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Oscar-winner Karl Malden Dies at 97
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The Chicago-born actor Karl Malden died today in Brentwood. He was 97. He won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award in 1952 for "A Streetcar Named Desire," but was probably best known as the lead actor (opposite a young Michael Douglas) in the 1970s TV series "The Streets of San Francisco" and as a spokesman for American Express.
Malden was also nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his role in the 1954 "On the Waterfront" which was, like "Streetcar," directed by Elia Kazan. The 1947 play, "Streetcar," had been directed on Broadway by Kazan with Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden. For the 1951 movie, Vivian Leigh replaced Tandy, but Leigh had been in the London production. Malden played Mitch, Blanche DuBois' would-be suitor and friend of Stanley, Blanche's brother-in-law. Hunter played her sister Stella.
In "On the Waterfront," he was also playing opposite Brando, as a priest who befriends Brando's character, Terry Malloy, and convinces him to testify against the mobster union boss Johnny Friendly played by Lee J. Cobb.
Malden was born in 1912 to a Czech mother Minnie Sebera Sekulovich and father from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Peter Sekulovich, in Chicago, Illinois. He was the oldest of three boys and named Mladen George Sekulovich. He was an athlete in high school, playing basketball and was also elected senior class president. He also took an interest in drama. He graduated from the Chicago Art Institute in 1937 and married Mona Greenberg, also an actor (Mona Graham) in 1938 and remained married until his death.
He eventually went to New York where he joined the Group Theatre and met Elia Kazan. He served in the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II which included a minor role in the play and film "Winged Victory." After the war ended, he played a co-starring role in "All My Sons" which directed by Elia Kazan. This association led to "On the Waterfront" and "Streecar."
While people tend to remember Marlon Brando and his infamous cry "Stella," it was Malden who won an Academy award as the shy suitor who can't quite seem to believe that a beautiful woman, Blanche (Leigh), would consider him as romantic prospect. The delusion that romance requires is shattered brutally by Stanley in a rape that is alluded to. The question is whether Blanche's sister can remain with her brutal husband after the rape of her sister who is then commitment to a mental institute is more ambiguous in the play. Kazan was forced to cut some controversial material and this has been restored in the DVD. As Mitch, Malden represented hope for Blanche to lead a normal and life and find happiness, a sort of redemption from having lost her first husband who is portrayed as being sensitive in this film but more clearly homosexual in the original text. While Blanche claims she has left her job as a teacher because of her nerves, it's really because she has had affairs with young teenage boys.
Kazan also directed Malden in the controversial 1956 "Baby Doll" with a script written by Tennessee Williams. Malden played the middle-aged husband of a young childish bride played by Carroll Baker. He hasn't consummated the marriage because he promised her father that he wouldn't until she is ready and he feels she'll be ready when she turns 20. But she becomes the pawn between her husband and his rival. The movie was based on Williams' play "27 Wagons Full of Cotton." In this movie, Malden plays an unabashedly despisable man who is reduced by his desire for the delectable, but mentally challenged young woman who still sucks her thumb and sleeps in a baby crib. He's repugnant in his eagerness to please her for the eventual sexual play-off. When he needs more money to please her, he sets fired to his rival's cotton gin. But his rival, Silva Vaccaro, a Sicilian businessman played by Eli Wallach, decides to take revenge by seducing his rival's wife.
Malden was nominated for an Emmy four times for his role in "The Streets of San Francisco," but ultimately won an Emmy for his role in the 1984 "Fatal Vision." In "The Streets of San Francisco" he played Detective Lt. Mike Stone for 120 episodes opposite Michael Douglas who played Inspector Steve Keller for 98 episodes. Malden's character was a veteran of 20 years on the police force who became a father figure to Keller, a plain clothes detective and 28-year-old college graduate who had no experience on the force. The show ran for five seasons, with Douglas leaving the show to pursue a movie career. He was replaced by Richard Hatch as Inspector Dan Robbins.
Malden was active in the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee and helped create the "Legends of Hollywood" stamp series that featured Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Gary Cooper and in 2005 he was honored by having a post office in Brentwood named in his honor.
Malden also wrote a memoir "When Do I Start" with his daughter, published in 2004. Malden may not have been handsome in a conventional sense, but he brought to the screen the common man, one who could be decent or desperate, but one that we could understand and empathize with.
Malden is survived by his wife, his daughters Mila and Cara, his sons-in-law, three granddaughters, and four great grandchildren.
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