Walter Matthau
01 October, 1920
| 1.91 m
Actor
Director
Producer
Biography
Walter Matthau was best known for starring in many films which included Szarada (1963), Dziwna para (1968), Dwaj zgryźliwi tetrycy (1993), and Dennis rozrabiaka (1993). He often worked with Jack Lemmon and the two were Hollywood's craziest stars.He was born Walter Jake Matthow in New York City, New York on October 1, 1920. His mother was an immigrant from Lithuania and his father was a Russian Jewish peddler and electrician from Kiev, Ukraine. As a young boy, Matthau attended a Jewish non-profit sleep-away camp. He also attended Surprise Lake Camp. His high school was Seward Park High School.During World War II, Matthau served in the U.S. Army Air Forces with the Eighth Air Force in Britain as a Consolidated B-24 Liberator radioman-gunner, in the same 453rd Bombardment Group as James Stewart. He was based at RAF Old Buckenham, Norfolk during this time. He reached the rank of staff sergeant and became interested in acting.Matthau appeared in the pilot of Mister Peepers (1952) alongside Wally Cox. He later appeared in the Elia Kazan classic, Twarz w tłumie (1957), opposite Patricia Neal and Andy Griffith, and then appeared in Ostatni kowboj (1962), with Kirk Douglas, a film Douglas has often described as his personal favorite. Matthau then appeared in Szarada (1963) with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. In 1968, Matthau made his big screen appearance as Oscar Madison in Dziwna para (1968) alongside Jack Lemmon. The two were also in the sequel (Dziwna para 2 (1998)) as well as Dwaj zgryźliwi tetrycy (1993) and Jeszcze bardziej zgryźliwi tetrycy (1995). Matthau was in Dennis rozrabiaka (1993), alongside Mason Gamble. On July 1, 2000, Matthau died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California. He was 79 years old.
Movies
Romance and suspense ensue in Paris as a woman is pursued by several men who want a fortune her murdered husband had stolen. Whom can she trust?
When his parents must go out of town on business, Dennis stays with Mr. and Mrs. Wilson. He is driving Mr. Wilson crazy, but he is just trying to be helpful, even to the thief who has arrived in town.
A New Yorker newly separated from his wife moves in with his best friend, a divorced sportswriter, but their ideas of housekeeping and lifestyles are as different as night and day.
Four armed men hijack a New York City subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers. The city's police are faced with a conundrum: Even if it's paid, how could they get away?
John and Max resolve to save their beloved bait shop from turning into an Italian restaurant, just as its new female owner catches Max's attention.
A mechanic romances the mathematician niece of physicist Albert Einstein, with help from him and his friends.
An aging, down-on-his-luck ex-minor leaguer coaches a team of misfits in an ultra-competitive California little league.
A technical malfunction sends American planes to Moscow to deliver a nuclear attack. Can all-out war be averted?
Becoming an orphan in 1935, Collin moves to his dad's cousins Verena and Dolly. Verena is a rich, bossy businesswoman. Dolly, Collin and the maid revolt, moving to a tree house.
Matchmaker Dolly Levi travels to Yonkers to find a partner for "half-a-millionaire" Horace Vandergelder, convincing his niece, his niece's intended, and his two clerks to travel to New York City along the way.
A crooked lawyer persuades his brother-in-law to feign a serious injury.
A ruthless editor tries to get his top reporter to cover one more crime story before retirement.
A man, his wife and their friend stage a bloody bank robbery without realizing they are stealing from the Mob.
A dentist pretends to be married to avoid commitment, but when he falls for his girlfriend and proposes, he must recruit his lovelorn nurse to pose as his wife.
Oscar and Felix take a road trip to their son and daughter's wedding.
A fiercely independent cowboy gets himself locked up in prison to escape with an old friend.
A failed gambler, intent on meeting a rich widow, tricks his widowed brother-in-law into boarding a cruise ship as dance hosts.
The adventures of pirate Captain Red and his first mate Frog.
Grounded with a desk job by incompetent superiors, a clever CIA agent retires and writes a tell all memoir that will embarrass his bosses, prompting him to go on the run and elude them.
A seriously-ill schoolteacher becomes dependent on a "miracle" drug that begins to affect his sanity.