47 Facts About Karl Malden

Karl Malden was primarily a character actor, who according to Robert Berkvist, "for more than 60 years brought an intelligent intensity and a homespun authenticity to roles in theater, film, and television", especially in such classic films as A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, On the Waterfront, Pollyanna, and One-Eyed Jacks.

Karl Malden was later an advertising spokesman for American Express.

Karl Malden was president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1989 to 1992.

Karl Malden, the eldest of three sons, was born Mladen Sekulovich in Chicago, Illinois, on March 22,1912, which was his mother's 20th birthday.

Karl Malden was raised in a home at 457 Connecticut Street in Gary, Indiana.

Karl Malden's Serb father Petar Sekulovic worked in the steel mills and as a milkman, and his mother, Minnie Sekulovich, was a Czech seamstress and actress.

Karl Malden spoke only Serbian until he was in kindergarten; he remained fluent in the language until his death.

Karl Malden took part in many of these plays, which included a version of Jack and the Beanstalk, but mostly centered on the community's Serbian heritage.

Karl Malden participated in the drama department and was narrowly elected senior class president.

Karl Malden changed his name from Mladen Sekulovich to Karl Malden at age 22, something director Elia Kazan urged him to do.

Karl Malden thought that they wanted to fire him and were using his name as an excuse; although that was not the case, he still changed his name to give them no excuse.

Karl Malden later stated that he regretted changing his name and tried to insert the name Sekulovich wherever possible in his work.

In Birdman of Alcatraz, as a prison warden touring the cell block, Karl Malden recites a list of inmates' names, including Sekulovich.

In On the Waterfront, in which Karl Malden plays the priest, among the names of the officers of Local 374 called out in the courtroom scene is Mladen Sekulovich, Delegate.

In September 1934, Karl Malden left Gary, Indiana, to pursue formal dramatic training at the Goodman School, then associated with the Goodman Theater in Chicago.

When Karl Malden performed in the Goodman's children's theater, he wooed actress Mona Greenberg, who married him in 1938.

Karl Malden graduated from the Chicago Art Institute in 1937.

Karl Malden eventually traveled to New York City, and first appeared as an actor on Broadway in 1937.

Karl Malden did some radio work and in a small role made his film debut in They Knew What They Wanted.

Karl Malden joined the Group Theatre, where he began acting in many plays and was introduced to a young Elia Kazan, who later worked with him on A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront.

Karl Malden's acting career was interrupted in 1942 by the Second World War, during which he served as a noncommissioned officer in the 8th Air Force of the United States Army Air Corps.

Karl Malden was discharged in 1946 as a Sergeant and was awarded the Air Force Presidential Unit Citation, the American Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.

The next year, director Elia Kazan gave Karl Malden a co-starring role in Arthur Miller's breakout play All My Sons.

Karl Malden appeared in a small role in the film noir Kiss of Death during the run of All My Sons, but didn't resume his film acting career until 1950, starting with The Gunfighter and Where the Sidewalk Ends, then and Halls of Montezuma.

Baby Doll had Karl Malden playing a man frustrated by a teenaged wife.

Karl Malden starred in dozens of films from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, such as Fear Strikes Out and Time Limit.

Karl Malden first visited the campus with her in 1959, and was impressed by the ESU Summer Theatre.

Karl Malden returned in the summer of 1964 to teach, working with the actors in the company.

In 1972, Karl Malden was approached by producer Quinn Martin about starring as Lt.

Karl Malden's character Stone was a widowed veteran cop with more than 20 years of experience, who is paired with Keller, an officer recently graduated from college.

Stone, Karl Malden was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times between 1974 and 1977, but never won.

In 1980, Karl Malden starred in Skag, an hour-long drama that focused on the life of a foreman at a Pittsburgh steel mill.

Karl Malden described his character, Pete Skagska, as a simple man trying to keep his family together.

In 1981, Karl Malden portrayed ice hockey coach Herb Brooks in a made for television account of the United States men's national ice hockey team's miraculous gold medal-winning run in the 1980 Winter Olympics.

Karl Malden told Sports Illustrated in December 1980 that he had never actually met Herb Brooks in preparation for his portrayal of him, but he studied him on videotape, especially his eyes.

Karl Malden wondered how, after working hard over the course of seven months that Brooks could have simply walked away after his team clinched the improbable victory against the Soviet team.

Karl Malden portrayed Leon Klinghoffer in the 1989 TV movie The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro, the only person to die in the 1985 terrorist incident.

Karl Malden's last acting role was in 2000 in the first-season episode of The West Wing titled "Take This Sabbath Day" in which he portrayed a Catholic priest, and used the same Bible he had used in On the Waterfront.

From 1990 to 2009, Karl Malden was a member of The United States Postal Service's Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee which evaluates potential subjects for US postage stamps and reports its recommendations to the Postmaster General.

On December 18,1938, Karl Malden married Mona Greenberg, who survived him.

Karl Malden died at his home in Los Angeles on July 1,2009, at the age of 97.

Karl Malden was reported to have been in poor health for several years.

Karl Malden was buried at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Karl Malden won the 1951 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for A Streetcar Named Desire and was nominated in 1954 for his supporting role in On the Waterfront.

Karl Malden was a past president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In May 2001, Karl Malden received an honorary degree, doctor of humane letters, from Valparaiso University.

In November 2018, a monument to Karl Malden was revealed in Belgrade, Serbia.