NYT obituary -- actor Walter Matthau
July 1, 2000
Actor Walter Matthau Dies at 79
Filed at 7:10 p.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) -- Walter Matthau, the foghorn-voiced master
of crotchety comedy who won an Oscar for ``The Fortune Cookie'' and
cemented his stardom as the sloppy Oscar Madison in ``The Odd Couple,''
died Saturday of a heart attack. He was 79.
Matthau was pronounced dead at 1:42 a.m. at St. John's Health Center in
Santa Monica, said hospital spokeswoman Lindi Funston.
``I have lost someone I loved as a brother, as a closest friend and a
remarkable human being,'' said frequent co-star Jack Lemmon. ``We have
also lost one of the best damn actors we'll ever see.''
Flowers were placed on Matthau's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on
Saturday.
Often cast as a would-be con man foiled by life's travails, Matthau bellowed
complaints against his tormentors and moved his lean, 6-foot-3 frame in
surprising ways.
``Walter walks like a child's windup toy,'' Lemmon once said.
Matthau's performance as Lemmon's shyster brother-in-law in ``The Fortune
Cookie,'' directed by Billy Wilder, won him the Academy Award as best
supporting actor of 1966. He was twice nominated for best actor: as the
cantankerous oldster in ``Kotch,'' 1971 (directed by Lemmon); and as the
feuding vaudeville partner of George Burns in ``The Sunshine Boys,'' 1975.
``He was so natural. He was himself, with all the quirks that a human being
has,'' Wilder said Saturday. ``He was guy who made great friends. Whether
you played cards with him or whether you talked football bets with him, he
was a full-blown man.''
``He was good in everything he did. Sometimes I messed it up as a director.
But he was absolutely perfect, always,'' Wilder added.
``The Odd Couple'' provided the role that established Matthau's stardom. In
1965 he appeared in New York as the slobby sportswriter Oscar Madison in
Neil Simon's play. Art Carney was the fastidious photographer, Felix Unger,
who shared an apartment with Madison after both had been divorced.
Matthau repeated the role in the 1968 film, with Lemmon as Felix. They
reprised their roles 30 years later in the 1998 film ``Odd Couple II.''
``Every actor looks all his life for a part that will combine his talents with his
personality,'' Matthau told Time magazine in 1971. ''`The Odd Couple' was
mine. That was the plutonium I needed. It all started happening after that.''
Matthau's son Charlie, 34, became a filmmaker and directed his father in
``The Grass Harp'' in 1995.
``From a personal standpoint, he was just the kindest, most honest, most
decent, funniest person I've every met,'' Charlie Matthau said Saturday. ``I
was lucky enough to direct him in 'The Grass Harp' and hopefully not
embarrass him. I think he was proud of the film and I know I'll treasure it
forever.''
Matthau had survived several serious health setbacks, including an earlier
heart attack, but he was growing increasingly sick and his ability to bounce
back was diminishing and longtime agent Leonard Hirshan said his death was
sobering but inevitable.
``I have absolutely nothing to say but deep sadness about leaving a friend
(who was) more than a client,'' Hirshan said. ``It's a shame. He's just a
terrific man.''
The actor could be as whimsically eccentric in interviews as he was on the
screen. Reporters had to exercise caution in separating fact from his flights
of fancy.
In responding to a form for Current Biography, he reported that his father
had been an Eastern Orthodox priest in czarist Russia who ran afoul with
church authorities by preaching the infallibility of the pope. His father was
actually a peddler from Kiev.
``That's my defense mechanism against pompous and ludicrous questions,''
Matthau explained. When he filled out his Social Security form in 1937, he
listed his middle name as Foghorn. He never corrected it.
He was born Walter Matuchanskayasky on Oct. 1, 1920, in New York City
to impoverished Russian-Jewish immigrants. His father left home when
Walter was 3. Walter and his older brother, Henry, lived with their mother, a
garment worker, in a series of cold water flats on the lower East Side.
He was already 6 feet tall at age 10 and weighed 90 pounds. ``When I drank
cherry soda, I looked like a thermometer,'' he once cracked.
After World War II, when he served in the Army Air Corps, he returned
home a sergeant with six battle stars and a fistful of money from poker
winnings.
Legends of his gambling followed him throughout his life. While making a TV
series in Florida before his movie stardom, he lost $183,000 betting on
spring-training baseball games.
In middle age he estimated his lifetime gambling losses at $5 million.
After studying in the dramatic workshop at New York's New School --
where fellow students included Gene Saks, Rod Steiger, Harry Guardino and
Tony Curtis -- his first Broadway role came at the age of 28 when he was
hired as understudy for the role of an 83-year-old English bishop in ``Anne of
the Thousand Days,'' starring Rex Harrison.
When the aged English actor playing the role became ill, Matthau went
onstage without a rehearsal. He liked to tell how the surprised Harrison
looked at him and uttered an expletive.
His first film, ``The Kentuckian,'' starring and directed by Burt Lancaster in
1955, cast him as a villain, and more heavy roles followed, including
``Charade,'' starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.
``The Odd Couple'' and ``The Fortune Cookie'' elevated Matthau to stardom,
and he enjoyed a wide variety of roles for more than 30 years. He appeared in
action thrillers such as ``The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.'' He even did
a musical, ``Hello Dolly!'' costarring with Barbra Streisand, with whom he
publicly feuded.
He was always identified with comedy, something that rankled him.
``When people come up to me and say, `Aren't you that comedian who's in
the movies?' I want to throw up,'' he once complained. ``I throw up a lot.''
Matthau was often teamed with Lemmon, always as adversaries though they
were best friends off screen. Their films included: ``The Front Page,''
``Buddy Buddy,'' ``Grumpier Old Men,'' ``Out to Sea.''
He was most recently on screen with Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton and Lisa
Kudrow in ``Hanging Up,'' released in February.
The actor had survived several serious health setbacks. While making ``The
Fortune Cookie'' in 1966, he suffered a serious heart attack. His doctor
attributed it to smoking three packs a day and constant worry about gambling
and told him to give up both. Matthau stopped smoking.
In 1976, he underwent heart bypass surgery. After working in freezing
Minnesota weather for ``Grumpy Old Men'' in 1993, he was hospitalized for
double pneumonia. In December 1995 he had a colon tumor removed; it
tested benign. He was hospitalized in May 1999 after another bout with
pneumonia.
Matthau attributed his various illnesses to his eating habits: ``If you eat only
celery and lettuce, you won't get sick .... I like celery and lettuce, but I like it
with pickles, relish, corned beef, potatoes, peas. And I like Eskimo Pies,
vanilla ice cream with chocolate covering.''
Matthau was married to Grace Geraldine Johnson from 1948 until their
divorce in 1958. They had two children, David and Jenny. He married Carol
Marcus in 1959, and they had one son, Charlie.
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