2023-06-30 16:51:30
by Laura Zangarini
The news was given by the children with a statement released to the magazine “People”. The actor, who has appeared in dozens of films and TV series, had been nominated four times for an Oscar, winning the award in 2006
Alan Arkin, versatile and prolific American actor, Oscar winner for his portrayal of his sirocco and cocaine addicted grandfather in the film “Little Miss Sunshine”, died at his home in Carlsbad, California. He was 89 years old. To confirm the news of his disappearance, the three sons of the actor, Adam, Matthew and Anthony. «Our father was a force of nature – they declared to People magazine -, a unique talent, as an artist and as a man. We will miss him deeply.”
Appearing in about eighty films, nominated four times for an Oscar, Arkin earns his first major recognition, the Tony Award, Broadway’s highest honor, in Joseph Stein’s comedy “Enter Laughing” (1963). But it was his subsequent role as disheveled Harry Berlin in Murray Schisgal’s comedy Luv that earned him enormous acclaim. “The best compliment she has ever received – she will recall to the New York Times – was from the playwright Irene Fornés: when she saw me on stage, for twenty minutes she thought they had let a real bum get on”.
An interpretation that attracts the attention of director Norman Jewison: after Peter Ustinov’s refusal, he wants Arkin in the Cold War comedy «The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming» (1967). His role as the commander of a Soviet submarine earned Arkin his first Academy Award nomination, setting in motion a magnificent career as a character actor. «Alan has never had an identifiable personality on the screen because he simply disappears into his characters – Jewinson will say in 1991 -. His accents are impeccable, and he’s even able to change his appearance. But it seems that these gifts are not worth it for him. He’s always been underestimated.”
After the nomination of the Academy, the films come one after the other. Arkin is superb as the psychopathic killer terrorizing a blind Audrey Hepburn in 1967’s “Eyes of the Night” (a role Stephen King describes in his essay “Danse Macabre” as “perhaps the greatest cinematic evocation of evil ever”) ; the character of the young deaf-mute protagonist of “The Scream of Silence” (1968), Robert Ellis Miller’s adaptation of Carson McCullers’ novel “The heart is a lonely hunter”, earned Arkin the second nomination.
Among his best performances are those in «A strange couple of fathers-in-law» (1979) with Peter Falk; “Edward Scissorhands” (1990), “Americans” (1992), “The Last Contract” (1997), “Gattaca” (1997), “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006) with which he gets the Oscar as best supporting actor and «Argo» (2012) which brings him another nomination. The last significant role is for Arkin in the Netflix series “The Kominsky method”: since 2018, for three seasons, he has been Norman Newlander, agent of actor Sandy Kominsky (Michael Douglas). He hadn’t retired from showbiz, but he preferred to grow organic vegetables in his garden in Santa Fe, study oriental philosophy, take long walks, bake bread. He still meditated more than two hours a day.
June 30, 2023 (change June 30, 2023 | 7:45 pm)
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