Rod Steiger

He served on the destroyer USS Taussig during WWII. He was serving on that ship in the Phillippine Sea on the day of what is known as Typhoon Cobra or Halsey's Typhoon in December 1944.. Three destroyers were sunk by that storm, It became the background for the novel and film "The Caine Mutiny" and for the stage play "The Caine Mutiny Court- Martial".

Rodney Stephen Steiger was born in Westhampton, New York, to Augusta Amelia (Driver) and Frederick Jacob Steiger, both vaudevillians. He was of German and Austrian ancestry. After his parents' divorce, Steiger was raised by his mother in Newark, New Jersey. He dropped out of Westside High school at age 16 and joined the Navy. He saw action in the Pacific on a destroyer. Steiger returned to New Jersey after the war and worked for the VA. He was part of an amateur acting group, and then joined the Actors' Studio using his GI Bill benefits. Steiger received his first film roles in the early 1950s.

His first major one was in Teresa (1951), but his first lead role was in the TV version of The Philco Television Playhouse: Marty (1953). The movie version, however, had Ernest Borgnine in the lead and won him an Academy Award.

Steiger, who originated the role of Marty in the eponymous television production The Philco Television Playhouse: Marty (1953), said that he turned down the role in the 1955 movie production as the Hill-Hecht-Lancaster Productions contract would have bound him for years. Harold Hecht and Burt Lancaster, on their part, said that they did not want to cast Steiger as they felt the public would not go for the same actor that they had seen for free on television.

Steiger's breakthrough role came in 1954, with the classic On the Waterfront (1954). Since then he has been a presence on the screen as everything from a popular leading man to a little-known character actor.

After he played Jud Fry in Oklahoma! (1955), producer David O. Selznick wanted to sign him to a long-term contract and possibly star him in the lead of his proposed remake of Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" opposite David O. Selznick's wife, Jennifer Jones. "But I told him that I must have the right to choose my own mistakes", Steiger told his biographer, Tom Hutchinson. "His face fell - he couldn't believe anyone would refuse him. Neither could my agents!".

Steiger made a name for himself in many different types of roles, from a crooked promoter in The Harder They Fall (1956) to the title character in Al Capone (1959).

He was one of dozens of stars in the epic World War II film The Longest Day (1962).

In 1964, he received his second Oscar nomination for The Pawnbroker (1964). The next couple of years he was at the height of his powers.

In 1965, he starred in the dark comedy The Loved One (1965), and in David Lean's epic Doctor Zhivago (1965).

In 1966, he starred in the BBC Play of the Month (1965) episode "Death of a Salesman" as Willy Loman in the TV version of his stage play "Death of a Salesman," but in 1967, he landed what many consider his greatest role: Sheriff Bill Gillespie in In the Heat of the Night (1967), opposite Sidney Poitier. Steiger deservedly took home the Best Actor Oscar for his work in that film.

Was not the first choice to play the role of Sheriff Bill Gillespie in the 1967 Best Picture Academy Award-winner In the Heat of the Night (1967), for which Steiger won the Best Actor Oscar. The role was first offered to George C. Scott, who accepted, according to producer Walter Mirisch's memoir "I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History". Scott backed out when his wife Colleen Dewhurst wanted him to direct her in a play on Broadway. Ironically, Steiger later turned down the lead in Patton (1970) that went to Scott, which brought him his own Best Actor Oscar.

He took another controversial role as a man with many tattoos in The Illustrated Man (1969) and as a serial killer in the classic No Way to Treat a Lady (1968). After that, he seemed to have withdrawn from high-profile movies and became more selective in the roles he chose.

He turned down the lead in Patton (1970) and also in The Godfather (1972).

Among his more notable roles in the 1970s are Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971), Lolly-Madonna XXX (1973), as Benito Mussolini in The Last 4 Days (1974), Portrait of a Hitman (1979), Jesus of Nazareth (1977), F. I. S. T.

Campaigned vigorously for a role in The Godfather (1972), which began shooting in early 1971, three years after Steiger had reached the top of his craft, receiving the Academy Award for Best Actor his role as Sheriff Bill Gillespie in In the Heat of the Night (1967). Surprisingly, the role Steiger wanted was not the title role of Don Vito Corleone (eventually played by his On the Waterfront (1954) co-star Marlon Brando), but the role of Michael Corleone, the Don's youngest son. Paramount executives found his desire to be bizarre as he was much too old for the role and turned him down without even a screen-test.

1976: Fell into a deep depression after undergoing triple heart bypass surgery.

(1978) and The Amityville Horror (1979).

As the 1980s ended, Steiger landed a role as the buttoned-up New York City Chief of Police in The January Man (1989). Steiger was seriously affected by depression for 8 years.

He starred in the critically acclaimed The Chosen (1981) with Robby Benson and Maximilian Schell, perhaps the highlight of his 1980s movie career. Steiger increasingly moved away from the big Hollywood pictures, instead taking roles in foreign productions and independent movies.

Steiger's "Chief Bill Gillespie" ("In the Heat of the Night") was exactly what Joni Mitchell wanted for spoken word on her track "Tax Free" on the 1985 album, "Dog Eat Dog." Mitchell hired Steiger to portray a bellowing "hawk-right militant" preacher whose ultra-right condemnations ("Rock and roll music!" "Cast down these dope fiends and their noisy bands! "Pot in their pockets!") are peppered throughout the song as Mitchell sings.

As he returned to the screen in the late 1990s he began creating some of his most memorable roles.

He was the doctor in the independently-made movie Shiloh (1996), about an abused dog.

He was the crazed, kill-'em-all army general in Mars Attacks! (1996) who always called his enemies peace-mongers.

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on April 10, 1997.

His last televised appearance was on Jon Favreau's Dinner for Five (2001), the episode aired April 29, 2002, Steiger passed away in July.

On August 15, 2019, he was honored with a day of his film work during the Turner Classic Movies Summer Under the Stars.