American actor Alan Arkin, Oscar winner from “Little Miss Sunshine” and known for his special touch of serious humor in his performances, He died in the United States at the age of 89.his family reported this Friday.
“As a loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, he was loved and will be sorely missed,” said Arkin’s sons Adam, Matthew and Anthony, who also work in the entertainment industry.
“He was a unique talent, a force of nature, both as an artist and as a person.”
The cause of death was not disclosed.
Who was Alan Arkin?
Arkin has six decades of experience in film and television, starring titles like “Argo” and more recently the series “The Kominsky Method”, with Michael DouglasIn 1963 he won an Oscar and a Tony for his work on Broadway with the play “Enter Laughing”.
His signature style of snarky humor made him distinctive on screen, where he built an eclectic resume while dabbling in music.
After the announcement, social networks were filled with messages of regret.
“It was a privilege to work with him on ‘The Last Unicorn,'” the actress tweeted. Mia Farrow. “To me he will always be ‘Schmendrick,’ my invaluable wizarding companion in our quest for other unicorns.”
“Very sad,” wrote filmmaker Rob Reiner. “A brilliant actor who was always a pleasure to work with.”
“Everything is improvisation”
Born March 26, 1934 in Brooklyn, New YorkIn a family of Russian and German-Jewish immigrants, Arkin took acting lessons from an early age.
His family moved to Los Angeles in the 1950s, where he won acting scholarships to various colleges in the film mecca, but dropped out in 1955 to form a folk band.
With the group The Tarriers he sealed the success of “The Banana Boat Song”, in the following decade he switched between music and acting. Debut on Broadway with “From the Second City”.
He was nominated for an Oscar for the first time. as best actor for his starring role in the 1966 comedy “Here come the Russians, here come the Russians!”in which he played a Soviet sailor who is mistaken for a spy.
Then he shared the screen Audrey Hepburn in “Wait for the Dark”, from 1967, and He was again nominated for an Oscar for The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (1968)..
Many critics say that Arkin’s best performance came in the 1970s film adaptation of Joseph Heller’s tragi-comic war novel, Catch 22.
From the 1970s to the 1990s, the actor constantly shuttled between stage, television and screen, with roles in films such as: “Boy Scissorhands” (1990) and A Sign of Hope (1999).
He himself shaped the past of the character that gave him the Oscar “Little Miss Sunshine”and turned Grandpa Hoover into a retired saxophonist with a penchant for drugs and strip clubs.
“I love seedy characters that philosophize,” Arkin said of the role. “He’s there, mad and exposed.”
He received another Oscar nomination in 2013 for the successful film “Argo”.in which he puts himself in the shoes of a Hollywood producer who brings a touch of humor to the suspense-packed film about the hostages in Iran.
Arkin credited his early days as an improv artist for teaching him many lessons, the most important of which he said was failure.
“The public knew something was going to go wrong, and that was okay,” he said in a 2008 interview with the LA Times. “But if you fail now, that’s a moral issue that’s bad for the number machines.”
“But one of the things I learned from improvising is that everything in life is improvisation, whether you want it or not. Some of the most important scientific discoveries of the 20th century came from people dropping things.”
Arkin leaves his wife Suzannein addition to his three children, four grandchildren, and great-grandson Elliott.