Jack Palance
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Jack Palance (February 18, 1919 - November 10, 2006) was an Academy Award-winning American film actor. With his rugged facial features and gravelly voice, Palance was best known to modern movie audiences as both the characters of Curly and Duke in the two City Slickers movies, but his career spanned half a century of film and television appearances.
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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.
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.
While still busy making movies, in the 1960s Palance also released an album of country-Western music for Warner Bros. Records. This happened in 1969 and it recalled the Lee Hazlewood music that was popular at the time. Recorded in Nashville with the usual studio cats, 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 in CD version.
He also hosted (with his daughter Holly Palance) the television series Ripley's Believe It or Not!.
Appearances in Young Guns (1988) and Tim Burton's Batman (1989) reinvigorated Palance's career, and demand for his services kept him involved in new projects each year right up to the turn of the century.
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.
Selected filmography
Films
Television movies/mini-series
Year | Television title |
1968 | The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde |
1973 | Dracula |
1974 | The Godchild |
The Hatfields & The McCoys | |
1975 | Bronk |
1979 | The Last Ride Of The Dalton Gang |
The Ivory Ape | |
1980 | The Golden Moment: An Olympic Love Story |
1992 | Keep The Change |
1993 | The Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics |
1995 | Buffalo Girls |
1997 | I'll Be Home For Christmas |
Ebenezer | |
1999 | Sarah, Plain & Tall : Winters End |
2001 | Living With The Dead |
2004 | Back When We Were Grownups |
Television shows
Year | Television title |
1950 | Lights Out - The Man Who Couldn't Remember |
1952 | Studio 1 - The King In Yellow |
Curtain Call - Azaya | |
Studio 1 - Little Man, Big World | |
The Gulf Playhouse - The Necktie Party | |
1953 | Danger - Said The Spider To The Fly |
The Web - Last Chance | |
Suspense - The Kiss Off | |
The Motorola Tv Hour - Brandenburg Gate | |
Suspense - Cagliostro & The Chess Player | |
1956 | Playhouse 90 - Requiem For A Heavyweight |
Zane Grey Theatre - The Lariat | |
1957 | Playhouse 90 - The Last Tycoon |
Playhouse 90 - The Death Of Manolete | |
1963 | The Greatest Show on Earth (Top billing as circus manager Johnny Slate) |
1965 | Convoy - The Many Colours Of Courage |
1966 | Run For Your Life - The Late Diana Hayes |
Alice Through The Looking Glass - (Live Theatre) | |
1971 | Net Playhouse - Trail Of Tears |
1973 | The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour |
1975 | Bronk (Series) |
1979 | Buck Rogers In The 25th Century - The Planet Of The Slave Girls |
Unknown Powers (Presenter/Narrator) | |
1981 | Tales Of The Haunted - Evil Stalks This House |
1982 | Ripley's Believe It Or Not (Series) |
2001 | Night Visions - Bitter Harvest |