Jack Lemmon

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Jack Lemmon
Image:Jack Lemmon 1989.jpg
Jack Lemmon at the 40th Emmy Awards, August 1988
Photo by Alan Light
Birth name John Uhler Lemmon III
Born February 8 1925(1925-02-08)
Newton, Massachusetts
Died June 27 2001 (aged 76)
Los Angeles, California, United States
Resting place Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, Los Angeles, California
Plot: Chapel Garden Estate, B-6
Occupation Actor Comedian Director
Years active 1949-2000
Spouse(s) Cynthia Stone (1950 - 1956 divorced)
Felicia Farr (1962 - 2001 his death)

John Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001), better known as Jack Lemmon, was a two-time Academy Award and Cannes award-winning American actor and comedian. He starred in legendary classics such as Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Days of Wine and Roses, Irma La Douce, The Great Race, The Odd Couple, The Out-of-Towners, My Fellow Americans and The China Syndrome.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Lemmon was born in an elevator at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, the son of Mildred Burgess LaRue (née Noel),[1] and John Uhler Lemmon, Jr., who was the president of a doughnut company.[2] Lemmon attended John Ward Elementary School in Newton. At twenty-two years old, Lemmon graduated from Harvard University. He was a member of several Drama Clubs and was one of the most active members. Lemmon also revealed that he knew he wanted to be an actor from the age of eight. After attending Phillips Academy (Class of 43) and Harvard University (Class of 47), becoming president of the Hasty Pudding Club, Lemmon joined the Navy, received V-12 training and served as an ensign. On being discharged, he took up acting professionally, working on radio, television and Broadway. He studied acting under Uta Hagen. He also became infatuated with the piano and had learned to play by himself. He could also play the harmonica and the bass fiddle.

[edit] Career

Lemmon's film debut was a bit part as a plasterer/painter in the 1949 film The Lady Takes a Sailor, but he was not noticed until his official debut opposite Judy Holliday in the 1954 comedy, It Should Happen to You. Lemmon worked with many legendary leading ladies of the cinema screen. He worked with Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, Betty Grable, Janet Leigh, Shirley MacLaine, Doris Day, Kim Novak, Judy Holliday, Rita Hayworth, June Allyson, Virna Lisi, Ann Margret, Sophia Loren, Grace Lee Whitney, Kathryn Grant and many, many more. He was also close friends with Tony Curtis and Walter Matthau. He made two films with Curtis and a total of eleven films with Matthau.

He became a favorite actor of director Billy Wilder, starring in his films Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Irma La Douce, The Fortune Cookie, Avanti!, The Front Page and Buddy Buddy. Wilder felt Lemmon had a natural tendency toward overacting that had to be tempered; the Wilder biography "Nobody's Perfect" quotes the director as saying: "Lemmon, I would describe him as a ham, a fine ham, and with ham you have to trim a little fat". The same Billy Wilder biography quotes Jack Lemmon as saying: "I am particularly susceptible to the parts I play... If my character was having a nervous breakdown I started to have one".

Image:Jack Lemmon 1967.jpg
Jack Lemmon at Expo 1967.

Lemmon recorded his own album in 1958 while filming Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe. Twelve jazz tracks were created for Lemmon and another twelve tracks were added which were the soundtracks to his 1959 comedy film, Some Like It Hot. Lemmon also played the piano on his Frank Sinatra-type album. He recorded his own versions of Monroe's trademark songs, I Wanna Be Loved By You and I'm Through With Love. These two tracks can be heard on the album, which was eventually released in 1959 and was titled "A Twist of Lemmon/Some Like It Hot".

Lemmon was awarded the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1956 for Mister Roberts (1955), and the Best Actor Oscar for Save the Tiger (1973), being the first actor to achieve this double. He was also nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his role in the controversial film Missing in 1982. In 1988, the American Film Institute gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award. Days of Wine and Roses (1962) was one of his favorite roles. He portrayed Joe Clay, a young, fun-loving alcoholic businessman. In that film, Lemmon delivered the line, "My name is Joe Clay ... I'm an alcoholic." Three and a half decades later, he admitted on the television program, Inside the Actors Studio, that he was not acting when he delivered that line, that he really was an alcoholic in real life.

Throughout his career, Lemmon often appeared in films alongside actor Walter Matthau. They would go on to be one of the most beloved duos in cinema history. Among their pairings was as Felix Unger (Lemmon) and Oscar Madison (Matthau) in the 1968 film, The Odd Couple. They also starred together in The Fortune Cookie, The Front Page, and Buddy Buddy. Additionally, both had small parts in Oliver Stone's 1991 film, JFK (the only film in which they both appear, but share no screentime). In 1993, the duo teamed up again to star in Grumpy Old Men. The film was a surprise hit, earning the two actors a new generation of young fans. During the rest of the decade, they would go on to star together in Out to Sea, Grumpier Old Men and the widely-panned The Odd Couple II. The only death scene that Lemmon performed was in The China Syndrome in 1979. For this part, he was awarded Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1982, he won another Cannes award for his performance in Missing (which also received the Palme d'Or). He is currently the only actor other than Marcello Mastroianni to have won it twice.

At the 1998 Golden Globe Awards, he was nominated for "Best Actor in a Made for TV Movie" for his role in Twelve Angry Men. He lost the award to Ving Rhames. After accepting the award, Rhames asked Lemmon to come onstage and in a move that stunned the audience, gave his award to him. (The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which presents the Golden Globes, decided to have a second award made and sent to Rhames.)

[edit] Personal life

Lemmon was one of the best-liked actors in Hollywood. He is remembered as taking time for people, as the actor Kevin Spacey recalled in a tribute. When already regarded as a legend, he met the teenage Spacey backstage after a theater performance and spoke to him about pursuing an acting career.[citation needed] Spacey would later work with Lemmon in the critically acclaimed film Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), and on stage in a revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night. Lemmon's performance even inspired Gil Gunderson, a character on The Simpsons that is modeled on Lemmon's character in the film.

Lemmon was married twice. His son, Chris Lemmon, (b. 1954), was his first child by his first wife, actress Cynthia Stone (b. February 26 1926, Peoria, Illinois). He is also an actor. His second wife was the western actress Felicia Farr, with whom he had a daughter, Courtney, born in 1966.

Jack Lemmon died of carcinoma of the colon and metastatic cancer of the bladder[3] on June 27, 2001. He had been fighting the disease, very privately, for two years before losing the battle.

Lemmon's son, Chris Lemmon, made several TV shows and movies. He also wrote a book about his father after his death, named "A Twist of Lemmon: A Tribute to My Father". He has three kids named Sydney Noel, Chris Jr. and Jonathon.

He is interred at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, Westwood, Los Angeles, California, where Walter Matthau is also buried. In typical Jack Lemmon wit, his gravestone simply reads 'Jack Lemmon — in'. After Matthau's death in 2000, Lemmon appeared with friends and relatives of the actor on a Larry King Live show in tribute. A year later, many of the same people appeared on the show again to pay tribute to Lemmon.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] TV work

[edit] Personal Quotes

  • Death ends a life, not a relationship.
  • I won't quit until I get run over by a truck, a producer or a critic.
  • Failure seldom stops you. What stops you is the fear of failure.
  • If you think it's hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball.
  • It's hard enough to write a good drama, it's much harder to write a good comedy, and it's hardest of all to write a drama with comedy. Which is what life is.
  • Nobody deserves this much money - certainly not an actor.
  • Stay humble. Always answer your phone - no matter who else is in the car.
  • Captain, it is I, Ensign Pulver, and I just threw your stinkin' palm tree overboard! Now what's all this crud about no movie tonight?
  • [on Marilyn Monroe] Difficult? Yes. But she was a wonderful comedienne and she had a charisma like no one before or since.
  • [on Judy Holliday] She was intelligent and not at all like the dumb blonds she so often depicted. She didn't give a damn where the camera was placed, how she was made to look, or about being a star. She just played the scene -- acted with, not at. She was also one of the nicest people I ever met.
  • [on Billy Wilder] I've had directors who were marvelous at breaking scenes down and handling people. But when you would string all the pearls together, they wouldn't make a beautiful necklace. But Billy is the kind of picture-maker who can make a beautiful string of pearls. He makes the kind of movies that are classics and last forever.
  • [on Walter Matthau] Walter is a helluva actor. The best I've ever worked with.

[edit] Awards and nominations

[edit] Academy Awards

[edit] Cannes Film Festival

Awards
Preceded by
Edmond O'Brien
for The Barefoot Contessa 		Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1955
for Mister Roberts 		Succeeded by
Anthony Quinn
for Lust for Life
Preceded by
Danny Kaye
for Me and the Colonel 		Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1960
for Some Like It Hot
1961
for The Apartment 		Succeeded by
Glenn Ford
for Pocketful of Miracles
Preceded by
Chaim Topol
for Fiddler on the Roof 		Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1973
for Avanti! 		Succeeded by
George Segal
for A Touch of Class
Preceded by
Marlon Brando
for The Godfather 		Academy Award for Best Actor
1973
for Save the Tiger 		Succeeded by
Art Carney
for Harry and Tonto
Preceded by
John Voight
for Coming Home 		Award for Best Actor - Cannes Film Festival
1979
for The China Syndrome 		Succeeded by
Michel Piccoli
for Leap Into The Void
Preceded by
Ugo Tognazzi
for La tragedia di un uomo ridicolo 		Award for Best Actor - Cannes Film Festival
1982
for Missing 		Succeeded by
Gian Maria Volontè
for La Morte di Mario Ricci
Preceded by
Barbara Stanwyck 		AFI Life Achievement Award
1988 		Succeeded by
Gregory Peck
Preceded by
Audrey Hepburn 		Cecil B. DeMille Award
1991 		Succeeded by
Robert Mitchum
Preceded by
Stanley Tucci
for Winchell 		Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Mini-series
2000
for Inherit The Wind 		Succeeded by
Brian Dennehy
for Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Preceded by
Jerry Lewis
29th Academy Awards 		Oscars host
30th Academy Awards (with Bob Hope, David Niven, Rosalind Russell, and James Stewart) 		Succeeded by
Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, David Niven, Laurence Olivier, Tony Randall, and Mort Sahl
31st Academy Awards
Preceded by
Frank Sinatra
35th Academy Awards 		Oscars host
36th Academy Awards 		Succeeded by
Bob Hope
37th Academy Awards
Preceded by
Bob Hope
40th Academy Awards 		Oscars host
44th Academy Awards (with Sammy Davis, Jr., Helen Hayes, and Alan King) 		Succeeded by
Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Charlton Heston, and Rock Hudson
45th Academy Awards
Preceded by
Johnny Carson
56th Academy Awards 		Oscars host
57th Academy Awards 		Succeeded by
Alan Alda, Jane Fonda, and Robin Williams
58th Academy Awards

[edit] Golden Globe Awards

Currently, Jack Lemmon holds the record for most Golden Globe nominations with twenty-two.

[edit] Discography

  • A Twist of Lemmon/Some Like It Hot

24 vocal tracks recorded in 1958 and released in 1959

  • Piano Selections from Irma La Douce

Recorded and released in 1963

  • Piano and Vocals

Recorded and released in 1990

  • Peter and the Wolf

Recorded and released in 1991

  • Sings and Plays Music from Some Like It Hot

Re-released in 2001

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/celeb/lemmon.htm
  2. ^ http://www.filmreference.com/film/18/Jack-Lemmon.html
  3. ^ http://www.findagrave.com

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME Lemmon, Jack
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lemmon, John Uhler III
SHORT DESCRIPTION actor
DATE OF BIRTH February 8 1925(1925-02-08)
PLACE OF BIRTH Newton, Massachusetts, United States
DATE OF DEATH June 27 2001
PLACE OF DEATH Los Angeles, California, United States
ast:Jack Lemmon

bs:Jack Lemmon bg:Джак Лемън ca:Jack Lemmon cy:Jack Lemmon de:Jack Lemmon es:Jack Lemmon eo:Jack Lemmon eu:Jack Lemmon fa:جک لمون fr:Jack Lemmon hr:Jack Lemmon it:Jack Lemmon he:ג'ק למון nl:Jack Lemmon ja:ジャック・レモン no:Jack Lemmon pl:Jack Lemmon pt:Jack Lemmon ro:Jack Lemmon ru:Джек Леммон simple:Jack Lemmon sk:Jack Lemmon sr:Џек Лемон fi:Jack Lemmon sv:Jack Lemmon

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