Alan Arkin

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* director
* screenwriter
* musician

**Alan Wolf Arkin** (born March 26, 1934) is an American actor, director and screenwriter. With a film career spanning six decades, Arkin is known for his performances in *The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming* (1966); *Wait Until Dark* (1967); *The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter* (1968); *Popi* (1969); *Catch-22* (1970); *The In-Laws* (1979); *Edward Scissorhands* (1990); *The Rocketeer* (1991); *Glengarry Glen Ross* (1992); *Thirteen Conversations About One Thing* (2001); *Little Miss Sunshine* (2006); *Get Smart* (2008); *Sunshine Cleaning* (2008); and *Argo* (2012).

He has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor twice, for his performances in *The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming* and *The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter*. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in *Little Miss Sunshine* and received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance in *Argo*.

## Early life

Arkin was born in Brooklyn, New York City, on March 26, 1934, the son of David I. Arkin, a painter and writer, and his wife, Beatrice (née Wortis), a teacher. He was raised in a Jewish family with "no emphasis on religion". His grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, Russia, and Germany. His parents moved to Los Angeles when Alan was 11, but an 8-month Hollywood strike cost his father his job as a set designer. During the 1950s Red Scare, Arkin's parents were accused of being Communists, and his father was fired when he refused to answer questions about his political ideology. David Arkin challenged the dismissal, but he was vindicated only after his death.

## Career

### Early work

 File:Alan Arkin - Popi - 69.JPG
Arkin, who had been taking acting lessons since age 10, became a scholarship student at various drama academies, including one run by the Stanislavsky student Benjamin Zemach, who taught Arkin a psychological approach to acting. Arkin attended Los Angeles City College from 1951 to 1953. He also attended Bennington College. With two friends, he formed the folk music group The Tarriers, in which Arkin sang and played guitar. The band members co-composed the group's 1956 hit "The Banana Boat Song", a reworking, with some new lyrics, of a traditional, Jamaican calypso folk song of the same name, combined with another titled "Hill and Gully Rider". It reached #4 on the *Billboard* magazine chart the same year as Harry Belafonte's better-known hit version. The group appeared in the 1957 Calypso-exploitation film *Calypso Heat Wave*, singing "Banana Boat Song" and "Choucoune".

From 1958 to 1968, Arkin performed and recorded with the children's folk group, The Baby Sitters. He also performed the role of Dr. Pangloss in a concert staging of Leonard Bernstein's operetta *Candide*, alongside Madeline Kahn's Cunegonde. Arkin was an early member of the Second City comedy troupe in the 1960s.

### Acting

 File:Alan Arkin - Kudirka - 1978.jpg
Arkin is one of only six actors to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance (for *The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming* in 1966). Two years later, he was again nominated, for *The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter*.

In 1968, he appeared in the title role of *Inspector Clouseau* after Peter Sellers dissociated himself from the role, but the film was not well received by Sellers' fans. Arkin and his second wife Barbara Dana appeared together on the 1970–1971 season of *Sesame Street* as a comical couple named Larry and Phyllis who resolve their conflicts when they remember how to pronounce the word "cooperate."

Arkin and Dana later appeared together again in 1987 on the ABC sitcom *Harry*, which was canceled after four low-rated episodes.

His best known films include *Wait Until Dark* as the erudite killer stalking Audrey Hepburn; *The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming* as the leader of the landing party from the stranded Soviet submarine, *The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,* *Catch-22,* as Yossarian, *The Seven-Per-Cent Solution,* *Little Murders,* *The In-Laws,* *Glengarry Glen Ross*, and *Little Miss Sunshine*, for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar; and *Argo*. His portrayal of Dr. Oatman, a scared and emotionally conflicted psychiatrist treating John Cusack's hit man character Martin Q. Blank in *Grosse Point Blank* was also well received.

His role in *Little Miss Sunshine*, as Grandfather Edwin, who was foul-mouthed and had a taste for snorting heroin, won him the BAFTA Film Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. On receiving his Academy Award on February 25, 2007, Arkin said, "More than anything, I'm deeply moved by the open-hearted appreciation our small film has received, which in these fragmented times speaks so openly of the possibility of innocence, growth, and connection". At 72 years old, Arkin was the sixth oldest winner of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

In 2006–2007, Arkin was cast in supporting roles in *Rendition* as a U.S. Senator and *The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause* as Bud Newman (Carol's Father).

On Broadway, Arkin starred in *Enter Laughing* (for which he won a Tony Award) and *Luv*. He also directed *The Sunshine Boys*, among others.

### Directing

In 1969, Arkin's directorial debut was the Oscar-nominated 12-minute children's film titled *People Soup*, starring his sons Adam and Matthew Arkin. Based on a story of the same name he published in *Galaxy Science Fiction* in 1958, *People Soup* is a fantasy about two boys who experiment with various kitchen ingredients until they concoct a magical soup which transforms them into different animals and objects.

 File:Alan Arkin - 1975.jpg
His most acclaimed directorial effort is *Little Murders*, released in 1971. Written by cartoonist Jules Feiffer, it is a black comedy film starring Elliott Gould and Marcia Rodd about a girl, Patsy (Rodd), who brings home her boyfriend, Alfred (Gould), to meet her severely dysfunctional family amidst a series of random shootings, garbage strikes and electrical outages ravaging the neighborhood. The film opened to a lukewarm review by Roger Greenspan, and a more positive one by Vincent Canby in the New York Times. Roger Ebert's review in the Chicago Sun Times was more enthusiastic, saying, "One of the reasons it works and is indeed a definitive reflection of America's darker moods, is that it breaks audiences down into isolated individuals, vulnerable and uncertain."

Arkin also directed *Fire Sale* (1977), *Samuel Beckett Is Coming Soon* (1993) and *Arigo* (2000).

### Writing

Arkin is the author of many books, including *Tony's Hard Work Day* (illustrated by James Stevenson, 1972), *The Lemming Condition* (illustrated by Joan Sandin, 1976), *Halfway Through the Door: An Actor's Journey Toward Self* (1979), and *The Clearing* (1986 continuation of *Lemming*). He has released two memoirs, *An Improvised Life* (2011) and *Out of My Mind* (2018).

### Singing

In 1985, he sang two selections by Jones & Schmidt on Ben Bagley's album *Contemporary Broadway Revisited*.

### Accolades

In 2014, Arkin received the Gregory Peck Award for Cinematic Excellence to honor his life's work at the San Diego Film Festival.

## Personal life

Arkin has been married three times, with two ending in divorce. He and Jeremy Yaffe (m. 1955–1961) have two sons: Adam Arkin, born August 19, 1956, and Matthew Arkin, born March 21, 1960. He was married to actress-screenwriter Barbara Dana from 1964 to 1994: she appeared with him in segments of the TV Show *Sesame Street* in the 1970s. They lived in Chappaqua, New York. In 1967, they had son Anthony (Tony) Dana Arkin. In 1996, Arkin married psychotherapist Suzanne Newlander, whose surname he adopted for his character Norman Newlander in *The Kominsky Method*. They live in Carlsbad, California.

## See also

* List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees

## References

1. ↑ Alan Arkin winning Best Supporting Actor – Oscars on YouTube
2. ↑ "Alan Arkin Biography". *filmReference.com*. http://www.filmreference.com/film/17/Alan-Arkin.html. Retrieved May 12, 2008.
3. ↑ Bloom, Nate (February 19, 2013). "Interfaith Celebrities: 85th Annual Academy Awards". https://www.interfaithfamily.com/arts\_and\_entertainment/popular\_culture/interfaith\_celebrities\_85th\_annual\_academy\_awards/.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Sierchio, Pat (February 16, 2007). "Alan Arkin—not just another kid From Brooklyn", The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. Retrieved on February 16, 2007. Archived from the original on February 23, 2007.
5. ↑ "Actor brings creative ways to Honolulu for workshops | Hawaii's Newspaper". *The Honolulu Advertiser*. January 27, 2004. http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Jan/27/il/il01a.html. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
6. ↑ Whitty, Stephen (October 14, 2012). "Alan Arkin: Room for improvisation". *The Star-Ledger*. http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/10/argo\_alan\_arkin\_ben\_affleck\_fi.html. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
7. ↑ Lague, Louise (March 26, 1979). "Stardom Was a Catch-22 for Alan Arkin, but His Wife and a Guru Helped Beat the System". *People*. http://people.com/archive/stardom-was-a-catch-22-for-alan-arkin-but-his-wife-and-a-guru-helped-beat-the-system-vol-11-no-12/. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Alan Arkin biography". *Yahoo! Movies*. 2008. Archived from the original on December 16, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20061216231219/http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800021870/bio. Retrieved December 9, 2006.
9. ↑ Farrell, Barry. "Yossarian in Connecticut: Since *Catch-22*, actor's actor Alan Arkin finally stars as ... Alan Arkin" *Life*. October 1970.
10. ↑ Alan Arkin-Bennington College
11. ↑ Lovece, Frank. "Fast Chat: Alan Arkin". *New York Newsday*. January 7, 2007.
12. ↑ The Tarriers-AllMusic
13. ↑ Calypso Heat Wave (1957)-Full Cast & Crew-IMDB
14. ↑ Calypso Heat Wave (1957)-Soundtracks-IMDB
15. ↑ "Alan Arkin Biography". Hollywood.com. http://www.hollywood.com/celebs/fulldetail/id/186232. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
16. ↑ Rabin, Nathan (August 2, 2006). "Interview: Alan Arkin". *The A.V. Club*. Archived from the original on February 9, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090209210750/http://www.avclub.com/articles/alan-arkin%2C14005/. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
17. ↑ *Best Actor*. FilmSite.org.
18. ↑ Nixon, Rob (2018). "THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING". Turner Classic Movies. http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/64129%7C0/The-Russians-Are-Coming-The-Russians-Are-Coming.html.
19. ↑ Cliff Robertson Wins Best Actor: 1969 Oscars
20. ↑ "Dreamgirl" Jennifer Hudson Wins Oscar Template:Webarchive. NewsMax.com, February 26, 2007.
21. ↑ Short Film Oscars® in 1970 - Oscars on YouTube
22. ↑ *People Soup*-IMDB
23. ↑ RiffTrax Short: People Soup (Preview)-YouTube
24. ↑ Template:Cite book
25. ↑ "Movie Review - - ' Little Murders' Is Back As Film Arkin Directed - NYTimes.com". https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?\_r=1&res=9C0CE3D81F30E73BBC4852DFB466838A669EDE.
26. ↑ Canby, Vincent (February 21, 1971). "What's So Funny? *Murders*", *The New York Times* (New York), p. D1. "*Little Murders* succeeds, at times triumphantly, and it does everything more or less backwards."
27. ↑ "Roger Ebert's review", *Chicago Sun-Times* (January 1, 1971). Retrieved on 28 March 2013.
28. ↑ Out Of My Mind by Alan Arkin|Goodreads
29. ↑ "Alan Arkin Biography – life, family, children, name, story, school, mother, young, son – Newsmakers Cumulation". Notablebiographies.com. http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2007-A-Co/Arkin-Alan.html. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
30. ↑ "Actor Alan Arkin accepts the Gregory Peck Lifetime Achievement Award...". https://www.gettyimages.fi/detail/news-photo/actor-alan-arkin-accepts-the-gregory-peck-lifetime-news-photo/456296052.
31. ↑ "Stardom Was a Catch-22 for Alan Arkin, but His Wife and a Guru Helped Beat the System", *People* (March 26, 1979). Retrieved on August 21, 2015.
32. ↑ jtomally9681 (May 2, 2011). "Classic Sesame Street – Larry and Phyllis – Singing". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RumLmuM3KcE.

## External links

* Template:IMDb name
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* Q&A with Arkin at Time.com

* Folkera Tarriers article
* Stephen Capen Interview on Worldguide, Futurist Radio Hour – October 10, 1995

### Videos

* Alan Arkin on YouTube photo compilation
* Alan Arkin on YouTube
* Alan Arkin on YouTube
* Alan Arkin on YouTube
* Alan Arkin on YouTube
* Alan Arkin on YouTube

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