Jack Palance

Jack Palance
Palance during the filming of The Godchild (1974)
Born	Volodymyr Palahniuk (1919-02-18)February 18, 1919 Hazle Township, Pennsylvania, United States
Died	November 10, 2006(2006-11-10) (aged 87) Montecito, California, United States
Residence	Tehachapi, California
Other names	Jack Brazzo Walter Palance Walter J. Palance Walter Jack Palance
Alma mater	Stanford University
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1947–2004
Spouse	Virginia Baker (1949–68; divorced) Elaine Rogers (1987–2006; his death)
Children	3

Jack Palance (born Volodymyr Palahniuk, Ukrainian: Володимир Палагнюк; February 18, 1919 – November 10, 2006), was an American actor. During half a century of film and television appearances, Palance was nominated for three Academy Awards, all as Best Actor in a Supporting Role, winning in 1991 for his role in City Slickers.

Early life

Palance, one of 6 children, was born Volodymyr Palahniuk in the Lattimer Mines section of Hazle Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, the son of Anna (née Gramiak) and Ivan Palahniuk, who was an anthracite coal miner.^[1] Palance's parents were Ukrainian immigrants,^[2][3] his father a native of Ivane Zolote in Southwestern Ukraine (Ternopil Oblast) and his mother from the Lviv region.^[4] He worked in coal mines during his youth before becoming a boxer.

In the late 1930s, Palance started a professional boxing career. Fighting under the name Jack Brazzo, Palance reportedly compiled a record of 15 consecutive victories with 12 knockouts before fighting the future heavyweight contender Joe Baksi in a "Pier-6" brawl. Palance lost a close decision,^[5][6] and recounted: "Then, I thought, you must be nuts to get your head beat in for $200".^[7]

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Palance's boxing career ended and his military career began as a member of the United States Army Air Forces. Palance's rugged face, which took many beatings in the boxing ring, was said to have become disfigured while bailing out of a burning B-24 Liberator bomber during a training flight over southern Arizona (where Palance was a student pilot). His distinctive cheekbones and deep-set eyes^[8] were said to have been the result of reconstructive surgery. The story behind Palance's face was repeated numerous times (including in respected film reference works), but upon his death, several obituaries of Palance quoted him as saying that the entire story had been contrived: "Studio press agents make up anything they want to, and reporters go along with it. One flack created the legend that I had been blown up in an air crash during the war, and my face had to be put back together by way of plastic surgery. If it is a 'bionic face,' why didn't they do a better job of it?"

Palance reportedly was discharged in 1944. In 1947 he graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama. During his university years, to make ends meet he also worked as a short order cook, waiter, soda jerk, lifeguard at Jones Beach State Park, and photographer's model.

Career

Palance's acting break came as Marlon Brando's understudy in A Streetcar Named Desire, and he eventually replaced Brando on stage as Stanley Kowalski.

In 1947, Palance made his Broadway debut, and this was followed three years later by his screen debut in the movie Panic in the Streets (1950). The very same year, he was featured in Halls of Montezuma about the U.S. Marines in World War II, where he was credited as "Walter (Jack) Palance". Palance was quickly recognized for his skill as a character actor, receiving an Oscar nomination for only his third film role, as Lester Blaine in Sudden Fear.

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

The following year, Palance was again nominated for an Oscar, this time for his role as the hired gunfighter Jack Wilson in Shane. Several other Western roles followed, but he also played such varied roles as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula and Attila the Hun.

In 1957, Palance won an Emmy 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 Palance to take on the role of Hollywood producer Jeremy Prokosch in the 1963 nouvelle vague movie Le Mépris, with Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli. Although the main dialogue was in French, Palance spoke mostly English.

Later, in 1966, Jack Palance in the movie "Alice Through the Looking Glass" directed by Alan Handley in which Jack plays as the Jabberwocky; film which also involved Judi Rolin in the role of "Alice" and Roy Castle as "Lester, the Jester". Film regarded today as a classic of children's films.

In 1969, while still busy making movies, Palance recorded a country music album on Warner Bros. Records. The album recalled the Lee Hazlewood music that was popular at the time. Recorded in Nashville, the album is a playful country rock romp not unlike other late 60's Nashville recordings and featured Palance's self-penned classic song "The Meanest Guy That Ever Lived". The album was re-released in 2003 by the "Walter" label on CD.

Palance also starred the television series Bronk between 1975 and 1976 for MGM Television.

Palance received a major career boost when he began hosting a television revival of Ripley's Believe It or Not! in 1982. The weekly series ran from 1982 to 1986 on the American ABC network. The series was wildly popular during its four-year run, owing a great deal of its success to Palance's eccentric performances. The series also starred three different co-hosts from season to season, including Palance's daughter Holly Palance, actress Catherine Shirriff and singer Marie Osmond. Ripley's Believe It or Not! was rerun in syndication on the Sci-fi Channel (UK) and Sci-fi Channel (US) during the 1990s.

Palance's success on Ripley's Believe It or Not! resulted in a demand for his services. He made memorable appearances in Young Guns (1988), Tango & Cash (1989) and Tim Burton's Batman (1989), all of which served to reinvigorate his movie career. Palance would be involved in new projects each year right up to the turn of the century. He also performed on Roger Waters' first solo album release The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking in 1984.

Palance, at the time chairman of the Hollywood Trident Foundation, walked out of a Russian Film Festival in Hollywood. After being introduced, Palance said, "I feel like I walked into the wrong room by mistake. I think that Russian film is interesting, but I have nothing to do with Russia or Russian film. My parents were born in Ukraine: I'm Ukrainian. I'm not Russian. So, excuse me, but I don't belong here. It's best if we leave."^[9] Palance was awarded the title of "People's Artist" by the President Vladimir Putin on that occasion, however Palance refused the title^[10].

In 2001, Palance returned to the recording studio as a special guest on friend Laurie Z's Heart of the Holidays album to narrate the famous classic poem "The Night Before Christmas".

In 2002, he starred in the television movie Living with the Dead opposite Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen and Diane Ladd. In 2004, he starred in another television production, Back When We Were Grownups, opposite Blythe Danner, his performance as Poppy being Palance's last.

According to writer Mark Evanier, comic book creator Jack Kirby modeled his character Darkseid on the actor.^[11]

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 — mimicking one of his lines from the film — "Billy Crystal... I crap bigger than him." He then dropped to the floor and demonstrated his ability, at age 73, to perform one-handed push-ups.

Crystal turned this into a running gag. At first, he quipped, "I told Jack before the ceremony, 'Decaf, Jack, decaf'". Then, at various points in the broadcast, he announced that Palance had done the following:

• was backstage on the Stairmaster;
• "...just bungee-jumped off the Hollywood sign";
• rendezvoused with the Space Shuttle in orbit;
• fathered all the children in a production number;
• been named People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive;
• had won the New York primary election.

At the end of the broadcast, Crystal told everyone he would like to see them again, "but I've just been informed Jack Palance will be hosting next year."

In a spoof of that Oscar highlight, the opening of the 1993 Oscars featured Palance appearing to drag in an enormous Academy Award statuette, with Crystal, again hosting, riding on the rear end of it.

Death and legacy

On November 10, 2006, Palance died of natural causes at age 87 at his daughter Holly's home in Montecito in Santa Barbara County.^[12] His remains were cremated, his ashes retained by family and friends.^[13] Jack Palance lived for a number of years around Tehachapi, near Bakersfield, in southern California.

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

Jack Palance (left) visiting a VA Hospital in 2005

Palance was married to his first wife, Virginia Baker, from 1949 to 1968. They had three children: Holly (born in 1950), an actress, Brooke (born in 1952) and Cody (1955–1998).

Daughter Brooke married Michael Wilding, son of Michael Wilding Sr. (1912–1979) and Elizabeth Taylor; they have three children as well.

An actor himself, Cody Palance appeared alongside his father in the film Young Guns, and he died from malignant melanoma at age 42 on July 16, 1998. Palance had hosted The Cody Palance Memorial Golf Classic to raise awareness and funds for a cancer center in Los Angeles. Besides being an actor, Cody Palance was a musician who performed live with his band.^[14]

In May 1987, Palance married Elaine Rogers. On New Year's Day 2003, his first wife Virginia Baker (July 7, 1922 - January 1, 2003) was struck by a car and killed in Los Angeles.

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 in 1996 by Summerhouse Press.

True to his roots, Palance acknowledged a life-long attachment to his Pennsylvania heritage and visited there when able. Shortly before his death, he had placed his Butler Township, Pennsylvania, Holly-Brooke farm up for sale and his personal art collection up for auction.^[15]

Filmography

Films

Television movies/mini-series

Television shows

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jack Palance

Wikinews has related news: "City Slickers" actor, Jack Palance, dies

• Jack Palance at the Internet Movie Database
• Jack Palance at the TCM Movie Database
• Jack Palance at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jack Palance at Find a Grave
• BBC News - Western Star Jack Palance dies
• CNN News - Oscar winner Jack Palance dead at 87