Alan Arkin

Alan Wolf Arkin (March 26, 1934 – June 29, 2023) was an American actor, filmmaker, and musician born in Brooklyn, New York. The son of David I. Arkin, a teacher, painter, writer, and lyricist who co-wrote the Three Dog Night song "Black and White," and Beatrice Arkin, a teacher, he grew up in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn before his family relocated to Los Angeles when he was eleven. Raised in a Jewish household, Arkin had grandparents who were immigrants from Ukraine, Russia, and Germany. His parents faced accusations of Communist sympathies during the 1950s Red Scare, and his father was dismissed from his job after refusing to answer questions about his political beliefs, a dismissal that was only overturned after his death. Arkin began taking acting lessons at age ten and later studied on scholarship at drama academies, including one run by Stanislavsky student Benjamin Zemach, who introduced him to a psychological approach to performance. He attended Los Angeles State College from 1951 to 1953 and also studied at Bennington College.

Arkin launched his professional career in the 1950s as a singer and guitarist with the folk group The Tarriers, who scored two hits in 1956 and 1957 with "Cindy, Oh Cindy" and "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)." The group performed both songs in the 1957 musical film Calypso Heat Wave, in which Arkin also made his feature film acting debut in a small role. He subsequently sang with another folk group, The Baby Sitters, before joining the Second City comedy troupe in the early 1960s. His Broadway career began in 1961 when he appeared in From the Second City at the Royale Theatre, a production that brought the ensemble's sketch comedy work to the New York stage.

Arkin's Broadway breakthrough came in 1963 when he starred as David Kolowitz in Joseph Stein's play Enter Laughing. New York Times critic Howard Taubman offered a mixed assessment of the production but singled out Arkin's work, describing it as "a choice specimen of a shrewd actor ribbing his profession." The performance earned him the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play and a Theatre World Award, both in 1963. The following year he returned to Broadway in the comedic play Luv, directed by Mike Nichols, where he played Harry Berlin opposite Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson. He later directed Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys in 1971, receiving a Tony Award nomination for that work, and earned a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director in 1970.

His film career gained significant momentum in 1966 with Norman Jewison's comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, opposite Carl Reiner and Eva Marie Saint. New York Times critic Robert Alden praised it as Arkin's "first full-length film appearance and a particularly wonderful performance," and the role brought him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, a BAFTA nomination for Most Promising Newcomer, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In 1968 he co-starred with Sondra Locke in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, playing a suicidal deaf mute, a performance that earned him a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, a Golden Globe nomination, and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor. That same year he took on the role of Inspector Jacques Clouseau in Inspector Clouseau, the third installment of The Pink Panther franchise, after Peter Sellers had departed the role. Also in 1968, he appeared in Terence Young's psychological thriller Wait Until Dark, starring Audrey Hepburn. In 1969 he starred opposite Rita Moreno in Arthur Hiller's comedy Popi, earning another Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Drama.

Arkin made his directorial debut in 1969 with People Soup, a twelve-minute children's film starring his sons Adam and Matthew Arkin, adapted from a story he had published in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1958. The film received an Academy Award nomination. He went on to direct the 1971 black comedy Little Murders, written by Jules Feiffer and starring Elliott Gould and Marcia Rodd, which later became a cult classic, as well as the 1977 comedy Fire Sale. In 1970 he starred as Captain John Yossarian in Mike Nichols's film adaptation of Catch-22, alongside a cast that included Bob Balaban, Martin Balsam, Jon Voight, Martin Sheen, and Orson Welles.

Across subsequent decades Arkin appeared in a wide range of films, including The In-Laws (1979), Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Rocketeer (1991), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001), and Get Smart (2008). He received a fourth Academy Award nomination for Argo (2012) and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of a foul-mouthed grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine (2006). Later film credits included Going in Style (2017), Dumbo (2019), and Spenser Confidential (2020). He also provided voices for animated projects, including Schmendrick in The Last Unicorn (1982), J. D. Salinger in the animated series BoJack Horseman from 2015 to 2016, and Wild Knuckles in Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022).

On television, Arkin played Leon Felhendler in the 1987 film Escape from Sobibor, earning an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, and portrayed Harry Rowen in The Pentagon Papers (2003), which brought him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. From 2018 to 2019 he starred in the Netflix comedy series The Kominsky Method, receiving two consecutive Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Over a career spanning seven decades, Arkin accumulated accolades that included an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and six Emmy Award nominations.