But beyond his shooting and riding technique, it’s the sheer malevolence emanating from Wilson that explodes off the screen he looks at his victims like they were his next meal, and almost slithers as he moves. Having never appeared in a Western, Jack came to the “Shane” set with no knowledge of guns or horses. Palance was cast in what would become his best-remembered role. He needed someone to play a particularly cold-blooded killer named Wilson. Soon after, legendary director George Stevens signed on to shoot a picture called “ Shane,” his first Western in nearly twenty years. Shot on location in New Orleans, the picture was a hit, and the studio started building up their new contract player in earnest. (Widmark plays the health inspector on his tail). Still billed with the first name “Walter”, the actor assumed the pivotal role of Blackie, a violent, small-time hood who, along with sidekick Zero Mostel, contracts bubonic plague. The young actor’s luck held, as his very first picture, “ Panic in the Streets” (1950) paired him with top director Elia Kazan. The star was out for enough performances to allow Jack to register in the part, and a contract with Twentieth Century Fox soon followed. One day, while the two men were working out, Palance’s fist accidentally connected with Brando’s nose. He and Brando shared an interest in boxing, and decided to set up a punching bag in the theater’s basement. In a stunning feat of luck and timing, the strapping actor was hired (as “Walter Jack Palance”) to understudy Anthony Quinn’s Stanley Kowalski on the national tour of “ A Streetcar Named Desire,” and eventually ended up on Broadway in the same position, ready to go on for Marlon Brando at a moment’s notice. He quit one credit shy of graduating to pursue a career in the theater. He’d earn a few medals for his service during the conflict, including the Purple Heart.Īfter the war, the young veteran enrolled at Stanford to pursue a journalism degree, and supported himself through a wide variety of jobs, including lifeguard, short-order cook, and photographer’s model. That terrifying accident necessitated plastic surgery, which resulted in the face we’d all come to know. Reportedly, the beatings he’d taken to his face in the ring were nothing compared to the injuries he received when his B-24 caught on fire during a training run.
The Second War intervened and Volodomyr joined the Air Force. Soon after he decided that the money wasn’t worth getting his head bashed in. He achieved 15 consecutive wins and 12 knockouts before finally losing a bout on decision.
#Jack palance professional
One of six children, he followed his father into the anthracite mines before becoming a professional boxer. He was born Volodomyr Pahlaniuk in Pennsylvania coal country, the son of Ukranian immigrants. Palance’s face mirrored the gritty, dangerous life he’d led before coming to Hollywood. (Tough guy Richard Widmark cited him as the only actor he’d ever worked with that he was physically afraid of). A tall, powerfully-built man with squinty eyes and a broken nose, Palance was an imposing figure, on- and off-screen. Jack Palance never had a problem getting noticed. I crap bigger than him.”) and observing how at his age many producers wonder whether he’s still fit to work, the 72 year-old wowed the jaded Oscar audience by executing a few one-handed push-ups.Īsked about it later, he said candidly, “I didn’t know what the hell else to do.” Then in 1992, veteran actor Jack Palance, who after two prior nominations decades before, took the stage to accept the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in the Billy Crystal comedy, “City Slickers.” After tossing off an amusing off-color joke (“Billy Crystal. The very next year, with the witty, debonair actor David Niven at the microphone, a naked “streaker” ran across the stage right behind him, at which point Niven drily observed: “Isn’t it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?” As a result of her controversial appearance, the Academy banned future award acceptances by proxy.
Judging by the chorus of boos that greeted her remarks, it was clear that this well-heeled industry crowd was in no mood to be lectured on this night of supreme self-congratulation. Littlefeather went on to decry the plight of American Indians, and their depiction in films. Having decided to boycott the ceremony in 1973, Marlon Brando sent up Native American activist Sacheen Littlefeather to accept his Oscar for “ The Godfather.” Making the most of this highly visible platform, Ms.
Awkward as that was, there have been other memorably offbeat moments in Oscar history: Few will ever forget this year’s Oscars, when Faye Dunaway read off the wrong card and mistakenly announced “La La Land” as Best Picture winner.
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