An actor's actor died on July 1, 2009. Karl Malden was best known to most by two roles -- one as a detective on TV's "Streets of San Francisco" and one as the pitchman for American Express.
But QMR tips its hat to the 97-year-old Malden because of his work on the big screen. He cut his teeth on the stage before his silver screen debut in 1940's They Knew What They Wanted. How do you summarize a career that began in the 1940s? The best I can do is direct you to two performances.
Marlon Brando gets most of the press from 1951's A Streetcar Named Desire for his role as Stanley. However, it was Malden who walked away with an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as Mitch. [Sidenote: Brando was nominated for Best Actor but lost to the one and only Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen (1951)].
My favorite Malden role was as the priest in On The Waterfront. You will find a clip from that movie above. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for this role as well. Two interesting notes from this nomination. . .Malden and Brando swapped this time around because Brando did walk away with the Oscar for Best Actor. Of the five nominees for Best Supporting Actor from 1954, three were from On the Waterfront -- Malden, Lee J. Cobb, and Rod Steiger. The other nominees were Tom Tully from The Caine Mutiny and Edmond O'Brien from The Barefoot Contessa.
-- 30 --
No comments:
Post a Comment