Remembering the Versatile Actor Alan Arkin: From 'Little Miss Sunshine' to 'Argo'

2023-06-30 07:00:00

Por Will Dunham

June 30 (Archyde.com) -Alan Arkin, a versatile and prolific American actor who thrived in both comedic and dramatic roles and won an Oscar for playing a heroin-addicted grandfather in the 2006 film “Little Miss Sunshine,” has died at age 89. Variety reported Friday, citing a statement from his family.

Arkin died at his home in Carlsbad, California, on Thursday, Variety reported.

“Our father was a force of nature with a unique talent, as an artist and as a man. Adam, Matthew and Anthony, Arkin’s sons, adored him and will miss him greatly,” they wrote in a statement also sent to People.

Arkin acted in dozens of films, was nominated for an Oscar four times and won a Tony Award. -the most important on Broadway- in 1963 for his first important role in the theater, in “Enter laughing”, by Carl Reiner.

His first major film role also earned him an Oscar nomination for best actor for playing a Soviet sailor in the 1966 Cold War comedy “The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!”

Arkin was initially rejected for the role of “Little Miss Sunshine” that ultimately won him the Oscar for best supporting actor because the directors thought he was too healthy. The character was a foul-mouthed 80-year-old grandfather who was frail and shaky from years of drug abuse and bad behavior.

“It’s the best rejection I’ve ever received in my life: they thought I was too virile”Arkin said, flexing his biceps and striking a muscle-man pose during a 2007 interview with The New York Times.

Arkin made a memorable dramatic role as a psychopathic killer in the 1967 film “Wait Until Dark,” opposite Audrey Hepburn. He later said that he hated the scenes in which her character terrorized Hepburn: “I didn’t like being cruel to her. It made me feel very uncomfortable.”

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He appeared as a deaf-mute in the adaptation of Carson McCullers’ novel “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” in 1968, earning his second Oscar nomination for best actor.

In 1970, he starred in the film version of Joseph Heller’s novel “Catch-22”, giving a great performance in a film considered disappointing.

Arkin received praise for his performance in the 2012 thriller “Argo,” which tells the true story of a CIA mission to free six Americans from Iran by posing as crew members for a fictional movie about aliens. Director Ben Affleck’s film won the Oscar for best picture.

Arkin remained very active in film and television well into his 80s. He earned praise and Emmy nominations for the television series “The Kominsky Method,” also starring Michael Douglas, which premiered in 2018.

Alan Wolf Arkin was born on March 26, 1934 in the New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, but his family moved to Los Angeles when he was 11 years old. His father, a painter and writer, lost his job as a teacher after being accused of being a communist during the “Red Scare” era of the 1950s.

Arkin was an original member of the influential Chicago improv comedy troupe Second City and sang in a folk group that had a hit cover of the 1950s single “The Banana Boat Song,” popularized by Harry Belafonte. Arkin also worked as a film and theater director, made many television appearances, and wrote several books.

(Edited in Spanish by Carlos Serrano)