In this week’s edition of The Showplace blog, ATVN’s Artie Freeman shares his opinions and insights on some of classic films and television’s greatest entertainers.
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Karl Malden was born Mladen George Sekulovich on March 22, 1912 to a Czech mother and a Serbian father in Chicago. His career spanned over 60 years and he is considered to be one of greatest character actors of all time. A character actor is an actor who plays a distinctive and important supporting role.
Karl Malden broke his nose twice playing high school sports, giving him his trademark look. A misconception is that actors have picture perfect looks. That’s not one hundred percent true. Some actors take their imperfections and own them like Karl Malden did, using them to set themselves apart from the pack. Others like Owen Wilson (twice broken nose like Malden), Steve Buscemi, and Peter Falk come to mind.
After graduating from high school, Malden worked in the steel mills for three years until 1934. In September 1934, he left Indiana, to study drama at the Goodman Theater Dramatic School in Chicago. He didn’t have enough money to pay for school but the program director made a deal with him. He would pay the institute whatever money he had, and if Malden did well, he would be given a full scholarship. He did well and received the scholarship.
Three years later, he moved to New York City and made his first appearance on Broadway. Malden also joined the Group Theatre, where he began acting in many plays and was introduced to a young Elia Kazan. Kazan would later direct Malden in A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront.
It was Elia Kazan who suggested he change his name from Mladen Sekulovich to Karl Malden. He anglicized his first name by swapping its letters “l” and “a” and used it as his last name. He used his grandfather’s first name as his own. He always regretted changing his name because he was proud of his heritage. Whenever he starred in a movie or on a television show, he requested that one of the characters have his family name, “Sekulovich”.
Karl Malden was friends with Marlon Brando and they worked together on five productions. Their first venture was the Broadway Play, Truckline Café. They then co-starred in the Broadway production and later the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951. For their work in that film Malden won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award and Brando received his first Academy Award nomination. They co-starred in the 1954 classic, On the Waterfront. For his performance, Brando garnered his first Academy Award win and Malden received his second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. One-Eyed Jacks is a special movie and it’s Brando’s only film as a director. It also marked the final time that they would work together, and we have it in our movie vault for you to enjoy!
It’s not the case now, but there was a time when film actors felt that television roles were beneath them. While film actors with less credentials shunned television, Academy Award Winner, Karl Malden embraced television.
From 1972 to 1977, he portrayed Lt. Mike Stone in the television series, The Streets of San Francisco. Malden was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times.
He closed out his career in 2000 on an episode of The West Wing, portraying a Catholic priest. For this role he had the same bible that he used when he played a priest in On the Waterfront.
Malden is one of 8 actors to receive an Oscar nomination for their performance as a priest.
He appeared in four films that were nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award.
He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960.
He was the pitchman for American Express, a position he held for 21 years. For American Express Traveler’s Checks, he coined his famous catch phrase, “Don’t leave home without them!”.
He was President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1989 to 1992.
He was a member of the United States Postal Service’s 16-member Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, which meets to review recommendations for U.S. commemorative postage stamps.
Karl Malden died on July 1, 2009, exactly five years to the day after Marlon Brando died. Another coincidence for Malden is that both he and his mother were born on March 22nd. His death, at the age of 97, was 6 days after Michael Jackson’s death. I mention that because both he and Jackson grew up in Gary, Indiana.
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Artie Freeman provides great introductions to many of the classic movies airing weekly on ATVN’s “Movie Vault” and also hosts “Take 5” interviews featuring unique people and community leaders in our viewing area.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Astound Broadband or any other agency, organization, employer or company.