Oscar-Winning Actor Jack Palance Dies

[Matt White]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Jack Palance, the craggy-faced menace in "Shane," "Sudden Fear" and other films who turned to comedy at 70 with his Oscar-winning role in "City Slickers," died Friday.

Palance died of natural causes at his home in Montecito, Calif., surrounded by family, said spokesman Dick Guttman. Palance was 85 according to Associated Press records. The family indicated he was 87.


The ORIGINAL HARDASS



RIP JACK...you've earned it

[Matt White]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061110/...v/obit_palance

LOS ANGELES - Jack Palance, the craggy-faced menace in "Shane," "Sudden Fear" and other films who turned to comedy at 70 with his Oscar-winning self-parody in "City Slickers," died Friday.
Palance died of natural causes at his home in Montecito, Calif., surrounded by family, said spokesman Dick Guttman. Palance was 85 according to Associated Press records, but his family gave his age as 87.

When Palance accepted his Oscar for best supporting actor he delighted viewers of the 1992 Academy Awards by dropping to the stage and performing one-armed push-ups to demonstrate his physical prowess.

"That's nothing, really," he said slyly. "As far as two-handed push-ups, you can do that all night, and it doesn't make a difference whether she's there or not."

That year's Oscar host, Billy Crystal, turned the moment into a running joke, making increasingly outlandish remarks about Palance's accomplishments throughout the night's awards presentations.

It was a magic moment that epitomized the actor's 40 years in films. Always the iconoclast, Palance had scorned most of his film roles.

"Most of the stuff I do is garbage," he once told a reporter, adding that most of the directors he worked with were incompetent.

Movie audiences, however, were electrified by the actor's chiseled face and hulking presence, and a calm, low voice that made him all the more chilling.



Man...when my Grandpa told me, when I was a kid, that I'd see the "death of the Golden Age of Hollywood"...he wasn't kidding.
They just don't make actors like that anymore. And a WWII vet to boot!

SALUTE

[flappo]

a grate man

i recall 20 + years ago , he was cycling nearby when some poof shouted out 'hi jack!'

he retorted

'who the fucks that cunt ?'

uhuhuhuh

nuff said


STYLE

[Matt White]

AN ICON





Born Vladimir Palahnuik in eastern Pennsylvania in February 1920 (some sources indicate 1918 and 1919), famed actor Jack Palance has enjoyed a career that is currently in its sixth decade. In the late 1930s, Palance became a successful professional boxer, winning nearly all his contests. His boxing career was put on hold when he enlisted in the Army in 1942, but he was seriously injured in a plane crash and spent months in recovery. After his discharge, Palance briefly went home to Pennsylvania but eventually left for New York City, where his acting career took off on Broadway. Appearing in several plays throughout the late 1940s, he served as understudy to Marlon Brando in the role of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire and replaced Brando for a brief period. From the strength of Palance's performance in Streetcar, 20th Century-Fox put him under contract. For his first film, he was cast in the a plum role of the plague-infected murderer Blackie in the film noir thriller Panic in the Streets (1950; with Richard Widmark and Paul Douglas). However, he had a falling out with Fox execs following the lensing of Halls of Montezuma (1951; with Richard Widmark), and Palance returned to Broadway. But he returned to Hollywood when, based on the strength of his performance in Panic in the Streets, RKO cast him in the Joan Crawford noir vehicle Sudden Fear (1952; with Gloria Grahame). He went on to star in the noir classics The Big Knife (1955; with Ida Lupino and Shelley Winters), I Died a Thousand Times (1955; with Shelley Winters and Lori Nelson), and House of Numbers (1957; with Edward Platt).

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Jack Palance acted in a number of 'A' and 'B' pictures; some of the low-budget gems include Angels' Brigade (1979; with Peter Lawford), Cocaine Cowboys (1979; with Andy Warhol), and Gor (1988; with Urbano Barberini). His 'A' pictures from the period include Young Guns (1988; with Emilio Estevez and Kiefer Sutherland) and Batman (1989; with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson). The release of the comedy City Slickers (1991; with Billy Crystal) rejuvenated Palance's popularity among moviegoers and brought him many new fans. His most current release is the made-for-TV film Back When We Were Grownups (2004; with Blythe Danner, Faye Dunaway, and Peter Fonda).

Palance married actress Virginia Baker in the late 1940s, they are the parents of actresses Holly Palance and Brooke Palance and actor Cody Palance. Holly Palance co-hosted with her father on the ABC TV series Ripley's Believe It or Not!, and Cody Palance acted with his father in God's Guns (1976) and Angels' Brigade (1979). Sadly, Cody Palance passed away in 1998 at the age of 42. Jack Palance and Virginia Baker went their separate ways in the late 1960s, and he remarried in the 1980s.

[Dan]

R.I.P. Jack.

[Coyote]

Damn...

[Diamondjimi]

He was one cool mofo. R.I.P. Jack !

[SparkieD]

Man, I just mentioned him in another thread the other night. That sucks.

When I mentioned him, I started looking for the aftershave commercial he did a few years back on Youtube. Couldn't find it. Tiki and I were talking about him and both of us thought he had already died.

Now I feel responsible. I did this to Roy Orbison way back when The Trveling Wilburys came out. I told Tiki I thought the guy was dead. Well, he was-two days LATER!!!

A couple of years ago, I was watching Mr. Roger's Neighborhood with our little one and thought to myself "Man, he don't look so hot." Gone less than twelve hours later.

Alas, I need to start up Sparkie's Celebrity Death Pool.

Jack was cool. RIP, Curley.

[Matt White]

I know a lot of people felt that way when Glen Ford passed away recently.....

So many older actors & actresses simply fade away..............

87....that's a ripe old age

[Matt White]

Some more....Man, that generation kicks ASS....

Born as Vladimir Palaniuk (Ukrainian: §£§à§Ý§à§Õ§Ú§Þ§Ú§â §±§Ñ§Ý§Ñ§ß§ð§Ü, Volodymyr Palanyuk) in the Lattimer Mines section of Hazle Township, Pennsylvania, near Hazleton in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Palance was of Ukranian descent and the son of an anthracite coal miner.

Palance worked in coal mines during his youth, and he was also a boxer. In the late 1930s he started a professional boxing career. Fighting under the name Jack Brazzo, Palance reportedly compiled a record of 15 consecutive victories with 12 knockouts before losing a decision to the future heavyweight contender Joe Baksi.

With the outbreak of World War II, Palance's boxing career ended and his military career began. Palance's rugged face, which took many beatings in the boxing ring, was disfigured when he bailed out of his burning B-24 Liberator while on a training flight over southern Arizona, where he was a student pilot. Plastic surgeons repaired as much of the damage that they could, but he was left with a distinctive, somewhat gaunt, look. After much reconstructive surgery, he was discharged in 1944.

Palance graduated from Stanford University in 1947 with an Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama. During his university years, he also worked as a short order cook, waiter, soda jerk, lifeguard at Jones Beach State Park, and as a photographer's model, to make ends meet.

In 1947, Palance made his Broadway debut, followed three years later by his screen debut, in the movie Panic in the Streets (1950). He was quickly recognized for his skill as a character actor, receiving an Academy Award nomination for only his third film role, as Lester Blaine in Sudden Fear.


Jack Palance earned his second Oscar nomination playing cold-blooded gunfighter Jack Wilson in 1953s cinema classic Shane.The following year, Palance was Oscar-nominated again, for his role as the evil gunfighter Jack Wilson in Shane. Several other Western roles followed, but he would also play such varied roles as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula, and Attila the Hun.

In 1957, Palance won an Emmy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Mountain McClintock in the Playhouse 90 production of Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight.

Jean-Luc Godard persuaded him to take on the role of Hollywood producer Jeremy Prokosch in the 1963 nouvelle vague movie Le M¨¦pris, with Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli. Although the main dialogue was in French, Palance spoke only English.

While still busy making movies, in the 1980s, Palance also co-hosted (with his daughter Holly Palance), the television series Ripley's Believe It or Not.

Appearing in Young Guns (1988) and Tim Burton's Batman (1989) reinvigorated Palance's career and demand for his services kept him involved in new projects each year right up until the turn of the century.


Jack Palance earned his second Oscar nomination playing cold-blooded gunfighter Jack Wilson in 1953s cinema classic Shane.

Academy Award
Four decades after his film debut, Palance won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor on March 30, 1992, for his performance as cowboy Curly Washburn in the 1991 comedy City Slickers.

Stepping onstage to accept the award, the intimidatingly fit 6' 4" (1.93 m) actor looked down at 5' 7" (1.70 m) Oscar host Billy Crystal (who was also his co-star in the movie), and joked, "Billy Crystal... I crap bigger than him." [citation needed] He then dropped to the floor and demonstrated his ability, at age 73, to perform one-handed push-ups.

Crystal then turned this into a running gag. At various points in the broadcast, he announced that Palance was backstage on the Stairmaster; had "just bungee-jumped off the Hollywood sign"; had rendezvoused with the Space Shuttle in orbit; had fathered all the children in a production number; had been named People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive; and had won the New York primary election. At the end of the broadcast, Crystal told everyone he'd like to see them again "but I've just been informed Jack Palance will be hosting next year." (The following year, host Crystal arrived on stage atop a giant model of the Oscar statuette, towed by Palance). [citation needed]


Hollywood Walk of Fame
Palance has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6608 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1992, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.


Personal life
Palance's first wife was Virginia Baker from 1949 to 1966. They had three children; Holly (born 1950), Brooke (born 1952) and Cody (1955-1998).

An actor in his own right, Cody Palance appeared alongside his father in the film Young Guns, and was 42 when he died from malignant melanoma in 1998. His father had hosted The Cody Palance Memorial Golf Classic to raise awareness and funds for a cancer center in Los Angeles.

Palance was married to Elaine Rogers in May 1987.

Palance painted and sold landscape art, with a poem included on the back of each picture. He is also the author of The Forest of Love, a book of poems, published October 1, 1996, by Summerhouse Press.

True to his roots, Jack Palance acknowledged a life-long endearment for his Pennsylvania heritage and visited there when able.

Palance died November 10, 2006 of natural causes at his home in Montecito, California in Santa Barbara County.[2]


Jack Palance Collection auction

The Jack Palance Collection 2006 seal.Following other recent celebrity auctions, Jack Palance's personal lifetime collection of over 3,000 items located at his Holly-Brooke Farm in Butler Township, Pennsylvania, went on the auction block October 12-15, 2006. [1]

Auction planners purposefully included some smaller keepsakes for people who want something belonging to the 87-year-old actor. "People can spend $5 or $50,000 at this auction," said Phil Eagle, an antique appraiser who traveled from California to painstakingly verify the items' authenticity and sort them all into manageable "lots" to be sold. [1]

There are no minimum reserves that must be met and everything must go. "Each item will bear a special sticker featuring a picture of the actor and the words 'Jack Palance Collection' to add to the value and future collectibility", Eagle said. [1]

Holly-Brooke Farm, named after Palance's two daughters, has been for sale for several years.


Academy Award and Nominations
1952 ¨C Nominated ¨C Best Actor in a Supporting Role ¨C Sudden Fear
1953 ¨C Nominated ¨C Best Actor in a Supporting Role ¨C Shane
1992 ¨C Won ¨C Best Actor in a Supporting Role ¨C City Slickers

[Hardrock69]

Jack Palance kicked ass!

He played Dracula, in a made-for-tv adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel....and I thought he was fucking scary!

Bela Lugosi will always be my number 1 fave actor to have played Vlad Tepes. But Jack Palance was fucking frightening in the role.

This fucking sucks!!


RIP to tha MAN!

[DavidLeeNatra]

R.I.P.

the next (and last) one of this caliber will be kirk douglas...

[Katydid]

He resembled my ex father-in-law John Roth so much, that it was eerie.

[binnie]

R.I.P!

One cool man, indeed!