Eli Wallach (born December 7, 1915) is
an American film, TV and stage actor. He served in the United States Army in World War II.
Wallach was born in Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish family. He graduated from The University of
Texas at Austin but gained his first method experience at the Neighborhood Playhouse.
Wallach made his Broadway debut in 1945 and won a Tony Award in 1951. His film debut was
instantly accomplished in Elia Kazan's controversial Baby Doll and he went on to become a
prolific player, although rarely in a starring role he was memorable in many of his early
films, especially The Misfits, The Magnificent Seven and as Tuco (the 'Ugly') in Sergio
Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He also continued to work on the stage as well as
doing made-for-TV films.
He has been married to acclaimed stage actress Anne Jackson (born 1926) since March 5, 1948,
and they have three children: Peter, Katherine and Roberta.
Filmography:
Baby Doll (1956)
The Lineup (1958)
Seven Thieves (1960)
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
The Misfits (1961
)
Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man (1962)
How the West Was Won (1962)
The Victors (1963)
Act One (1963)
The Moon-Spinners (1964)
Kisses for My President (1964)
Lord Jim (1965)
Genghis Khan (1965)
The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966)
How to Steal a Million (1966)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
The Tiger Makes Out (1967) (also producer)
Ace High (1968)
How to Save a Marriage (and Ruin Your Life) (1968)
A Lovely Way to Die (1968)
The Brain (1969)
Mackenna's Gold (1969)
The Adventures of Gerard (1970)
The Angel Levine (1970)
The People Next Door (1970)
Zizag (1970)
Romance of a Horsethief (1971)
Long Live Your Death (1971)
Cinderella Liberty (1973)
Crazy Joe (1974)
The Dream Factory (1975) (documentary) (narrator)
Stateline Motel (1975)
Shoot First... Ask Questions Later (1975)
L'chaim: To Life (1975) (documentary) (narrator)
Plot of Fear (1976)
Eye of the Cat (1976)
Independence (1976)
The Sentinel (1977)
The Deep (1977)
The Domino Principle (1977)
Nasty Habits (1977)
Little Italy (1978)
Girlfriends (1978)
Movie Movie (1978)
Circle of Iron (1978)
Firepower (1979)
Winter Kills (1979)
The Hunter (1980)
The Salamander (1981)
Sam's Son (1984)
Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret (1985) (documentary)
Tough Guys (1986)
Hollywood Uncensored (1987) (documentary)
Nuts (1987)
Funny (1989) (documentary)
The Two Jakes (1990)
The Godfather: Part III (1990)
Article 99 (1992
)
Mistress (1992)
Night and the City (1992)
Honey Sweet Love (1994)
Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey (1995) (documentary) (narrator
Two Much (1995)
The Associate (1996)
Uninvited (1999)
Keeping the Faith (2000)
Cinerama Adventure (2002) (documentary)
Advice and Dissent (2002) (short subject)
The Root (2003)
Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (2003) (documentary)
Mystic River (2003) (Cameo)
King of the Corner (2004)
The Moon and the Son (2005) (short subject) (voice)
The Easter Egg Adventure (2005) (narrator)
Trivia:
Although his The Magnificent Seven character (Calvera) and the rest of his bandits are
eventually defeated in that film, he has ironically outlived all of the seven stars, except
for Robert Vaughn who is still alive as of 2006, despite being older than all of them besides
Yul Brynner.
In 2005, Wallach released his autobiography The Good, the Bad and Me: In My Anecdotage. In
this tome, Wallach talked about his most famous role as Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
He mentioned that he didn't realize he was going to be "blessed" with that title until he saw
the film. He mentioned it was an honor to work with Clint Eastwood, whom he praised for his
professionalism. Wallach mentioned, however, that director Sergio Leone was notoriously
careless in ensuring the safety of his actors during dangerous scenes. It was during filming
that Wallach almost died when he accidentally drank from a bottle of acid that a film
technician had carelessly placed next to his soda bottle. Wallach said that Eastwood sprang to
his aid and washed his mouth out.
He is the subject of the song "Eli Wallach", on the album (Methods of Getting Rid of) Hiccups
by Australian singer/songwriter Darren Hanlon.
This article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire
work (including additions) remains under this license. See
http://www.gnu.org/
copyleft/fdl.html
for details. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Eli Wallach", which you can find
at http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Eli_Wallach
|