Veteran actor Jack Warden dies

[HWBL]

http://et.tv.yahoo.com/newslink/15271/

Veteran Actor Jack Warden Dies

July 21, 2006

Veteran actor JACK WARDEN, who starred in movies like 'Heaven Can Wait' and 'While You Were Sleeping,' passed away on Wednesday in New York. He was 85.

Warden was twice nominated for an Oscar, once in 1975 for 'Shampoo' and again in 1979 for 'Heaven Can Wait' (both movies starred WARREN BEATTY).

The distinguished actor also won an Emmy in 1972 for his supporting role in the drama, "Brian's Song." Warden was nominated for two Emmys in the '80s for his work on the TV show "Crazy Like a Fox."

He is survived by his wife, VANDA, and son, CHRISTOPHER.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060721/...nm/warden_dc_5

Heaven Can Wait" star Jack Warden dies at 85

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oscar-nominated character actor Jack Warden, best known for starring alongside Warren Beatty in "Shampoo" and "Heaven Can Wait," has died at 85, his business manager said.

Warden, who appeared in dozens of films and won an Emmy award as football coach George Halas in the 1971 TV movie "Brian's Song," died on Wednesday in New York, said Sidney Pazoff.

His characters were often tough and gruff but also had a soft heart.

He won Oscar nominations for best supporting actor in the Beatty vehicles "Shampoo" in 1975, playing the businessman Lester, and "Heaven Can Wait" in 1978, as Beatty's trainer. Warden appeared again with Beatty in "Bulworth" in 1998.

Among his other roles were playing the president of the United States opposite an idiot savant played by Peter Sellers in 1979's "Being There" and roles in the Woody Allen movies "Mighty Aphrodite" in 1995 and "Bullets Over Broadway" in 1994.

Warden also played Paul Newman's law partner in "The Verdict" in 1982, a Washington Post news editor in "All the President's Men" in 1976 and the barracks-mate of Montgomery Clift and Frank Sinatra in the Oscar-winning "From Here to Eternity" in 1953.

A former professional boxer and U.S. Army paratrooper who missed the Normandy invasion due to a broken leg from a training exercise, Warden turned to acting after World War Two with the help of the G.I. Bill's education benefits.

Born John Lebzelter in Newark, New Jersey, Warden boxed under the name Johnny Costello and took his father's middle name as his stage name, joining the Dallas Alley Theater in 1947.

His breakthrough film role came in "Twelve Angry Men" in 1957, when he played a disinterested juror who wanted a quick conviction.

That led to a prolific television career in the 1960s.

Pazoff said the veteran character actor had retired in New York several years ago and had been suffering from medical problems in recent years.

Reuters

http://news.yahoo.com/s/eo/20060721/en_celeb_eo/19561

Hollywood Vet Jack Warden Dies By Joal Ryan
Fri Jul 21, 5:33 PM ET

Football and Warren Beatty were very good to Jack Warden.

The character actor, who became a familiar face in the 1970s and 1980s on the strength of the gridiron tearjerker Brian's Song and the Beatty films Shampoo and Heaven Can Wait, died Wednesday at a New York hospital, his manager said Friday.

Warden was 85--"almost 86," business manager Sidney Pazoff noted, adding that the actor died of "old age, basically."

Something of a star, though not really a celebrity, Warden leaves behind a wealth of A-list credits: among them, All the President's Men, The Verdict and ...And Justice for All. As best the Internet Movie Database can tell, the stage-trained actor appeared in 153 movies and television shows from 1951 to 2000.

"He loved working," said Pazoff, who was associated with Warden for 27 years. "He read a lot of films that he didn't take. He really just liked to work."

Three times, Warden was nominated for an Emmy, winning once for keeping sentiments in check as Chicago Bears head coach George Halas in 1971's Brian's Song, the biopic about doomed running back Brian Piccolo.

Twice, Warden was nominated for an Oscar, earning Best Supporting Actor nods for 1975's Shampoo and 1978's Heaven Can Wait, in which football again figured prominently. (Warden played coach Max Corkle to Beatty's back-from-the-dead star player.)

From Halas to Max Corkle, Warden perfected the art of gruff. Other roles in which he growled (but didn't bite) were as Watergate-era Washington Post editor Harry Rosenfeld in All the President's Men, as washed-up attorney Paul Newman's last friend in The Verdict, and as a sanity-challenged judge in ...And Justice for All.

For those raised on 1980s TV, Warden likely is best known as hothead P.I. Harry Fox, who, in prime prime-time tradition, solved mysteries with his temperamental opposite and son (John Rubinstein) in Crazy Like a Fox. The show lasted two seasons on CBS, running from 1984-86, and prompting the 1987 made-for-TV movie Still Crazy Like a Fox.

In 1979, Warden was the baseball manager stand-in for the likewise gruff Walter Matthau in the short-lived TV sitcom version of The Bad News Bears, costarring the 7-year-old Corey Feldman.

Early film credits included 1953's From Here to Eternity, 1957's 12 Angry Men and 1959's The Sound and the Fury. Latter-day film credits included the Problem Child trilogy, 1998's Bulworth and 2000's The Replacements. Bulworth was another Beatty film; The Replacements, his last big-screen appearance, was another football film.

Born John Lebzelter on Sept. 18, 1920, Warden served in the U.S. Navy and Army, pulling a stint in the latter during World War II. He began his acting career in New York in the 1940s.

When Warden finally stopped acting in Hollywood in 2000, it was by "his choice," Pazoff said.

I LOVED his acting style, very natural. Warren, I"m sure, must be devastated, they were good friends. In each appearance in the Beatty movies he worked on, Warden was solid, natural, full of humor and credibility. He really was one of the greats. R.I.P. Jack and thanks for many hours of wonderful entertainment.

[LynnieD]

Dude was funny in 'Heaven Can Wait'.

Wow, I never knew he was in so many films w/Warren Beatty! Interesting!

[pacific breeze]

One of the great character actors. R.I.P.

[Laurent]

This shows how klass-ay I am, but I probably remember him best as Big Ben Healey in the Problem Child movies.

[HWBL]

Originally Posted by pacific breeze

One of the great character actors. R.I.P.

Yep, literally a dying breed. He was fantastic in "All The President's Men" with another great, Jason Robards, and of course the next generation Redford and Hoffman. And I also thought he was hysterical in "Used Cars" with Kurt Russell. He made every character he played authentic and believable, you never thought you were looking at a "character", but always at a "real person".

[yanna]

I loved him in Heaven can wait. That was the first movie I ever taped and I would watch it all the time. He was sweet in While you were sleeping too.

[dakodas]

He was a great. Just seamless-what actors want to be.

[Sojiita]

Well hell..he was 85! had a good life-can't ask for much more than that! RIP.