Oscar-winning actor Karl Malden dies at 97

By Jim Cheng, USA TODAY
Karl Malden played everything from priests to generals, villains to song-and-dance men over the course of a career that began in the late 1940s.

The 97-year-old Oscar winner died of natural causes Wednesday at his home in Brentwood, Calif., surrounded by family including wife Mona. The couple celebrated their 70th anniversary in December.

As an actor, Malden brought an Everyman quality to the screen and stage — whether playing Marlon Brando's poker buddy in A Streetcar Named Desire, Carroll Baker's cuckolded husband in Baby Doll or Gen. Omar Bradley in Patton.

The son of a Serbian father and a Czech mother, Malden was born Malden George Sekulovich on March 12, 1912, in Gary, Ind.

He worked in the steel mills before enrolling in Arkansas State Teachers College. He attended Chicago's Goodman Theatre Dramatic School, then moved to New York, where he made his Broadway debut in Golden Boy in 1937.

Malden joined the innovative Group Theater, where he attracted the attention of director Elia Kazan, with whom he launched a fruitful partnership. With Kazan directing, Malden starred in such plays as Arthur Miller's All My Sons and Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, and in 1951 helped Kazan bring Streetcar to the silver screen.

Malden's film debut, however, came in 1940's They Knew What They Wanted. During his stint in the Army Air Force during World War II, Malden appeared in Winged Victory, which led to a brief contract with 20th Century Fox.

One of his most memorable roles is Streetcar's Mitch, which he originated in the 1947 play. Richard Watts Jr., writing in the New York Post, described Marlon Brando's acting in the play as "an excellent piece of work," and added, "even finer is Karl Malden, one of the ablest young actors extant." He won a supporting-actor Oscar for the film adaptation.

Of that Oscar night, Malden told the Orange County Register in 1989: "Like a real New Yorker, I brought a top coat with me (to the ceremony) and placed it on the empty seat next to me." He added, "I saw that the winners were going backstage after their speeches and started to worry about my coat. Humphrey Bogart, who was up for The African Queen, was sitting two seats away, and he was real nervous. I leaned over to him and asked him if he'd watch my coat if I won, and he kind of looked at me in disbelief and said, 'Yeah, sure.' Well, after I won, I was standing backstage, and then Bogie won. I looked across the room and saw him walking around. I ran up to him and asked him about my coat and he snapped at me: 'Forget the damn coat … you just won an Oscar.' "

Malden would reunite with Kazan and Brando in 1954's On the Waterfront, playing a priest to Brando's longshoreman. Malden again was nominated for a supporting-actor Oscar. In 1956, Kazan cast Malden against type as the lecherous Archie Lee in Baby Doll.

But Malden was best known to the TV generation as Lt. Mike Stone, the no-nonsense cop in The Streets of San Francisco, which ran from 1972-1977. His co-star was a young Michael Douglas. Malden even parlayed his Streets persona into a 21-year stint as spokesman in a series of American Express ads.

"After 50 years of doing all those other things in the business, wherever I go, the one thing people will say to me is, 'Don't leave home without it.' What am I going to say?" he told the Chicago Tribune in 1989. "It's kind of frustrating in a way, but at the same time, American Express has been very good to me, and it's given me independence."

In 1988, he was elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a position he held for five years.

Malden was instrumental in pushing for a special salute to Kazan at the 1999 Oscars. Critics noted that Kazan cooperated with the House UnAmerican Activities committee in 1952 and gave up names of supposed communists in Hollywood. Brando refused to present Kazan with the award; Robert De Niro ended up presenting the honor.

Malden accepted a lifetime achievement award presented to him by TV co-star Douglas from the Screen Actors Guild in 2004.

"I'm not retired. I just quit. I don't want to work anymore," he told the Orlando Sentinel at the time. "I don't want to go into something because they give me some money. I've had it." But of the award, Malden said, "It's by the peers. To me, the Life Achievement Award is the peak."

Asked to name his favorite movie role, he said: "I love them all. I'm a workaholic. When I was younger, I said, 'You can't hit a home run unless you get up to bat.' I took everything. That's the way I learned. If I waited for the right part, I'd still be sitting here."

Will you make a thread for me when Quincy Jones dies?