Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, Little Miss Sunshine, and Argo, the last two of which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He is the father of actors Adam Arkin, Anthony Arkin, and Matthew Arkin.
Arkin was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Beatrice (née Wortis), a teacher, and David I. Arkin, a painter and writer who mostly worked as a teacher.[1] Arkin was raised in a Jewish family with "no emphasis on religion"; his grandparents were immigrants from Odessa, Ukraine, Russia, and Germany.[2][3] The family moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles when Arkin was 11 years old,[2] but an eight-month Hollywood strike cost Arkin's father a set designer job he had wanted to keep. During the 1950s Red Scare, Arkin's parents were accused of being Communists,
which led to David Arkin losing his job when he refused to answer
questions about his political affiliation. David challenged the
dismissal and was ultimately vindicated, but only after his death.[4] Arkin attended Bennington College in Vermont.
Arkin, who had been taking acting lessons since age 10, became a
scholarship student at various drama academies, including one run by the
Stanislavsky student Benjamin Zemach, who taught Arkin a psychological approach to acting.[5] Arkin attended Los Angeles City College from 1951 to 1953. He also attended Bennington College. With two friends, he formed the folk music group The Tarriers, in which Arkin sang and played guitar. The band members co-composed the group's 1956 hit "The Banana Boat Song", a reworking, with some new lyrics, of a traditional, Jamaican calypso folk song of the same name, combined with another titled "Hill and Gully Rider".[6] It reached #4 on the Billboard magazine chart the same year as Harry Belafonte's better-known hit version.[7] The group appeared in the 1957 Calypso-exploitation film Calypso Heat Wave, singing "Banana Boat Song" and "Choucoune".[citation needed]
From 1958 to 1968, Arkin performed and recorded with the children's folk group, The Baby Sitters.[8] He also performed the role of Dr. Pangloss in a concert staging of Leonard Bernstein's operetta Candide, alongside Madeline Kahn's Cunegonde. Arkin was an early member of The Second City comedy troupe in the 1960s.[9] Arkin and his second wife, Barbara Dana, appeared together on the 1970–71 season of Sesame Street
as a comical couple named Larry and Phyllis who resolve their conflicts
when they remember how to pronounce the word "cooperate." In 1985, he
sang two selections by Jones & Schmidt on Ben Bagley's album Contemporary Broadway Revisited.
Acting
Arkin is one of only six[10] actors to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance (for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming in 1966). Two years later, he was again nominated, for The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.
In 1968, he appeared in the title role of Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers had disassociated himself from the signature role), which was not well received.
The films for which he has garnered the most favorable critical attention include his Oscar-nominated turns above; Wait Until Dark, as the erudite killer stalking Audrey Hepburn; The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter; Catch-22; The Seven-Per-Cent Solution; Little Murders; The In-Laws; Glengarry Glen Ross; and Little Miss Sunshine, for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar; and Argo. His portrayal of Dr. Oatman, a scared and emotionally conflicted psychiatrist treating John Cusack's hit man character Martin Q. Blank in Grosse Point Blank was also well received.
His role in Little Miss Sunshine, as the foul-mouthed Grandfather Edwin with a taste for heroin, won him the BAFTA Film Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
On receiving his Academy Award on February 25, 2007, Arkin said, "More
than anything, I'm deeply moved by the open-hearted appreciation our
small film has received, which in these fragmented times speaks so
openly of the possibility of innocence, growth and connection".[11] At 72 years old, Arkin was the sixth oldest winner of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
In 2006–07, Arkin was cast in supporting roles in Rendition as a US senator and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause as Bud Newman (Carol's Dad), starring with Tim Allen, Martin Short, Elizabeth Mitchell, Judge Reinhold and Wendy Crewson.
On Broadway, Arkin starred in Enter Laughing, for which he won a Tony Award, and Luv. He also directed The Sunshine Boys, among others.
Directing
Arkin's directorial debut, in 1969, was a 12-minute children's film, People Soup, starring his sons Adam Arkin and Matthew Arkin. Based on a story he had published in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in the 1950s, People Soup
is a fantasy about two boys who experiment with various kitchen
ingredients until they concoct a magical soup which transforms them into
different animals and objects.
Arkin's most acclaimed directorial effort is Little Murders, released in 1971. Written by cartoonist Jules Feiffer, Little Murders is a black comedy film starring Elliott Gould and Marcia Rodd
about a girl, Patsy (Rodd), who brings home her boyfriend, Alfred
(Gould), to meet her severely dysfunctional family amidst a series of
random shootings, garbage strikes and electrical outages ravaging the
neighborhood. The film opened to a lukewarm review by Roger Greenspan,[12] and a more positive one by Vincent Canby[13] in the New York Times. Roger Ebert's
review in the Chicago Sun Times was more enthusiastic, saying, "One of
the reasons it works, and is indeed a definitive reflection of America's
darker moods, is that it breaks audiences down into isolated
individuals, vulnerable and uncertain."[14]
Arkin also directed Fire Sale (1977), Samuel Beckett Is Coming Soon (1993) and Arigo (2000).
Writing
Arkin is the author of many books, including the children's stories Tony's Hard Work Day (illustrated by James Stevenson, 1972), The Lemming Condition (illustrated by Joan Sandin, 1976), Halfway Through the Door: An Actor's Journey Toward Self (1979) and The Clearing (1986 continuation of Lemming). In March 2011, he released his memoir, An Improvised Life.[15]
Personal life
Arkin has been married three times. He and Jeremy Yaffe, to whom he was married from 1955 to 1961, have two sons: Adam Arkin, born August 19, 1956, and Matthew Arkin, born March 21, 1959. In 1967, Arkin had son Anthony (Tony) Dana Arkin with actress-screenwriter Barbara Dana (born 1940), to whom he was married from June 16, 1964 to the mid-1990s. In 1996, Arkin married a psychotherapist, Suzanne Newlander.[4] As of 2007, they live in New Mexico.
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Calypso Heat Wave[citation needed] | Tarriers lead singer | uncredited |
| 1963 | That's Me | ||
| 1966 | The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming | Lt. Rozanov | Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer Nominated – Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor |
| 1966 | The Last Mohican | Pretzel Peddler | short film |
| 1967 | Woman Times Seven | Fred (segment "The Suicides") | released June 1967 |
| 1967 | Wait Until Dark | Harry Roat | released October 1967 |
| 1968 | Inspector Clouseau | Inspector Jacques Clouseau | released July 1968 |
| 1968 | The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter | John Singer |
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama |
| 1969 | Popi | Abraham Rodriguez |
Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama |
| 1969 | The Monitors | Cameo appearance | released October |
| 1969 | People Soup | writer and director | |
| 1970 | Catch-22 | Capt. John Yossarian | |
| 1971 | Little Murders | Lt. Practice | also director |
| 1972 | Last of the Red Hot Lovers | Barney Cashman | released August |
| 1972 | Deadhead Miles | Cooper | |
| 1974 | It Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Guy | November 1974 Television film | |
| 1974 | Freebie and the Bean | Bean | released December 1974 |
| 1975 | Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins | Gunny Rafferty | a.k.a. Rafferty and the Highway Hustlers |
| 1975 | Hearts of the West | Burt Kessler | released October 1975 NYFCC Award for Best Supporting Actor |
| 1976 | The Seven-Per-Cent Solution | Dr. Sigmund Freud | |
| 1977 | Fire Sale | Ezra Fikus | also director |
| 1978 | The Other Side of Hell | Frank Dole | January 17, 1978 Television film |
| 1978 | The Defection of Simas Kudirka | Simas Kudirka | January 23, 1978 Television film |
| 1979 | The In-Laws | Sheldon S. Kornpett, D.D.S. | released June 1979 |
| 1979 | The Magician of Lublin | Yasha Mazur | released November 1979 |
| 1980 | Simon | Prof. Simon Mendelssohn | Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Actor |
| 1981 | Full Moon High | Dr. Brand | |
| 1981 | Improper Channels | Jeffrey Martley | released May 1981 Genie Award for Best Performance by a Foreign Actor |
| 1981 | Chu Chu and the Philly Flash | Flash | released August 1981 |
| 1982 | The Last Unicorn | Schmendrick | voice |
| 1983 | The Return of Captain Invincible | Captain Invincible | |
| 1984 | A Matter of Principle | Flagg Purdy | Television film |
| 1984 | Terror in the Aisles | archival footage | |
| 1985 | The Fourth Wise Man | Orontes | March 1985 Television film |
| 1985 | Joshua Then and Now | Reuben Shapiro | released September 1985 Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role |
| 1985 | Bad Medicine | Dr. Ramón Madera | released November 1985 |
| 1986 | A Deadly Business | Harold Kaufman | TV |
| 1986 | Big Trouble | Leonard Hoffman | released May 1986 |
| 1987 | Escape from Sobibor | Leon Feldhendler | Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie |
| 1988 | Necessary Parties | Archie Corelli | TV |
| 1990 | Coupe de Ville | Fred Libner | released March 1990 |
| 1990 | Edward Scissorhands | Bill | released December 7, 1990 Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor |
| 1990 | Havana | Joe Volpi | released December 12, 1990 |
| 1991 | The Rocketeer | A. "Peevy" Peabody | |
| 1992 | Glengarry Glen Ross | George Aaronow | |
| 1993 | Cooperstown | Harry Willette | Jan. 1993 Television film |
| 1993 | Indian Summer | Unca Lou Handler | released April 1993 |
| 1993 | Taking the Heat | Tommy Canard | June 1993 Television film |
| 1993 | So I Married an Axe Murderer | Police Captain (uncredited) | released July 1993 |
| 1993 | Samuel Beckett is Coming Soon | The Director (character) | short film; also director |
| 1994 | North | Judge Buckle | released July 22, 1994 |
| 1994 | Doomsday Gun | Col. Yossi | July 23, 1994 Television film |
| 1994 | Picture Windows | Tully, in segment "Soir Bleu" | October 1994 Television film |
| 1995 | The Jerky Boys: The Movie | Ernie Lazarro | released February 1995 |
| 1995 | Steal Big Steal Little | Lou Perilli | released September 1995 |
| 1996 | Heck's Way Home | Dogcatcher | March 1996 – TV |
| 1996 | Mother Night | George Kraft | released November 1996 |
| 1997 | Grosse Pointe Blank | Dr. Oatman | released April 1997 |
| 1997 | Four Days in September | Charles Burke Elbrick | Brazil-U.S May 1997; U.S. Jan. 1998 |
| 1997 | Gattaca | Det. Hugo | released October 1997 |
| 1998 | Slums of Beverly Hills | Murray Samuel Abromowitz | |
| 1999 | Jakob the Liar | Max Frankfurter | released September 1999 |
| 1999 | Blood Money | Willy "The Hammer" Canzaro | Television film |
| 2000 | Arigo | writer and director | |
| 2000 | Magicians | Milo | direct-to-video |
| 2001 | Varian's War | Freier | April 2001 Television film |
| 2001 | America's Sweethearts | Wellness Guide | released July 2001 |
| 2001 | Thirteen Conversations About One Thing | Gene | wide theatrical release 2002 Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male Nominated – Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor |
| 2003 | The Pentagon Papers | Harry Rowen | March 2003 Television film Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor – Miniseries or a Movie |
| 2003 | And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself | Sam Drebben | September 2003 Television film |
| 2004 | The Novice | Father Benkhe | released September 2004 |
| 2004 | Noel | Artie Venzuela | November 2004 Television film |
| 2004 | Eros | Dr. Pearl / Hal in segment "Equilibrium" | |
| 2006 | Firewall | Arlin Forester | released February 2006 |
| 2006 | Little Miss Sunshine | Edwin Hoover | Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated – Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role - Motion Picture |
| 2006 | The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause | Bud Newman | released December 2006 |
| 2007 | Raising Flagg | Flagg Purdy | released February 2007 |
| 2007 | Rendition | Senator Hawkins | released October. 2007 |
| 2008 | Sunshine Cleaning | Joe | |
| 2008 | Get Smart | The Chief | released June 2008 |
| 2008 | Marley & Me | Arnie Klein | released December 2008 |
| 2009 | The Private Lives of Pippa Lee | Herb | |
| 2010 | City Island | Michael Malakov (drama coach) | |
| 2011 | Thin Ice | Gorvy Hauer | |
| 2011 | The Change-Up | Mitch's Dad | |
| 2011 | The Muppets | Cameo appearance | |
| 2012 | Argo | Lester Siegel | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture Nominated — London Film Critics' Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role |
| 2013 | Stand Up Guys | Richard Hirsch | |
| The Incredible Burt Wonderstone | Rance Holloway |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | East Side/West Side | Ted Miller | "The Beatnik and the Politician" |
| 1966 | ABC Stage 67 | Barney Kempinski | "The Love Song of Barney Kempinski" Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama |
| 1970–71 | Sesame Street | Larry | unknown episodes |
| 1979 | Carol Burnett & Company | Himself | Episode 1, Season 2 |
| 1980 | The Muppet Show | Himself | Episode 20, Season 4 |
| 1983 | St. Elsewhere | Jerry Singleton | 3 episodes: "Ties That Bind", "Lust En Veritas", "Newheart" |
| 1985 | Faerie Tale Theatre | Bo | "The Emperor's New Clothes" |
| 1987 | Harry | Harry Porschak | March 4–25, ABC TV series |
| 1997 | Chicago Hope | Zoltan Karpathein | "The Son Also Rises" Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – Drama Series |
| 2001–02 | 100 Centre Street | Joe Rifkind | A&E TV series |
| 2005 | Will & Grace | Marty Adler | "It's a Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad World" |
| 2006–07 | Boston Legal | Prosecutor | Two episodes in Season 3 |
0 comments:
Post a Comment