Lemmon was born on February 8, 1925, in an elevator atNewton-Wellesley Hospital inNewton, Massachusetts.[5] He was the only child of Mildred Burgess (née LaRue; 1896–1967)[6] and John Uhler Lemmon Jr. (1893–1962),[7] who rose to vice-president of sales[5][8] of theDoughnut Corporation of America.[9] John Uhler Lemmon Jr. was of Irish heritage, and Jack Lemmon was raisedCatholic.[10] His parents had a difficult marriage, and separated permanently when Lemmon was 18, but never divorced.[5][11] Often unwell as a child, Lemmon had three significant operations on his ears before he turned 10.[2] He had spent two years in hospital by the time he turned 12.[12]
During his acceptance of his lifetime achievement award, he stated that he knew he wanted to be an actor from the age of eight. He began to act in school productions.[13] Lemmon attended John Ward Elementary School,Rivers Country Day School (Class of 1939) andPhillips Andover Academy (Class of 1943), where he pursued track sports with success. He enteredHarvard College (Class of 1947), where he lived inEliot House.[9][14] At Harvard, he was president of theHasty Pudding Club and vice president of Dramatic andDelphic Clubs. Except for drama and music, however, he was an unexceptional student.[5]
Forbidden to act onstage due to academic probation, Lemmon broke Harvard rules to appear in roles using pseudonyms such as Timothy Orange.[15]
A member of theV-12 Navy College Training Program, Lemmon was commissioned by theUnited States Navy,[10] serving briefly with the rank ofensign as a communications officer on the aircraft carrierUSS Lake Champlain duringWorld War II before returning to Harvard after completing his military service.[16][17] After graduation with abachelor's degree in war service sciences[18] in 1947,[19] he studied acting under coachUta Hagen atHB Studio[20] in New York City.[10] He was also a pianist, who became devoted to the instrument at age 14 and learned to play by ear.[9][12] For about a year in New York City, he worked unpaid as a waiter and master of ceremonies at the Old Knick bar onSecond Avenue.[5] He also played the piano at the venue.[21]
Lemmon became a professional actor, working on radio and Broadway.[10] His film debut was abit part as a plasterer in the filmThe Lady Takes a Sailor (1949),[22] but he had already appeared in television shows, which numbered about 400 from 1948 to 1953.[2] Lemmon believed his stage career was about to take off when he was appearing onBroadway for the first time in a 1953 revival of the comedyRoom Service, but the production closed after two weeks.[23] Despite this setback, he was spotted by talent scoutMax Arnow, who was then working forColumbia, and Lemmon's focus shifted to films and Hollywood.[9] Columbia's head,Harry Cohn, wanted to change Lemmon's name, in case it was used to describe the quality of the actor's films, but he successfully resisted.[24] His first role as a leading man was in the comedyIt Should Happen to You (1954), which also featured the establishedJudy Holliday in the female lead.Bosley Crowther in his review forThe New York Times described Lemmon as possessing "a warm and appealing personality. The screen should see more of him."[25] The two leads soon reunited inPhffft (also 1954).[26]Kim Novak had a secondary role as a brief love interest for Lemmon's character.[27] "If it wasn't for Judy, I'm not sure I would have concentrated on films", he toldThe Washington Post in 1986 saying early in his career he had a snobbish attitude towards films over the stage.[28]
He managed to negotiate a contract with Columbia allowing him leeway to pursue other projects, some of the terms of which he said "nobody had gotten before".[29] He signed a seven-year contract, but ended up staying with Columbia for 10 years.[15] Lemmon's appearance as Ensign Pulver inMister Roberts (1955), withJames Cagney,Henry Fonda, andWilliam Powell forWarner Bros., gained Lemmon theBest Supporting Actor Oscar. DirectorJohn Ford decided to cast Lemmon after seeing his Columbia screen test, which had been directed byRichard Quine. At an impromptu meeting on the studio lot, Ford persuaded the actor to appear in the film, although Lemmon did not realize he was in conversation with Ford at the time.[2] In the military farceOperation Mad Ball (1957) set in a U.S. Army base in France afterWorld War II, Lemmon played a calculating private.[27] He met comedianErnie Kovacs, who co-starred, and they became close friends, appearing together in two subsequent films, as a warlock inBell, Book and Candle (1958, a film he apparently disliked)[29] andIt Happened to Jane (1959), all three under the direction of Richard Quine. Lemmon starred in six films directed by Quine.[15] The others wereMy Sister Eileen (1955),The Notorious Landlady (1962) andHow to Murder Your Wife (1965).
Lemmon worked with directorBilly Wilder on seven films. Their association began with the gender-bending comedySome Like It Hot (1959), withTony Curtis andMarilyn Monroe.[11] His role required him to perform 80% of the role in drag. People who knew his mother, Millie Lemmon, said he had mimicked her personality and even her hairstyle.[5] CriticPauline Kael said he was "demonically funny" in the part.[9]
After his success withSome Like It Hot, and with his exclusive contract to Columbia Pictures expiring, Lemmon was finally free to form his own independent film production company in early 1960, Jalem Productions.[30][31][32] Lemmon later joked about the banality of the company's name being made up of the first letters of his names, admitting that he could not find another name that he both liked and was also available to use.[32] Lemmon was president and director of the company, his father was vice-president and co-director, and William Freedman was secretary-treasurer.[33] The first production through Jalem was the stage playFace of a Hero, starring Lemmon and directed byAlexander Mackendrick and was presented in October–November 1960.[34] In August 1964, Lemmon appointed producerGordon Carroll vice president of Jalem Productions.[35]
The sequence of films with Wilder continued withThe Apartment (1960) alongsideShirley MacLaine. The film received mixed reviews from critics at the time, although it has been re-evaluated as a classic today. It received 11 nominations, winning fiveAcademy Awards forBest Picture andBest Director. Lemmon receivedOscar nominations for his performances inSome Like it Hot andThe Apartment. He reunited with MacLaine inIrma la Douce (1963). MacLaine, observing the director's relationship with his male lead, believed it amounted to "professional infatuation".[9]
Lemmon's first role in a film directed byBlake Edwards was inDays of Wine and Roses (1962) portraying Joe Clay, a young alcoholic businessman. The role, for which he was nominated for theBest Actor Oscar, was one of Lemmon's favorites. By this time, he had appeared in 15 comedies, a Western and an adventure film. "The movie people put a label attached to your big toe — 'light comedy' — and that's the only way they think of you", he commented in an interview during 1984. "I knew damn well I could play drama. Things changed followingDays of Wine and Roses. That was as important a film as I've ever done."[9]Days of Wine and Roses was the first film where Lemmon was involved with production of the film via his Jalem production company.[36] Lemmon's association with Edwards continued withThe Great Race (1965), which reunited him with Tony Curtis. His salary this time was $1 million, but the film did not return its large budget at the box office.[37]Variety, in its December 31, 1964, review, commented: "never has there been a villain so dastardly as Jack Lemmon".[38]
In 1966, Lemmon began the first of his many collaborations with actorWalter Matthau inThe Fortune Cookie. The film has been described by the British film criticPhilip French as their "one truly great film".[39] Matthau went on to win an Academy Award for his performance in the film. Another nine films with them co-starring eventually followed, includingThe Odd Couple (1968),The Front Page (1974), andBuddy Buddy (1981).[2] In 1967, Lemmon's production company Jalem produced the filmCool Hand Luke, which starredPaul Newman in the lead role.[12] The film was a box-office and critical success. Newman, in gratitude, offered him the role of the Sundance Kid inButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but Lemmon turned it down.[40] The best-known Lemmon-Matthau film isThe Odd Couple (1968), based on theNeil Simon play, with the lead characters being the mismatched Felix Unger (Lemmon) and Oscar Madison (Matthau), respectively neurotical and cynical.[41]
The much-admired comedyKotch (1971), the only film Lemmon directed,[12] starred Matthau, who was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar.The Out-of-Towners (1970) was another Neil Simon-scripted film in which Lemmon appeared. In 1972, at the44th Academy Awards, Jack Lemmon presented the Honorary Academy Award to silent screen legendCharlie Chaplin. Lemmon starred withJuliet Mills inAvanti! (1972) and appeared with Matthau inThe Front Page (1974). Both films were directed by Wilder. He felt Lemmon had a natural tendency toward overacting that had to be tempered; Wilder's biographyNobody's Perfect quotes the director as saying, "Lemmon, I would describe him as a ham, a fine ham, and with ham you have to trim a little fat." Wilder, though, also once said: "Happiness is working with Jack Lemmon".[24] Lemmon inSave the Tiger (1973) plays Harry Stoner, a businessman in the garment trade who finds someone to commit arson by burning down his warehouse to avoid bankruptcy.[9][12] The project was rejected by multiple studios, butParamount was prepared to make the film if it were budgeted for only $1 million. Lemmon was so keen to play the part that he worked for union scale, then $165 a week.[23] The role was demanding; like the character, Lemmon came close to breaking point: "I started to crack as the character did," he recalled. "I just kept getting deeper and deeper into the character's despair."[2] For this film, Lemmon won the Best Actor Oscar. Having won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award forMister Roberts, he became the first actor to achieve that particular double, althoughHelen Hayes had achieved this feat three years earlier in the equivalent female categories.[9]
Lemmon was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his role inThe China Syndrome (1979), for which he was also awardedBest Actor at theCannes Film Festival.[42] InTribute, a stage drama first performed in 1979, he played a press agent who has cancer while trying to mend his relationship with his son. The Broadway production ran for 212 performances, but it gained mixed reviews. Nevertheless, Lemmon was nominated for theTony Award for Best Actor in a Play.[11] For his role in the1980 film version, Lemmon gained another Oscar nomination.[43] His final Oscar nomination was forMissing (1982), as a conservative father whose son has vanished in Chile during the period the country was under the rule ofAugusto Pinochet; he won another Cannes award for his performance.[11] A contemporary failure was his last film with Billy Wilder,Buddy Buddy (1981). Lemmon's character attempts suicide in a hotel while a hitman (Matthau) is in the next suite.[44] Another flop at the box office was his final film with Blake Edwards, another of his friends; inThat's Life! (1986), he appeared in the director's self-autobiographical part with Edwards's wife,Julie Andrews. A seductress role was played by Lemmon's wife,Felicia Farr.[12] His later career is said to have been affected by other bad choices, such asMass Appeal (1984), about a conservative Catholic priest,Macaroni (1985), a tale about old Army friends withMarcello Mastroianni, andThat's Life.[15] Lemmon received theAFI Life Achievement Award in 1988.
Lemmon was nominated for a Tony Award the second and last time for a revival ofEugene O'Neill'sLong Day's Journey into Night in 1986;[45] Lemmon had taken the lead role of James Tyrone in a production directed byJonathan Miller.[28] It had a London run in 1987, Lemmon's first theatre work in the city, and a television version followed. A return to London in 1989 for the antiwar playVeterans' Day, withMichael Gambon, was poorly received by critics, and following modest audiences, soon closed.[12][24] Lemmon also worked withKevin Spacey in the filmsThe Murder of Mary Phagan (1987),Dad (1989), andGlengarry Glen Ross (1992), as well as the production ofLong Day's Journey into Night.
Lemmon and Matthau had small parts inOliver Stone's filmJFK (1991), in which both men appeared without sharing screen time.[46] The duo reunited inGrumpy Old Men (1993). The film was a surprise hit. Later in the decade, they starred together inThe Grass Harp (1995),Grumpier Old Men (1995),Out to Sea (1997), andThe Odd Couple II (1998). WhileGrumpier Old Men grossed slightly more than its predecessor,The Odd Couple II was a box-office disappointment.[15]
For his role in theWilliam Friedkin-directed[2] version of12 Angry Men (1997), Lemmon was nominated for Best Actor in a Made-for-TV Movie in the1998 Golden Globe Awards.The award ceremony was memorable becauseVing Rhames, who won the Golden Globe for his portrayal ofDon King: Only in America, stunned the A-list crowd and television audience by calling Lemmon up to the stage and handing him the award. Lemmon tried not to accept but Rhames insisted. The emotional crowd gave Lemmon a standing ovation to which he replied that, "This is one of the nicest, sweetest moments I have ever known in my life."[48]The role was as the contentious juror, played in the original1957 film version byHenry Fonda. Lemmon appeared in the remake withGeorge C. Scott and reunited with him in another television film, this timeInherit the Wind (1999).[11]
Lemmon was married twice. He and first wife actressCynthia Stone, with whom he had a son,Chris Lemmon (born 1954), divorced. Lemmon married actressFelicia Farr on August 17, 1962, while shootingIrma La Douce in Paris. The couple's daughter, Courtney, was born in 1966.[5] Lemmon was the stepfather to Denise, from Farr's previous marriage toLee Farr.[52] He was close friends with actorsTony Curtis andKevin Spacey, among others.
His publicistGeraldine McInerney said, "I remember Jack once telling me he lived in terror his whole life that he'd never get another job. Here was one of America's most established actors and yet he was without any confidence. It was like every job was going to be his last".[53] As the 1970s progressed, Lemmon increased his drinking to cope with stress. He was fined fordriving under the influence in 1976, finally quitting alcohol in the early 1980s.[12] On a 1998 episode of the television programInside the Actors Studio, he stated that he was a recovering alcoholic.[10][54]
Lemmon was known as the "star" of the celebrity-packed, third-round telecast of the annualAT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament, held atPebble Beach Golf Links each February. Lemmon's packed gallery was there not only for his humor, but also to root him on in his lifelong quest to "make the cut" to round four, something he was never able to achieve. The amateur who helps his team most in the Pro-Am portion is annually awarded the Jack Lemmon Award. During the 1980s and 1990s, Lemmon served on the advisory board of theNational Student Film Institute.[55][56] Lemmon was a registeredDemocrat.[12]
Lemmon was hospitalized in December 2000 due todiverticulitis in his colon. He had accepted the Hollywood Women's Press Club Buddy Rogers Legend Award, presented by actorAngela Lansbury, accepting via phone.[57] In May 2001, he underwentgallbladder surgery after being hospitalized withpneumonia.[58]
Film criticStanley Kauffmann described Lemmon as "easily one of the most expert American actors of his generation".[62] Kevin Spacey said, "Jack Lemmon was unique in the world of show business. He always treated people with respect and never let Hollywood glory affect his basic decency."[63] Billy Wilder stated, "I loved him dearly and he was the best actor I ever worked with."[64]
^abcdefghijHarmetz, Aljean (June 29, 2001)."Jack Lemmon, Dark and Comic Actor, Dies at 76".The New York Times. Archived fromthe original on May 28, 2024. RetrievedApril 1, 2019.Jack Lemmon, the brash young American Everyman who evolved into the screen's grumpiest old Everyman during a movie career that lasted a half century, died on Wednesday at a hospital in Los Angeles. He was 76 years of age and was resident inBeverly Hills. The cause was complications from cancer, said a spokesman, Warren Cowan
^abcde"Jack Lemmon".The Daily Telegraph. London. June 29, 2001.Archived from the original on January 11, 2022. RetrievedApril 5, 2019.
^Holtzman, W. (1977).Jack Lemmon. Pyramid illustrated history of the movies (in French). Pyramid Publications.ISBN978-0-515-04291-7. RetrievedMay 19, 2024.
^National Student Film Institute/L.A: The Sixteenth Annual Los Angeles Student Film Festival. The Directors Guild Theatre. June 10, 1994. pp. 10–11.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Los Angeles Student Film Institute: 13th Annual Student Film Festival. The Directors Guild Theatre. June 7, 1991. p. 3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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