Alan Arkin

Alan Wolf Arkin (March 26, 1934 – June 29, 2023) was an American actor and filmmaker.

In a career spanning seven decades, he received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for six Emmy Awards.

Alan Wolf Arkin was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 26, 1934, the son of teacher, painter, writer and lyricist David I. Arkin (1906–1980) (co-writer of the hit Three Dog Night song "Black and White"), and his wife, Beatrice (née Wortis) (1909–1991), a teacher.

The family lived in Crown Heights.

He was raised in a Jewish family with "no emphasis on religion".

His grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, Russia, and Germany.

His parents moved to Los Angeles when Alan was 11, but an 8-month Hollywood strike cost his father his job as a set designer.

During the 1950s Red Scare, Arkin's parents were accused of being Communists, and his father was fired when he refused to answer questions about his political ideology.

David Arkin challenged the dismissal, but he was vindicated only after his death.

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.

He started his career in the 1950s as a singer and guitarist in the folk group, The Tarriers.

Arkin attended Los Angeles State College from 1951 to 1953.

He also attended Bennington College.

They had two hits in 1956–7: "Cindy, Oh Cindy" and "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)".

They performed the latter in the 1957 musical movie, Calypso Heat Wave, and sang "Choucoune" in this too.

Arkin went on to sing with another folk group, The Baby Sitters.

In 1957, he made his feature film acting debut in a small role in the musical Calypso Heat Wave.

Arkin was an early member of the Second City comedy troupe in the 1960s.

He also made his Broadway debut as a performer in From the Second City at the Royale Theatre in 1961.

Arkin performed in the sketch comedy group The Second City before acting on the Broadway stage, starring as David Kolowitz in the Joseph Stein play Enter Laughing in 1963, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

Arkin starred in 1963 on Broadway as David Kolowitz in Joseph Stein's comedic play Enter Laughing.

Critic Howard Taubman of The New York Times gave the play a mixed review but praised Arkin's performance, describing it as "a choice specimen of a shrewd actor ribbing his profession."

For his performance, he received the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play, and a Theatre World Award.

The following year, he returned to Broadway starring as Harry Berlin in Luv directed by Mike Nichols.

Arkin starred opposite Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson.

He returned to Broadway acting in the comedic play Luv (1964), and directed Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys (1971), for which he received a Tony Award nomination.

In the early sixties, he appeared in episodes of East Side/West Side (1964) and ABC Stage 67 (1966).

Arkin gained stardom with his roles in the films The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966), Wait Until Dark (1967), The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968), Popi (1969), Catch-22 (1970), Freebie and the Bean, (1974), and The In-Laws (1979).

In 1966, he starred in Norman Jewison's comedy film The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming opposite Carl Reiner and Eva Marie Saint.

Robert Alden of The New York Times praised Arkin's performance describing it as his "first full-length film appearance and a particularly wonderful performance."

For his performance Arkin received a Academy Award for Best Actor nomination and a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer nomination.

He also received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

The following year he appeared in the Vittorio De Sica sex comedy Woman Times Seven starring Shirley MacLaine, and in Terence Young's psychological thriller film Wait Until Dark starring Audrey Hepburn.

Arkin also directed three films, including the black comedy Little Murders (1971).

His television roles included Leon Felhendler in Escape from Sobibor (1987), and as Harry Rowen in The Pentagon Papers (2003) for which he earned Emmy nominations respectively for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.

He later took on supporting roles in Edward Scissorhands (1990), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001), Sunshine Cleaning (2008), Get Smart (2008), and Argo (2012).

For his performance as a foul-mouthed grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

From 2015 to 2016, he voiced J. D. Salinger in the Netflix animated series BoJack Horseman.

From 2018 to 2019, he starred as a talent agent in the Netflix comedy series The Kominsky Method, earning two consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

Arkin died from congestive heart failure at his San Marcos home in San Diego County, California on June 29, 2023, at the age of 89.