| 10th November 2006 07:50 PM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Oscar Winner Jack Palance Dies
Actor was known for his primitive, powerful roles
November 10, 2006
Jack Palance"City Slickers" actor Jack Palance, known for his menacing demeanor, staccato speech, rugged good looks and one-handed push-ups, has died at the age of 87.
The Oscar winner died of natural causes in his Montecito, Calif., home with his family close at hand, report news sources.
The beloved actor was born Vladimir Palahnuik -- later calling himself Walter Jack Palance to avoid being teased -- to Ukranian immigrants on February 18, 1919, in Hazle Township, Penn. As the son of a coal miner, Palance also worked in the mines as a youth, then moved on to become a professional boxer in the late '30s under yet another name: Jack Brazzo.
His military career began with the outbreak of World War II, which eventually required that he have facial reconstruction after his B-24 bomber crashed, forcing him to bail out of the burning plane. When he was discharged in 1944, he began his studies, and three years later had an AB in drama from Stanford University.
The story goes that during his fledgling career, he was acting as the understudy to Marlon Brando in the original Broadway production of "A Streetcar Named Desire." One day, when the two were working out with a punching bag, he accidentally planted Brando a facer, allowing Palance to take to the stage that night. From that performance, he landed a contract with 20th Century Fox and moved to his first film, "Panic in the Streets" (1950). By his third film, "Sudden Fear," Palance received his first Oscar nomination for playing Lester Blaine, a man bent on winning a role in a play at any cost.
For the 1953 classic "Shane," he received yet another nomination for playing the cold-blooded gunfighter Jack Wilson. This would be the beginning of a string of other Western roles in films such as "Arrowhead," "The Lonely Man," "The Professionals," "The Desperadoes," "Diamante Lobo" and "Young Guns."
The "City Slickers" films allowed him to spoof these earlier roles. In the films, he played the intimidating cattle driver Curly at a dude ranch that welcomed urban vacationers played by Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern and Bruno Kirby. In 1992, he made one of the most infamous Oscar acceptance speeches for this supporting role by doing-one armed push-ups to show his strength.
"That's nothing, really," he said. "As far as two-handed push-ups, you can do that all night, and it doesn't make a difference whether she's there or not."
His other films include the noir classic "I Died a Thousand Times," "Sign of the Pagan" as Attila the Hun, the spaghetti western "Companeroes," "Che!" as Fidel Castro, Jean-Luc Godard's "Contempt," Tim Burton's "Batman" and the cop action-comedy "Tango & Cash."
He also made his mark in television, winning a best actor Emmy for his role in the "Playhouse 90" performance of Rod Serling's "Requiem for a Heavyweight," hosting "Ripley's Believe It or Not," and appearing on "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "The Hatfields and the McCoys," "Bronk," "Buck Rodgers" and in the TV movies "Buffalo Girls," "Ebenezer," "Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End," "Living With the Dead" and "Back When We Were Grownups." On one guest appearance on "The Hollywood Squares," he famously fell asleep and began storing in his square.
He earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
He also painted landscape art, wrote poetry and and published the book of poems "The Forest of Love" in 1996.
He was first married to Virginia Baker, with whom he had three children: Holly, Brooke and Cody, who died in 1998 from malignant melanoma. Palance married his second wife, Elaine Rogers in 1987.
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OUTLAW HALL OF FAME
The baddest and maddest
of the cold-eyed, hard-hearted bunch
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cowboysindians.com/articles/archives/1199/images/palance.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cowboysindians.com/articles/archives/1199/film.html&h=256&w=180&sz=12&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=SP5MFnfzR9c3zM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=78&prev=/images%3Fq%3Djack%2Bpalance%2Bshane%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
By David Hofstede
The contribution of the outlaw to every great Western has gone unheralded for too long. The cowboy hero is celebrated in story and song, but where would he be without a worthy adversary to force the showdown and challenge the speed of his draw? I'll tell you where he'd be–standing in the middle of Main Street by himself. Not that exciting, is it? So here's to the guys in the black hats–we'd offer to buy you a drink in the saloon, but last time you were there, you shot the bartender.
Listed below are the first 10 inductees to the Outlaw Hall of Fame, ranked in order of induction. If their acceptance speeches run long, don't interrupt them.
Jack Palance as Jack Wilson
Shane (1953)
Western fans can debate the lower portion of this list, but the top spot is a no-brainer. Jack Wilson, the legendary gunfighter from Cheyenne, is the standard by which all other outlaws must be measured. A lean, black-garbed desperado with cold eyes and a devilish grin, Wilson confronts his prey with threats muttered in a soft, guttural growl that exudes intimidation. It doesn't hurt that he's played by Jack Palance, who could wear a dress and still be scary. Though he doesn't appear until nearly an hour into the film, and speaks only 12 lines before perishing in the climactic showdown, Palance earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Obviously, the Motion Picture Academy was afraid of him, too.
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels] |
| 10th November 2006 11:00 PM |
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| gypsy |
He was a very handsome and athletic man. |
| 11th November 2006 12:25 AM |
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| Kilroy |
This guy was bad and I mean good. |
| 11th November 2006 07:42 AM |
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| nankerphelge |
Favorite Jack line is to Billy Crystal in City SLickers:
"I crap bigger than you" |
| 11th November 2006 08:25 AM |
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| Nellcote |
He was older than Ed Bradley when he died |
| 11th November 2006 09:06 AM |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
I wonder how many push ups he did for St. Peter at the Pearly Gates?
He was great in "Batman". I love that scene when he tells Jack Nicholson' "You, Jack, are my number....one....guy." Fucking great. |
| 11th November 2006 11:29 AM |
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| glencar |
He looked young for his age! RIP Jack... |
| 11th November 2006 11:43 AM |
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| robpop |
A true man's man. |
| 11th November 2006 12:35 PM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Wilson: I guess they named a lot of that Southern trash after old Stonewall.
Frank 'Stonewall' Torrey: Who'd they name you after? Or do you know?
Wilson: I'm saying that Stonewall Jackson was trash himself. Him and Lee and the rest of them rebs. You, too.
Frank 'Stonewall' Torrey: You're a low-down lyin' Yankee!
Wilson: Prove it.
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Shane: So you're Jack Wilson.
Jack Wilson: What's that mean to you, Shane?
Shane: I've heard about you.
Jack Wilson: What have you heard, Shane?
Shane: I've heard that you're a low-down Yankee liar.
Jack Wilson: Prove it.
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Joey: Was that him, Shane? Was that Wilson?
Shane: That was Wilson, all right, and he was fast, fast on the draw.
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| 11th November 2006 02:19 PM |
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| WattsAtScotts |
R.I.P. Jack |
| 11th November 2006 08:42 PM |
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| MrPleasant |
He drank vodka. RIP. |
| 11th November 2006 09:30 PM |
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| J.J.Flash |
RIP Jack Pallance!
May the good Lord spill all His blessings on Jack. Brilliant actor, and I feel that he was a great human being as well.
All my thoughts to his family. |
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