Alan Arkin, the Oscar-winning actor in 2007 of Little Miss Sunshine, died at the age of 89 on Friday June 30, according to his publicist. He was considered a strong-willed actor who demonstrated his versatility in everything from wacky comedy to chilling drama. He had been nominated for the Oscars four times. His sons Adam, Matthew and Anthony, who confirmed his death, said in a statement: “Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature, both as an artist and as a man. »
A member of Chicago’s famous Second City comedy troupe, Alan Arkin had immediate success in the cinema with the Cold War parody films The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming. He hit his peak late, with his Best Supporting Actor win for the surprise 2006 hit Little Miss Sunshine. His role as a cash Hollywood producer, capable of creating a fake film for the CIA, in Ben Affleck’s Argo, had also made an impression and earned him an Oscar nomination.
In recent years, he starred opposite Michael Douglas in the Netflix comedy series The Kominsky Method, a role that earned him two Emmy nominations.
“When I was a young actor, people wanted to know if I wanted to be a serious or funny actor,” Michael McKean tweeted Friday. “I was like, ‘What kind is Alan Arkin?’ and it silenced them. Alan Arkin once told the Associated Press that the beauty of being a character actor is not having to strip naked for a role. He was neither a sex symbol nor a superstar, but he was rarely out of work, appearing in over a hundred TV movies and feature films. His trademarks were sympathy, his endearing side and the total immersion in his roles, as unusual as they were, whether it was a Russian submarine officer in The Russians are Coming… who had struggling to communicate with equally nervous Americans, or a rude, drug-addicted grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine.
“Alan never had an identifiable on-screen personality, because he just disappears into his characters,” The Russians are Coming… director Norman Jewison once observed. “His accents are impeccable, and he’s even able to change his look… He’s always been underestimated, in part because he’s never been in the service of his own success.” »
Alan Arkin’s rise continued in 1968 with The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, in which he played a sensitive man who could neither hear nor speak. He played the role of a clumsy French detective in L’Infallible Inspector Clouseau the same year, but the film will be passed over in favor of the character of Peter Sellers in the film series The Pink Panther.
Alan Arkin’s career continued to blossom when Mike Nichols, another Second City alum, cast him in the lead role of Yossarian, a victim of wartime bureaucracy in 1970’s Catch 22. film based on the novel by Joseph Heller which sold a million copies. Over the years he has appeared in such popular films as Edward Scissorhands as Johnny Depp’s neighbor; and in the film version of Glengarry by David Mamet, as a stubborn real estate salesman.
“My characters were very often the heart, the moral center of a film”
“I used to think my films were very varied. But I realized that for the first twenty years or so, most of the characters I played were outsiders, strangers to their surroundings, strangers in one way or another,” he said. to Associated Press in 2007.
“As I started getting better and better about myself, that started to change. A few days ago someone gave me one of the nicest compliments I have ever received. She told me that she thought my characters were very often the heart, the moral center of a film. I didn’t really get it, but I liked it; it was a pleasure. »
Alan Arkin also directed the film version of Jules Feiffer’s 1971 black comedy Little Murders and Neil Simon’s 1972 play about the bickering of former vaudeville partners, The Sunshine Boys. On television, he appeared in the short-lived series Fay and Harry and also wrote several children’s books.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, he studied acting at Los Angeles City College, California State University, and Bennington College in Vermont, where he earned a scholarship. He married a schoolmate, Jeremy Yaffe, with whom he had two sons, Adam and Matthew. After their divorce in 1961, Arkin married actress and writer Barbara Dana, with whom he had a son, Anthony. His three sons became actors.
