Walter Matthau

They married in New York in 1917.

As part of a lifelong love of practical jokes, Matthau created the rumors that his middle name was Foghorn and his last name was originally Matuschanskayasky (under which he is credited for a cameo role in the film Earthquake).

As a young boy, Matthau attended a Jewish non-profit sleepaway camp, Tranquillity Camp, where he first began acting in the shows that the camp staged on Saturday nights.

He also attended Surprise Lake Camp.

His high school was Seward Park High School.

He worked for a short time as a concession stand cashier in the Yiddish Theatre District.

During World War II, Matthau saw active service as a radioman-gunner on a Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber in the U.S. Army Air Forces with the Eighth Air Force in England.

Walter Matthau (born Walter John Matthow; October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American actor, comedian and film director.

Matthau was born Walter John Matthow on October 1, 1920, in New York City's Lower East Side.

He had two brothers, one older and one younger.

His parents were Jewish; his mother, Rose ( Berolsky or Beransky), was a Lithuanian immigrant who worked in a garment sweatshop, and his father, Milton Matuschansky, was a Ukrainian peddler and electrician, from Kiev.

He was with the same 453rd Bombardment Group as James Stewart.

While based in England at RAF Old Buckenham, Norfolk he flew missions to continental Europe during the Battle of the Bulge.

He ended the war with the rank of Staff Sergeant, and returned home to America for demobilization at the war's end intent on pursuing a career as an actor.

Matthau was trained in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School with German director Erwin Piscator.

He often joked that his best early review came in a play where he posed as a derelict.

One reviewer said, "The others just looked like actors in make-up, Walter Matthau really looks like a skid row bum!"

Matthau appeared in the pilot of Mister Peepers (1952) with Wally Cox.

For reasons unknown he used the name Leonard Elliot.

His role was of the gym teacher Mr. Wall.

He made his motion picture debut as a whip-wielding bad guy in The Kentuckian (1955) opposite Burt Lancaster.

Matthau appeared with James Mason in Bigger Than Life (1956) directed by Nicholas Ray.

He is best known for his film roles in A Face in the Crowd (1957), King Creole (1958), and as a coach of a hapless little league team in the baseball comedy The Bad News Bears (1976).

Matthau and Griffith later appeared in the critical and box office hit A Face in the Crowd (1957), directed by Elia Kazan.

He played a villain in King Creole (1958), in which he gets beaten up by Elvis Presley.

Around the same time, he made Ride a Crooked Trail with Audie Murphy, and Onionhead (both 1958) starring Andy Griffith; the latter was a flop.

Matthau directed a low-budget movie called The Gangster Story (1960) and played a sympathetic sheriff in Lonely Are the Brave (1962), which starred Kirk Douglas.

Matthau was a respected stage actor for years in such fare as Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and A Shot in the Dark, for his performance in the latter winning the 1962 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

He appeared eight times between 1962 and 1964 on The DuPont Show of the Week and as Franklin Gaer in an episode of Dr. Kildare ("Man Is a Rock", 1964).

Comedies were rare in Matthau's work at that time.

Matthau is also known for his performances in Stanley Donen's romance Charade (1963), Fail Safe (1964), Gene Kelly's musical Hello, Dolly! (1969), Elaine May's screwball comedy A New Leaf (1971), and Herbert Ross's ensemble comedy California Suite (1978).

In 1963, he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his performance in The DuPont Show of the Week.

He appeared in the Cary Grant-Audrey Hepburn crime thriller Charade (1963).

On television, he appeared twice on Naked City, as well as in four installments of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

On Broadway, Matthau originated the role of Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple by playwright Neil Simon, for which he received a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1965, his second after A Shot in the Dark in 1962.

Matthau also received two British Academy Film Awards and a Golden Globe Award.

He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the Billy Wilder film The Fortune Cookie (1966).

He also starred in 10 films alongside Jack Lemmon, including The Odd Couple (1968), The Front Page (1974), and Grumpy Old Men (1993).

He also starred in Plaza Suite, Kotch (both 1971); Charley Varrick (1973), The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), The Sunshine Boys (1975), House Calls (1978), and Hopscotch (1980).

In 1982, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.