“We were dirt poor so I couldn’t afford to go to the movies often,” he told the AP in 1998. His parents found jobs as teachers, but were fired during the post-World War II Red Scare because they were Communists. He also wrote several books for children.īorn in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn, he and his family, which included two younger brothers, moved to Los Angeles when he was 11.
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He also was the voice of Wild Knuckles in the 2022 animated film “Minions: The Rise of Gru.”Īrkin also directed the film version of Jules Feiffer’s 1971 dark comedy “Little Murders” and Neil Simon’s 1972 play about bickering old vaudeville partners, “The Sunshine Boys.” On television, Arkin appeared in the short-lived series “Fay” and “Harry” and played a night court judge in Sidney Lumet’s drama series “100 Centre Street” on A&E. Other recent credits included “Going in Style,” a 2017 remake featuring fellow Oscar winners Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, and “The Kominsky Method.” He played a Hollywood talent agent and friend of Douglas’ character, a once-promising actor who ran an acting school after his career sputtered. I didn’t particularly understand it, but I liked it it made me happy.”
They said that they thought my characters were very often the heart, the moral center of a film. I got one of the nicest compliments I’ve ever gotten from someone a few days ago. “As I started to get more and more comfortable with myself, that started to shift. But I realized that for the first twenty years or so, most of the characters I played were outsiders, strangers to their environment, foreigners in one way or another,” he told The Associated Press in 2007. “I used to think that my stuff had a lot of variety. He and Reiner played brothers, one successful (Reiner), one struggling (Arkin), in the 1998 film “The Slums of Beverly Hills.” Through the years, Arkin turned up in such favorites as “Edward Scissorhands,” playing Johnny Depp’s neighbor and in the film version of David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” as a dogged real estate salesman. He starred as the bumbling French detective in “Inspector Clouseau” that same year, but the film would become overlooked in favor of Peter Sellers’ Clouseau in the “Pink Panther” movies.Īrkin’s career as a character actor continued to blossom when Mike Nichols, a fellow Second City alumnus, cast him in the starring role as Yossarian, the victim of wartime red tape in 1970’s “Catch-22,” based on Joseph Heller’s million-selling novel. “She was an exquisite lady, so being mean to her was hard.”Īrkin’s rise continued in 1968 with “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,” in which he played a sensitive man who could not hear or speak. He recalled in a 1998 interview how difficult it was to terrorize Hepburn’s character. Arkin starred in “Wait Until Dark” as a vicious drug dealer who holds a blind woman (Audrey Hepburn) captive in her own apartment, believing a drug shipment is hidden there. In Arkin’s next major film, he proved he could also play a villain, however reluctantly. He attracted strong reviews and the notice of Jewison, who was preparing to direct a 1966 comedy about a Russian sub that creates a panic when it ventures too close to a small New England town. While still with Second City, Arkin was chosen by Carl Reiner to play the young protagonist in the 1963 Broadway play “Enter Laughing,” based on Reiner’s semi-autobiographical novel.
He’s always been underestimated, partly because he’s never been in service of his own success.”
“His accents are impeccable, and he’s even able to change his looks. “Alan’s never had an identifiable screen personality because he just disappears into his characters,” director Norman Jewison of “The Russians are Coming” once observed. His trademarks were likability, relatability and complete immersion in his roles, no matter how unusual, whether playing a Russian submarine officer in “The Russians are Coming” who struggles to communicate with the equally jittery Americans, or standing out as the foul-mouthed, drug-addicted grandfather in “Little Miss Sunshine.”
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He wasn’t a sex symbol or superstar, but was rarely out of work, appearing in more than 100 TV and feature films. ‘I’d answer ‘Which kind is Alan Arkin?’ and that shut them up.”Īrkin once joked to The Associated Press that the beauty of being a character actor was not having to take his clothes off for a role. “When I was a young actor people wanted to know if I wanted to be a serious actor or a funny one,” Michael McKean tweeted Friday.
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