Jack Palance (February 18, 1919 – November 10,
2006) was a
Ukrainian American
film actor. With his
rugged facial features, Palance was best known to modern movie
audiences as both the characters of Curly and Duke in the two
City Slickers movies, the
first for which he won the
Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor, but his career spanned half a century of film
and television appearances.
Early life
Palance,
one of five children, was born Volodymyr Palahniuk
( ) in the Lattimer Mines section of Hazle Township,
Pennsylvania
, the son of Anna (née Gramiak) and Ivan Palahniuk,
who was an anthracite coal miner.
Palance's
parents were Ukrainian
immigrants, his father a native of Ivane Zolote in
Southwestern Ukraine and his mother from the Lviv
region. He worked in coal mines during his youth before
becoming a
boxer.
In the late 1930s, Palance started a professional boxing career.
Fighting under the name
Jack Brazzo, Palance reportedly
compiled a record of 15 consecutive victories with 12
knockouts before fighting the future
heavyweight contender
Joe
Baksi in a "Pier-6" brawl. Palance lost a close decision, and
recounted: "Then, I thought, you must be nuts to get your head beat
in for $200".
With the outbreak of
the Second World
War, Palance's boxing career ended and his military career
began as a member of the
United States Army Air Forces.
Palance's
rugged face, which took many beatings in the boxing ring, was
disfigured when he bailed out of a burning B-24 Liberator bomber while on a training
flight over southern Arizona
, where he
was a student pilot.
Plastic surgeons repaired the damage as best they could, but he was
left with a distinctive, somewhat gaunt, look. After much
reconstructive surgery, he was discharged in 1944.
Palance
graduated from Stanford University
in 1947 with a Bachelor
of Arts degree in Drama.
During his
university years, to make ends meet he also worked as a short order cook, waiter, soda jerk, lifeguard at Jones Beach State Park
, and photographer's model.
Career
Palance's acting break came as
Marlon
Brando's
understudy in
A Streetcar Named
Desire, and he eventually replaced Brando on stage as
Stanley Kowalski.
In 1947,
Palance made his Broadway
debut, and
this was followed three years later by his screen debut in the
movie Panic in the
Streets (1950). The very same year, he was featured
in
Halls of
Montezuma about the U.S. Marines in World War II, where he
was credited as "Walter (Jack) Palance". Palance was quickly
recognized for his skill as a character actor, receiving an
Oscar nomination for only his third
film role, as Lester Blaine in
Sudden
Fear.
Palance earned his second Oscar
nomination playing cold-blooded gunfighter Jack Wilson in 1953's
cinema classic
Shane
The following year, Palance was again nominated for an Oscar, this
time for his role as the hired gunfighter Jack Wilson in
Shane. Several other Western
roles followed, but he also played such varied roles as
Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde,
Dracula and
Attila the Hun.
In 1957, Palance won an
Emmy for best
actor for his portrayal of Mountain McClintock in the
Playhouse 90 production of
Rod Serling's
Requiem for a
Heavyweight.
Jean-Luc Godard persuaded Palance to
take on the role of Hollywood producer Jeremy Prokosch in the 1963
nouvelle vague movie
Le Mépris, with
Brigitte Bardot and
Michel Piccoli. Although the main dialogue
was in
French, Palance spoke mostly
English.
While still busy making movies, in the 1960s Palance also released
an album of country-Western music for
Warner Bros. Records. This happened in 1969 and
it recalled the
Lee Hazlewood music
that was popular at the time.
Recorded in Nashville
with the usual studio cats, the album is a playful
country rock romp not unlike other late
60's Nashville recordings and featured Palance's self penned
classic song "The Meanest Guy That Ever Lived". The album
was re-released in 2003 by the "Walter" label in CD version.
He also hosted (with his daughter
Holly
Palance) the television series
Ripley's Believe It or
Not!.
Appearances in
Young Guns (1988)
and
Tim Burton's
Batman (1989) reinvigorated
Palance's career, and demand for his services kept him involved in
new projects each year right up to the turn of the century.
Palance, at the time chairman of the
Hollywood Trident Foundation,
walked out of a Russian Film Festival in Hollywood. After being
introduced, Palance said, "I feel like I walked into the wrong room
by mistake. I think that Russian film is interesting, but I have
nothing to do with Russia or Russian film. My parents were born in
Ukraine: I'm Ukrainian. I'm not Russian. So, excuse me, but I don't
belong here. It's best if we leave."
In 2001, Palance returned to the recording studio as a special
guest on friend
Laurie Z's
Heart of the
Holidays album to narrate the famous classic poem
The Night Before
Christmas.
In 2002, he starred in the television movie
Living with the
Dead opposite
Ted Danson,
Mary Steenburgen and
Diane Ladd. In 2004, he starred in another
television production,
Back When We Were Grownups,
opposite
Blythe Danner, his
performance as Poppy being Palance's last.
According to writer
Mark Evanier, comic
book creator
Jack Kirby modeled his
character
Darkseid on the actor.
Academy Award
Four decades after his film debut, Palance won an
Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor on
March 30,
1992, for his performance as cowboy Curly Washburn in
the
1991 comedy
City Slickers. Stepping onstage to accept
the award, the intimidatingly fit 6' 4" (1.93 m) actor looked down
at 5' 7" (1.70 m) Oscar host
Billy
Crystal (who was also his co-star in the movie), and joked —
mimicking one of his lines from the film — "Billy Crystal... I crap
bigger than him." He then dropped to the floor and demonstrated his
ability, at age 73, to perform one-handed
push-ups. Crystal then turned this into a running
gag.
At
various points in the broadcast, he announced that Palance was
backstage on the Stairmaster; had "just
bungee-jumped off the Hollywood sign
"; had rendezvoused with the Space Shuttle in orbit; had fathered all the
children in a production number; had been named People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive; and had won the
New
York
primary
election. At the end of the broadcast, Crystal told
everyone he'd like to see them again "but I've just been informed
Jack Palance will be hosting next year." (The following year, host
Crystal arrived on stage atop a giant model of the Oscar statuette,
being towed by Palance using his teeth.)
Marisa Tomei Academy Award Controversy
At the
1993 Academy Awards,
Palance presented the Academy Award for
Best Supporting Actress to
Marisa Tomei, which resulted in a famous Oscar
controversy. The American film critic
Rex
Reed was dissatisfied with Tomei's win, and started a rumor
that Palance had erroneously called out the wrong name when opening
the envelope. Reed espoused that Palance had been unable to read
the printing on the card inside the envelope, had become confused
or was too "drunk" or "stoned" to announce the winner properly. In
1997, Reed claimed on television that a "massive cover-up" was
underway to prevent the public from finding out about the mistake.
The rumor became a Hollywood urban legend. Palance refuted Reed's
claim, saying he had been correct in reading Tomei's name as the
winner when opening the envelope. He called the rumor about the
"false win" upsetting and felt it would destroy Tomei's
career.
Bruce Davis, executive director of the
Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences, issued an official statement: "The
legend of Marisa Tomei's 'mistaken Oscar' has appeared in various
forms over the years and in that short time has achieved the status
of urban myth. There is no more truth to this version than to any
of the others we've heard. If such a scenario were ever to occur,
the Price Waterhouse people backstage would simply step out onstage
and point out the error. They are not shy."
Tomei refused to comment on the rumor, calling it extremely
hurtful. She would go on to receive critical acclaim and respect
for future performances in
Unhook
the Stars,
Alfie
and
Before the
Devil Knows You're Dead and received Academy Award
nominations for
In the
Bedroom and
The
Wrestler.
Roger Ebert commented
on his website that "Not only is the rumor untrue, it is unfair to
Marisa Tomei, and Rex Reed owes her an apology."
Hollywood Walk of Fame
Palance
has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 6608 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1992, he was
inducted into the Western Performers Hall of
Fame at the National Cowboy
& Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma
.
Personal life
Palance was married to his first wife, Virginia Baker, from 1949 to
1968. They had three children:
Holly
(born in 1950), an actress, Brooke (born in 1952) and Cody
(1955–1998).
Daughter Brooke married Michael Wilding, son of
Michael Wilding Sr. (1912-1979) and
Elizabeth Taylor; they have three
children as well.
An actor himself, Cody Palance appeared alongside his father in the
film
Young Guns, and was just 42
when he died from
malignant
melanoma on July 16, 1998.
Jack Palance had hosted The Cody Palance
Memorial Golf Classic to raise awareness and funds for a
cancer center in Los Angeles
. Besides being an actor, at one time Cody
Palance was also a great music performer who did many live
performances with his band.
Palance became divorced and married Elaine Rogers in May 1987. On
New Year's Day 2003, his first wife Virginia Baker (July 7, 1922 -
January 1, 2003) was struck by a car and killed in Los
Angeles.
Palance painted and sold landscape art, with a poem included on the
back of each picture. He is also the author of
The Forest of
Love, a book of poems, published in 1996 by Summerhouse
Press.
True to his roots, Palance acknowledged a life-long attachment to
his Pennsylvania heritage and visited there when able.
Shortly before his
death, he had placed his Butler Township, Pennsylvania
, Holly-Brooke farm up for sale and his personal art
collection up for auction.
Death
Palance
died at the age of 87, of natural causes, at his home in Montecito
in Santa Barbara County
. He was cremated, and his ashes were
retained by family and friends.
Jack palance was also a resident of the Tehachapis for a good part
of his life. Tehachapi California is located near Bakersfield
California, part of the span of high desert in the mid-southern
section of California.
Jack Palance collection auction
The Jack Palance Collection 2006
seal
Following
other recent celebrity auctions, Palance's personal lifetime
collection of over 3,000 items at his Holly-Brooke Farm (named for
his two daughters) in Butler Township, Pennsylvania went on the auction block in October 2006.
Auction planners purposely included some smaller keepsakes for
people who wanted something belonging to the 87-year-old actor.
"People
can spend $5 or $50,000 at this auction", said Phil Eagle, an
antique appraiser who traveled from California
to painstakingly authenticate the items and sort them into
manageable lots to be sold.
"Each item will bear a special sticker featuring a picture of the
actor and the words 'Jack Palance Collection' to add to the value
and future collectibility", Eagle said.
Filmography
Films
Television movies/mini-series
Television shows
References
- Jack Palance Biography (1920?-)
- The Last Role of an American "City Slicker" with a
Ukrainian Soul
- BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Veteran western star
Palance dies
- OBITUARY: Academy Award-winning actor Jack Palance,
87 (11/19/06)
- Boxing Records Official records only show Palance in
one sanctioned fight. His other fights may have been club
fights.
- M. A. SCHMIDT, "PALANCE FROM PANIC TO PAGAN",
The
New York Times, March
14, 1954, Drama Section X5
In an early interview, Palance claimed to have fought Baksi to a
draw
- Lawrence Christon, "Home on the Range It's been a
long, dusty journey since Panic in the Streets and Shane",
The Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1995, Calendar Section In a later interview, Palance
admits to have lost to Baksi
- Declaring 'I'm Ukrainian, not Russian', Palance
walks out of Russian Film Festival in Hollywood
- news from me - ARCHIVES
- Pics of Cody Palance performing live
- Oscar winner Jack Palance dead at 87,
CNN.com. Retrieved on
November 10,
2006.
- FindAGrave.com
External links
.jpg/180px-Palance,_Jack_(VA).jpg)
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Search
