Eli Wallach
ELI WALLACH is the oldest old-time Hollywood actor who is still working as an actor. He played Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly with Clint Eastwood, the train robber in the all-star How the West was Won, the leader of the bandits in The Magnificent Seven with Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen, and a heartbroken mechanic in The Misfits with Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. He played Don Altobello, the cunning competitor to the Corleone family in The Godfather: Part III, and he was the blind hitman in Tough Guys with Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster. His first film, which Wallach considers his best, was Elia Kazan's Baby Doll with Karl Malden and Carroll Baker. Wallach grew up poor and Jewish in an Italian neighborhood of Brooklyn. Appearing in a school play at 15, he knew he would be an actor. After college and Army duty, he was one of the early practitioners of method acting, studying at the Actors Studio. Wallach made his Broadway debut in Skydrift in 1945, opposite Rita Moreno, also making her first New York appearance. The play bombed and closed within a week. He won a Tony for The Rose Tattoo in 1951 with Maureen Stapleton, and an Obie Award in 1963 for The Typists and the The Tiger, costarring his wife. He won an Emmy for the UN-funded anti-drug film The Poppy Is Also A Flower in 1967. Wallach is known as a Hollywood actor, but he has always lived in New York. He married Anne Jackson, an actress from those drama workshops, and they worked together in numerous plays and films. Bio as of March, 2009. American Theatre Wing programs, interviews and/or credits include: Working in the Theatre (video) Performance - September, 1988 - Watch now. Internet Broadway Database Listing (IBDB.com)