It sure seems like there have been quite a spate of celebrity deaths in the past few weeks.
But today saw the demise of one of the finest actors of the mid-twentieth century.
Oscar, Emmy-Winning Actor Karl Malden Dies at 97 | Washington Post
Karl Malden, 97, an Academy Award-winning actor who excelled in plainspoken, working-class roles, including the awkward Mitch in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and a brave priest in "On the Waterfront," died today at his home in Los Angeles. No cause of death was immediately disclosed. Mr. Malden's bulbous nose and thinning hair made him one of the most familiar sights in movies and on television for five decades. In the 1970s, he became known to millions of viewers as a police veteran who partners with a young inspector played by Michael Douglas on the ABC drama series "The Streets of San Francisco." ...... Mr. Malden was a steelworker before winning important stage roles on Broadway. He made his greatest mark on Hollywood in the early 1950s as part of a group of New York theater stars -- headed by actor Marlon Brando and director Elia Kazan -- who were trying to bring an unpredictable, realistic style of acting to audiences. ...
... Mladen George Sekulovich, the son of Serbian immigrant laborers, was born March 22, 1912, in Chicago and raised in Gary, Ind. He changed his name in the late 1930s at Kazan's urging, but Mr. Malden said he felt so guilty that he tried to insert the name Sekulovich wherever possible on film, whether on an office nameplate or shouted out to a fellow TV detective in "The Streets of San Francisco." ...
... He was nominated four times for an Emmy in "The Streets of San Francisco" and won for outstanding supporting actor in a limited series or a special for "Fatal Vision" (1984) as the father-in-law of a murderer. He continued to take occasional film and television parts, among them Barbra Streisand's father in "Nuts" (1987) and a priest in an episode of "The West Wing."
From 1989 to 1992, he was president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and helped raise millions of dollars to build a new library and film research center. He received a Screen Actors Guild award for a lifetime of achievement in 2004.
Survivors include his wife of 70 years, former actress Mona Graham; two daughters, Mila and Carla; three granddaughters; and four great-grandchildren.
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