Karl Malden Dies at Age 97 1912- 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/07/01/ST2009070102889.html
Oscar, Emmy-Winning Actor Karl Malden Dies at 97
By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 1, 2009; 4:28 PM
Karl Malden, 97, an Academy Award-winning actor who excelled in plainspoken, working-class roles, including the awkward Mitch in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and a brave priest in "On the Waterfront," died today at his home in Los Angeles. No cause of death was immediately disclosed.
Mr. Malden's bulbous nose and thinning hair made him one of the most familiar sights in movies and on television for five decades. In the 1970s, he became known to millions of viewers as a police veteran who partners with a young inspector played by Michael Douglas on the ABC drama series "The Streets of San Francisco."

The show led to Mr. Malden's 21-year role as the trench coat-wearing pitchman for American Express who urged customers not to leave home without their traveler's checks. He joked that this became his best-known part, despite his reputation as one of the most versatile actors in more than 70 films and television movies.

Mr. Malden was a steelworker before winning important stage roles on Broadway. He made his greatest mark on Hollywood in the early 1950s as part of a group of New York theater stars -- headed by actor Marlon Brando and director Elia Kazan -- who were trying to bring an unpredictable, realistic style of acting to audiences

"I hadn't met anyone that non-actorish before, non-theater-like," Kazan once said of Mr. Malden. "The minute I saw him, I knew he came from something. It turned out to be the steel mills, and it was a thing that was very important for a director, because you feel, 'Here's a person who can play difficult parts, rough parts, physical parts, who doesn't get frightened easily, who's all there when I need him.' "

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