Eli Herschel Wallach (Yiddish:עלי הערשל וואלך) was born on December 7, 1915, at 156 Union Street inRed Hook, Brooklyn, a son ofPolish Jewish immigrants Abraham (Yiddish:אברהם וואלאך) and Bertha Wallach (née Schorr;Yiddish:בערטה שורר וואלאך) fromPrzemyśl. He had a brother and two sisters.[3] He and his family were among only a few Jews in an otherwise Italian American neighborhood.[4][5] His parents owned Bertha's Candy Store.[3] Wallach graduated in 1936 from theUniversity of Texas with a degree in history.[6] In a later interview, Wallach said that he learned to ride horses while in Texas, explaining that he liked Texas because "It opened my eyes to the wordfriendship... You could rely on people. If they gave you their word, that was it ... It was an education."[7]
Two years later he earned a master of arts degree in education from theCity College of New York.[8][9] He gained his first method acting experience at theNeighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City, where he studied underSanford Meisner.[10] There, according to Wallach, actors were forced to "unlearn" all their physical and vocal mannerisms, while traditional stage etiquette and "singsong" deliveries were "utterly excised" from his classroom.[11]
Wallach took classes in acting at theDramatic Workshop ofthe New School in New York City with the influential German directorErwin Piscator. He later became a founding member of theActors Studio, taught byLee Strasberg. There, he studied more method acting technique with founding memberRobert Lewis, and with other students includingMarlon Brando,Montgomery Clift,Herbert Berghof,Sidney Lumet, and his soon-to-be wife,Anne Jackson.[19] Wallach becameMarilyn Monroe's first new friend when she became a student at the Actors Studio, once insisting on watching him perform inThe Teahouse of the August Moon from the backstage wings, simply to see up close how experienced actors perform a two-hour play.[20] She also became friends with his wife, Anne Jackson, also studying at the Studio, and would visit the couple at their home and sometimes babysit their new child.[21]
The stage was where Wallach focused his early career. From 1945 to 1950 he and his wife,Anne Jackson, worked together acting in various plays byTennessee Williams. The five years following, he continued only working on stage, not becoming involved in film work until 1956. During those years, however, they were generally having a hard time making ends meet. He recalls they were getting along on unemployment insurance and living in a one-room, $35 a month apartment on lower Fifth Avenue in the Village.[3] When he did get offered early movie parts, he turned them down with no regrets, and very early in his career he explained his reasoning:
What do I need a movie for? The stage is on a higher level in every way, and a more satisfying medium. Movies, by comparison, are like calendar art next to great paintings. You can't really do very much in movies or in television, but the stage is such an anarchistic medium.[3]
He said that the stage was what attracted him most and what he "needed" to do.[25] "Acting is the most alive thing I can do, and the most joyous", he stated.[3]
Wallach and Jackson became one of the best-known acting couples in the American theater, as iconic as Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, and Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn,[22] and they looked for opportunities to work together. During an interview, he said of Jackson, "I have tremendous respect and admiration for her as an actress . . . we have a terrific working compatibility when we're in the same play, especially when the play means something important to us."[3]: 159–160 When he did gravitate toward accepting parts in films, he did so to "help pay the bills", he said, adding, "for actors, movies are a means to an end."[26]
Despite the fact that he eventually acted in over 90 films and almost as many television dramas,[27] he continued to accept stage parts throughout his career, often with Jackson. They played in comedies likeThe Typists andThe Tiger in 1963, and acted together inWaltz of the Toreadors in 1973. In 1978 they played in a revival ofThe Diary of Anne Frank, along with their daughters, and in 1984 they acted inNest of the Wood Grouse, directed byJoseph Papp. Four years later, in 1988, they acted in a revival ofCafe Crown, a portrait of theYiddish theater scene during its prime.[26] They continued acting together as late as 2000, while he also took on roles alone throughout all those years.[26]
Wallach andCarroll Baker in the swing scene fromBaby Doll
Wallach's film debut was inElia Kazan's controversial 1956Baby Doll, for which he won theBritish Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) as "Most Promising Newcomer."[28]Baby Doll was controversial because of its underlying sexual theme. DirectorElia Kazan however, set explicit limits on Wallach's scenes, telling him not to actually seduceCarroll Baker, but instead to create an unfulfilled erotic tension.[29] Kazan later explained his reasoning:
What is erotic about sex to me is the seduction, not the act ... The scene on the swing with Eli Wallach and Carroll Baker inBaby Doll is my exact idea of what eroticism in films should be.[30]
Wallach went on to a prolific career as "one of the greatest 'character actors' ever to appear on stage and screen", notesTurner Classic Movies,[31] acting in over 90 films.[27] Having grown up on the "mean streets" of an Italian American neighborhood,[32] and his versatility as a method actor, Wallach developed the ability to play a wide variety of different roles, although he tried to not get pinned down to any single type of character. "Right now I'm playing an old man", he said at age 84. But "I've been through all the ethnic groups, from Mexican bandits to Italian Mafia heads to Okinawans to half-breeds, and now I'm playing old Jews. Who knows?"[7]
Noting this versatility as a character actor, theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences called him "the quintessential chameleon", with the ability to play different characters "effortlessly",[33] andL.A. Times theater criticCharles McNulty saw Wallach's "power to illuminate" his various screen or stagepersonas as being "radioactive."[32]The Guardian has written that "Wallach was made for character acting", and includes movie clips from some of his most memorable roles in a tribute to him.[34]
In 1961, Wallach co-starred withMarilyn Monroe,Montgomery Clift andClark Gable inThe Misfits, Monroe's and Gable's last film before their deaths.[35][36] Wallach never learned why he was cast in the film, although he suspected that Monroe had something to do with it.[21] Its screenwriter,Arthur Miller, who was married to Monroe at the time, said that "Eli Wallach is the happiest good actor I've ever known. He really enjoys the work."[31]
Wallach and Eastwood became friends during the filming ofThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly and he recalled their off-work time together: "Clint was the tall, silent type. He's the kind where you open up and do all the talking. He smiles and nods and stores it all away in that wonderful calculator of a brain."[38] In 2003 Wallach acted inMystic River, produced and directed by Eastwood, who once said "working with Eli Wallach has been one of the great pleasures of my life."[31]
A pivotal moment in Wallach's career came in 1953, when he, along withFrank Sinatra andHarvey Lembeck, tried out for the role of Maggio in the filmFrom Here to Eternity. Sinatra biographer Kitty Kelly notes that while Sinatra's test was good, it had none of the "consummate acting ability" of Wallach. ProducerHarry Cohn and directorFred Zinnemann were "dazzled" by Wallach's screen test and wanted him to play the part. However, Wallach had previously been offered an important role in anotherTennessee Williams play,Camino Real, to be directed byElia Kazan, and turned down the movie role. Wallach said that when he learned that the play had finally received financing, he "grabbed" the opportunity: "It was a remarkable piece of writing by the leading playwright in America and it was going to be directed by the country's best. There really wasn't much of a choice for me."[39] The film, however, went on to win eight Academy Awards, including one for Sinatra, which revived his career. Wallach recalled afterwards, "Whenever Sinatra saw me, he'd say, 'Hello, you crazy actor!'"[4] Wallach, however, said he had no regrets.
Film historian James Welsh states that during Wallach's career, he appeared in most of the "prestige" television dramas during the "Golden Age" of the 1950s, includingStudio One,The Philco Television Playhouse,The Armstrong Circle Theatre,Playhouse 90, andThe Hallmark Hall of Fame, among others. He won the 1966–1967 Emmy Award for his role in the telefilmThe Poppy is Also a Flower.[40][41] In 2006 Wallach appeared onNBC'sStudio 60 on the Sunset Strip, playing a former writer who wasblacklisted in the 1950s. His character was a writer onThe Philco Comedy Hour, a show that aired on a fictional NBS network. This is a reference toThe Philco Television Playhouse, in several episodes of which Wallach actually appeared in 1955. Wallach earned a2007 Emmy nomination for his work on the show.[42]
Wallach at the 2010 TCM Classic Film Festival
During the filming ofThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Wallach nearly died three times. Once, he accidentally drank a bottle of acid which was placed next to his pop bottle; another time was in a scene where he was about to be hanged, someone fired a pistol which caused the horse underneath him to bolt and run while Wallach's hands were still tied behind his back; in a different scene with him lying on a railroad track, he was close to being decapitated by steps jutting out from the train.[43]
Wallach appeared asDC Comics' supervillainMr. Freeze in the 1960sBatman television series. He said that he received more fan mail about his role as Mr. Freeze than for all his other roles combined.[44] He played Gus Farber in the television miniseriesSeventh Avenue in 1977, and 10 years later, at the age of 71, he starred alongside Michael Landon inHighway to Heaven episode "A Father's Faith". Three years later, he played agingmob boss Don Altobello inFrancis Ford Coppola'sThe Godfather Part III. Eli Wallach was an actor who guest-starred on Law & Order in the episode "The Working Stiff" as Simon Vilanis in 1991.
Wallach's final performance was in the short filmThe Train (2015). Wallach plays aHolocaust survivor who, in a meeting, teaches a self-consumed and preoccupied young man that life can change in a moment. The short was shot in early 2014 and premiered on August 6, 2015, at theRhode Island International Film Festival.[47]
Between 1984 and 1997, he also performed voiceovers in a series of television commercials for theToyota Pickup.
Wallach was married to actressAnne Jackson, with whom he frequently shared the screen, from March 5, 1948, until his death on June 24, 2014. They had three children: Peter, Katherine and Roberta.[48]
A few years before 2005, Wallach lost sight in his left eye due to a stroke.[33]
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