Alan Arkin

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Alan Arkin
Birth name Alan Wolf Arkin
Born March 26 1934 (1934-03-26) (age 75)
Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.
Spouse(s) Jeremy Yaffe (1955-1960)
Barbara Dana (m.1964)
Suzanne Newlander (1996-)
Children Adam Arkin (b.1956)
Matthew Arkin (b.1960)
Anthony Arkin (b.1967)

Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an Academy Award-winning American actor and director. He is best-known for starring in such films as Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, Glengarry Glen Ross and Little Miss Sunshine, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2007. He is the father of actor Adam Arkin.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and career

Arkin was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Beatrice (née Wortis), a teacher, and David I. Arkin, a painter and writer who mostly worked as a teacher.[1] Arkin was raised in a Jewish family with "no emphasis on religion"; his maternal grandfather was an immigrant from Odessa, Ukraine.[2] The family moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, California when Arkin was 11 years old,[2] but an eight-month Hollywood strike cost Arkin's father a set designer job he had wanted to take. Arkin's parents were accused during the 1950s Red Scare of being Communists, which led to Arkin's father losing his job after refusing to answer questions regarding his political affiliation. David Arkin challenged the dismissal and ultimately prevailed, but after his death.[3]

Arkin, who had been taking acting lessons since age 10, became a scholarship student at various drama academies, including one run by Stanislavsky student Benjamin Zemach, who had taught Arkin a psychological approach to acting.[4] Arkin attended Franklin High School,[5] in Los Angeles, followed by Los Angeles City College from 1951 to 1953. With two friends, he formed the folk music group The Tarriers,[6] in which Arkin sang and played guitar. The band-members co-composed the group's 1956 hit "The Banana Boat Song" — a reworking, with some new lyrics, of a traditional, same-name Jamaican calypso folk song combined with another titled "Hill and Gully Rider".[7] It reached #4 on the Billboard magazine chart the same year as Harry Belafonte's better-known hit version.[8]

From 1958 to 1968, Arkin performed and recorded with the children's folk group, The Baby Sitters.[9]

[edit] Acting career

Arkin is one of only eight[10] actors to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance (for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming in 1966). Two years later, he was again nominated, for The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.

Arkin is equally comfortable in comedy and dramatic roles. Among those for which he has garnered the most favorable critical attention are his Oscar-nominated turns above; Wait Until Dark, as the erudite killer stalking Audrey Hepburn; director Mike Nichols' Catch-22; The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (where he played Sigmund Freud); writer Jules Feiffer's Little Murders, which Arkin directed; the The In-Laws, co-starring Peter Falk; Glengarry Glen Ross; and Little Miss Sunshine, for which he received his third Oscar nomination, in the category of Best Supporting Actor. On the 11th February 2007 he received a BAFTA Film Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his portrayal of Grandfather Edwin in Little Miss Sunshine. On February 25, 2007, upon winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Arkin, who plays a foul-mouthed grandfather with a taste for heroin said, "More than anything, I'm deeply moved by the open-hearted appreciation our small film has received, which in these fragmented times speaks so openly of the possibility of innocence, growth and connection".[11] At 72 years old, Arkin became the sixth oldest winner of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

On Broadway, Arkin starred in Enter Laughing, for which he won a Tony Award, and Luv. He also directed The Sunshine Boys, among others.

[edit] Author

Arkin is also the author of many books, including the children's stories The Lemming Condition and The Clearing.

[edit] Personal life

Arkin has been married three times. He and Jeremy Yaffe, to whom he was married from 1955 to 1960, have two sons: Adam Arkin, born Aug. 19, 1956 or 1957 (accounts differ), and Matthew Arkin, born in 1960. In 1967, Arkin had son Anthony (Tony) Dana Arkin with actress-screenwriter Barbara Dana (born 1940), to whom he was married from June 16, 1964 to the mid-1990s. In 1996, Arkin married a psychotherapist, Suzanne Newlander.[3] As of 2007, they live in New Mexico.

[edit] Filmography (actor)

In chronological order. For releases in same year/month, specific dates are given.

[edit] Episodic television

[edit] Filmography (director)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Alan Arkin Biography (1934-)
  2. ^ a b Sierchio, Pat. "Alan Arkin—not just another kid From Brooklyn", The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 2007-02-16. Retrieved on 2007-02-16. 
  3. ^ a b Alan Arkin biography. Yahoo! Movies. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
  4. ^ Life (Oct. 1970): "Yossarian in Connecticut: Since Catch-22, actor’s actor Alan Arkin finally stars as...Alan Arkin", by Barry Farrell
  5. ^ Franklin High School official site
  6. ^ As in "to tarry", and sometimes given incorrectly as "The Terriers
  7. ^ New York Newsday (Jan. 7, 2007): "Fast Chat: Alan Arkin", by Frank Lovece
  8. ^ FolkEra.com: The Tarriers
  9. ^ Alan Arkin Biography. Hollywood.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-09.
  10. ^ [1], filmsite.org
  11. ^ 'Dreamgirl' Jennifer Hudson Wins Oscar. NewsMax.com, February 26, 2007.

[edit] External links

Awards
Preceded by
Walter Matthau
for A Shot in the Dark 		Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
1963
for Enter Laughing 		Succeeded by
Hume Cronyn
for Hamlet
Preceded by
Lee Marvin
for Cat Ballou 		Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1967
for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming 		Succeeded by
Richard Harris
for Camelot
Preceded by
Rod Steiger
for In the Heat of the Night 		NYFCC Award for Best Actor
1968
for The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter 		Succeeded by
Jon Voight
for Midnight Cowboy
Preceded by
George Clooney
for Syriana 		Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
2006
for Little Miss Sunshine 		Succeeded by
TBD
Preceded by
Jake Gyllenhaal
for Brokeback Mountain 		BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
2007
for Little Miss Sunshine 		Succeeded by
TBD


Persondata
NAME Arkin, Alan Wolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION actor
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
bg:Алън Аркин

de:Alan Arkin es:Alan Arkin fr:Alan Arkin id:Alan Arkin it:Alan Arkin ja:アラン・アーキン no:Alan Arkin pl:Alan Arkin pt:Alan Arkin ro:Alan Arkin sr:Алан Аркин fi:Alan Arkin sv:Alan Arkin

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