he flew missions across to continental Europe during the Battle of the Bulge, he ended the war with the rank of Staff Sergeant, and returned home to America for demobilization at the war's end intent on pursuing a career as an actor."
Rest in peace Walter Matthau.

Jack Lemmon. Great Interview with special guest star Walter Matthau Part 1
"Here I would like to share an interview that I recorded way back in 1987. That much loved Actor Jack Lemmon. He came to England in 1987 to be interviewed by the best interviewer Britain has ever produced Michael Parkinson. He talks about his wonderful career and has some great laughs along the way. Its the best interview I have ever seen on Jack. You can see Jack is totally relaxed. Later on there is a special guest, Jacks great friend and another great Actor Walter Matthau. A great show. Hope you enjoy."
https://youtu.be/G5-h_l77b0Q?t=1527




Images
1. Walter Matthau with classic facial expression.
2. The Odd Couple - Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau
3. SSG Walter Matthau assigned to 453rd Bombardment Group
4. Walter Martin and his wife Carol [Grace] Marcus Matthau - married in 1959

Biography from
1. Britannica.com
2. chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2000-07-02

1. Background from Britannica.com/biography/Walter-Matthau
"Walter Matthau AMERICAN ACTOR; WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
LAST UPDATED: Sep 27, 2019 See Article History
Walter Matthau, original name Walter Matthow, (born October 1, 1920, New York, New York, U.S.—died July 1, 2000, Santa Monica, California), American actor known for his rumpled face, nasal bray, and razor-sharp timing.

Born into a family of Jewish Russian immigrants, he was compelled to work at a very early age. By the time he was 11, he was employed at the concession stand in a Lower East Side Yiddish theatre. To pick up extra money, he began playing bit roles, making his debut as an 80-year-old woman in a crowd scene. After high school, he held down a variety of jobs, but his heart remained in the theatre. During World War II he served with distinction under the command of Colonel James Stewart. Upon his return he attended the New School for Social Research Dramatic Workshop, where his fellow students included Rod Steiger, Eli Wallach, Tony Curtis, and Harry Belafonte. In 1946 he made his first professional appearance, and within two years he was acting on Broadway, playing two roles and understudying seven characters in Anne of the Thousand Days.

Working steadily as a character actor on the stage and on television in the early 1950s, he achieved leading-man status in the Broadway comedy Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). That same year, he appeared in his first film, The Kentuckian. Though he had established himself as a light comedian onstage, he tended to play blackhearted villains or humourless “best friend–severest critic” roles on the screen. Shortly after costarring with Elvis Presley in King Creole (1958), he directed his only film, the B-grade melodrama Gangster Story (released in 1959). His television roles of this period included President Andrew Johnson in the historical anthology Profiles in Courage, and he also starred in the low-budget detective series Tallahassee 7000 (1961).

Matthau’s big break came in 1965, when he was cast opposite Art Carney in Neil Simon’s hit Broadway comedy The Odd Couple. The tailor-made role of congenital slob Oscar Madison transformed Matthau into a major star, earning him a Tony Award and forever lifting him out of the supporting-player category. He won an Academy Award for his portrayal of the silver-tongued shyster “Whiplash Willie” Gingrich in Billy Wilder’s trenchant comedy The Fortune Cookie (1966). This film represented the first of his many felicitous teamings with Jack Lemmon, including the 1968 movie version of The Odd Couple, a 1974 theatrical revival of Juno and the Paycock, and the riotous Grumpy Old Men films of the 1990s. Matthau also received Oscar nominations for Kotch (1971; directed by Lemmon) and The Sunshine Boys (1975), another collaboration with Neil Simon.

Though plagued with recurring health problems from the 1970s, Matthau continued to star in such well-received films as The Bad News Bears (1976), First Monday in October (1981), and The Grass Harp (1995), the last film directed by his son, Charlie Matthau. He was prominently featured as a hedonistic octogenarian in his last film, Hanging Up (2000), directed by Diane Keaton."

2. Background from chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2000-07-02 [login to see] -story.html
CURMUDGEONLY ACTOR WALTER MATTHAU; FAMED FOR `ODD COUPLE' ROLE
Michael Wilmington, Tribune Movie Critic
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Walter Matthau, 79, the sour-faced, hilariously smart-aleck actor who became one of the great character stars of American movies, died Saturday morning of a heart attack in Santa Monica, Calif.

Mr. Matthau was unique, a consummate performer who parlayed his large talent and decidedly non-movie star looks into a career that only death could derail. Though stricken with illnesses in the past few years, he retained his star power and kept working.

Just this year, he appeared, brilliantly, as Meg Ryan's crotchety dying father in director Diane Keaton's "Hanging Up." His last movie with his lifelong best friend, Jack Lemmon, was 1998's "The Odd Couple II."

In that picture, Mr. Matthau reprised, after three decades, the role that made his career: wise-cracking, slovenly New York sportswriter Oscar Madison, who is forced to room with his emotionally opposite friend, finicky photographer Felix Unger, played by Lemmon in the 1968 movie.

"Every actor looks all his life for a part that will combine his talents with his personality," Mr. Matthau said in a 1971 Time magazine interview. "`The Odd Couple' was mine."

It was a play and part written for Mr. Matthau by playwright Neil Simon, and so close to Mr. Matthau's real-life personality that the actor initially balked, asking whether he could instead play fussbudget Felix. Later, he suggested swapping parts with Art Carney, Broadway's Felix.

Oscar remained his role, however. And it was shortly after the stage version of "The Odd Couple" in 1965 that Mr. Matthau won a supporting actor Oscar for his part as wry, unscrupulous ambulance-chasing lawyer "Whiplash" Willie Gingrich in Billy Wilder's 1966 classic, "The Fortune Cookie."

In that film, Mr. Matthau for the first time acted opposite Lemmon, who was the movie's straight man and Gingrich's patsy: hapless pro football cameraman Harry Hinkle. When Mr. Matthau asked why Lemmon was virtually handing him the movie, his chum replied; "Isn't it about time?"

Two years later, the two co-starred in the movie "Odd Couple" and Mr. Matthau remained a top-rank leading man for the rest of his life.

It was a stardom that at first seemed unlikely, not because the imposing 6-foot-3 actor lacked talent or charisma, but because of his non-matinee idol looks. He liked to recall a lady who accosted him after a play set in a pool hall and complained that "you looked just like a poolroom bum!"

Unlike many actors, Mr. Matthau knew how poolroom bums--and gangsters, crooked lawyers and sportswriters--looked and acted.

Born Walter Matuschanskayasky on Oct. 1, 1920, on New York's Lower East Side to impoverished Russian-Jewish immigrants, he began acting while still a boy, after first selling sodas, at 11, in a Yiddish theater.

After serving in the Army Air Corps--and winning six battle stars--in World War II, Mr. Matthau attended the New School Dramatic Workshop and quickly carved out a career on Broadway. His first onstage role came at 28, as the octogenarian bishop in "Anne of the Thousand Days."

Mr. Matthau made his movie debut in 1955, in director-star Burt Lancaster's "The Kentuckian." That same year Wilder tried to cast him opposite Marilyn Monroe in the movie of "The Seven Year Itch," but 20th Century Fox preferred Tom Ewell. So Mr. Matthau had to wait nearly a decade before "The Odd Couple" changed his life.

He co-starred with Lemmon eight more times after "The Odd Couple"--in Wilder's 1974 film of the classic Chicago newspaper comedy, "The Front Page," in Wilder's 1981 "Buddy Buddy," in Oliver Stone's 1991 "JFK," in the two "Grumpy Old Men" comedies (1993 and 1995), in 1997's "Out to Sea," in 1998's "Odd Couple" sequel and in the 1996 film of Truman Capote's "The Grass Harp," directed by Mr. Matthau's son, Charles.

Whether playing leads or juicy character parts, Mr. Matthau always set the highest standard. He was equally convincing as the spoiled fortune hunter of Elaine May's "A New Leaf" (1971), the weary bank robber in Don Siegel's "Charley Varrick" (1973), the irascible old comic of Simon's "The Sunshine Boys" (1975), the boozy Little League coach of "The Bad News Bears" (1976) or as Albert Einstein in "I.Q." (1994).

His last great lead performance, as an elderly Central Park habitue, came in Herb Gardner's 1996 "I'm Not Rappaport."

Mr. Matthau, who had three children, was married twice, to the former Grace Geraldine Johnson and, since 1959, to Carol Marcus Matthau.

His one major flaw was a gambling addiction that he once estimated had cost him $5 million. But any bet on Walter Matthau's movie immortality is a sure thing. And though he specialized in playing tough pros and cynical wise guys, Lemmon insisted in a 1992 interview that his best friend was far different from that public image.

"Walter's a softie," Lemmon said."

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1sg-dan-capri

Great actor.

Loved all his works.