Actors - Walter Matthau

Home > Listing Index > Actors > Walter Matthau

	Actors - Walter Matthau

Walter Matthau (October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was a Jewish American comedy actor. He is possibly best-known for his role as the gruff and less tidy member of The Odd Couple
.

Biography

He was born in New York City, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. There is a persistent rumor that his birth name was Matuschanskayasky (http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=68261), which is false, as are the rumors that his name was Matashansky or Matansky, or any of the other reported names. In truth– as reported by the authors of Matthau: A Life, Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferberg–along with Walter's son, Charles Matthau–Walter was a teller of tall tales. In his youth, he found the joy of embellishment lifted a story (and the listener) to such enjoyable heights, that he could not resist trying to pass off the most bogus of information, just to see who was gullible enough to believe it.

He told many stories to many reputable people– including the Social Security Administration. When he registered for a number, he was amazed that they only wanted him to write his name, and offer no proof of his identity. So, as another of his traditional goofs, he wrote that his true name was "Walter Foghorn Matthau."

His true name, as records from his youth prove, was Walter John Matthow. However, he was also called "Jake," so he occasionally signed his name as "Walter Jake Matthow." When, as a young man, he began acting in the Yiddish theatre in New York, he decided to change the spelling of his name. He believed that "Matthow" looked too brash and crude, and opted for the "more-elegant" spelling of "Matthau," and kept it for the rest of his life.

During World War II Matthau served in the U.S. Army Air Forces with the Eighth Air Force in England as a B-24 Liberator radioman-gunner, in the same bomb group as Jimmy Stewart. He attained the rank of Staff Sergeant and became interested in acting. He often joked that his best early review came in a play he did where he posed as a derelict. One reviewer said, "The others just looked like actors in make-up, Walter Matthau really looks like a skid row bum!" Matthau was a respected stage actor for years in such fare as Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter and A Shot In The Dark.

In 1955, he made his motion picture debut as a whip-wielding bad guy in The Kentuckian opposite Kirk Douglas. He appeared in many movies after this as a villain such as the 1958 King Creole
(where he is beaten up by Elvis Presley). That same year, he made a western called Ride a Crooked Trail with Audie Murphy. Matthau also directed a low budget 1960 movie called The Gangster Story. In 1962, he won acclaim as a sympathetic sheriff in Lonely Are the Brave. He also played a villainous war veteran in Charade
, which starred Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.

In addition to his busy movie and stage schedule, Matthau made many television appearances in live TV plays. Although he was constantly working, it seemed that the fact that he was not handsome in the traditional sense would keep him from being a top star.

Success came late for Matthau. When he was age 45, in 1965, Neil Simon cast him in the hit play The Odd Couple
opposite Art Carney. It was also during this time that Matthau nearly died of a heart attack. In 1966, he again achieved glory as a shady lawyer opposite future friend and frequent co-star, actor Jack Lemmon, in The Fortune Cookie
.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Walter Matthau ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Walter Matthau; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Actors - Walter Matthau

Biography

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay