One of America’s most prolific film, TV and stage actors, Eli Wallach, has passed away at the age of 98, according to his daughter Katherine.
Wallach was a recognizable character actor who played memorable supporting roles in many films over the past six decades, most notably for his bad guy roles in classics Westerns The Magnificent Seven and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly as well as appearing in the Marilyn Monroe-Clark Gable film The Misfits and playing Don Altobello in The Godfather Part III.
Born in 1915 in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Wallach was enlisted in the Army during WWII, but began his career on Broadway in 1945, winning a Tony Award in 1951 for his performance in Tennessee Williams’ “The Rose Tattoo.” Wallach’s first film role would come five years later when he co-starred in Elia Kazan’s Baby Doll (also written by Williams) for which he one a BAFTA Award for “Most Promising Newcomer.”
Wallach continued to act well into his 90s, appearing in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer, both in 2010.
While Wallach was never nominated for an Oscar in 2010, he received an Honorary Academy Award at that year’s Governor’s Awards for being “the quintessential chameleon, effortlessly inhabiting a wide range of characters, while putting his inimitable stamp on every role.”
(Photo Credit: WENN.com)
