Jack Palance quite often exemplified evil incarnate on film, portraying some of the most intensely feral villains witnessed in 1950s westerns and melodrama. Enhanced by his tall, powerful build, icy voice, and piercing eyes, he earned two "Best Supporting Actor" nominations early in his career. It would take a grizzled, eccentric comic performance 40 years later, however, for him to finally grab the coveted statuette.

Of Ukrainian descent, Palance was born Volodymyr Ivanovich Palahniuk (later taking Walter Jack Palance as his legal name) on February 18, 1919 (although some sources, including his death certificate, cite 1920) in Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania (coal country), one of six children born to Anna (nee Gramiak) and Ivan Palahniuk. His father, an anthracite miner, died of black lung disease. Palance worked in the mines in his early years but averted the same fate as his father. Athletics was his ticket out of the mines when he won a football scholarship to the University of North Carolina. He subsequently dropped out to try his hand at professional boxing. Fighting under the name "Jack Brazzo", he won his first 15 fights, 12 by knockout, before losing a 4th round decision to future heavyweight contender Joe Baksi on December 17, 1940.

With the outbreak of World War II, his boxing career ended and his military career began, serving in the Army Air Force as a bomber pilot. Wounded in combat and suffering severe injuries and burns, he received the Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. He resumed college studies as a journalist at Stanford University and became a sportswriter for the San Francisco Chronicle. He also worked for a radio station until he was bit by the acting bug.

Palance made his stage debut in "The Big Two" in 1947 and immediately followed it understudyingMarlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski in the groundbreaking Broadway classic "A Streetcar Named Desire", a role he eventually took over. Following stage parts in "Temporary Island" (1948), "The Vigil" (1948), and "The Silver Tassle" (1949), Palance won a choice role in "Darkness of Noon" and a Theatre World Award for "Promising New Personality." This recognition helped him secure a 20th Century-Fox contract. The facial burns and resulting reconstructive surgery following the crash and burn of his WWII bomber plane actually worked to his advantage. Out of contention as a glossy romantic leading man, Palance instead became the archetypal intimidating villain equipped with towering stance, imposing glare, and killer-shark smile.

He stood out among a powerhouse cast that included actors such asRichard Widmark,Zero Mostel andPaul Douglas in his movie debut inElia Kazan'sAnkoku no kyofu (1950), as a plague-carrying fugitive. He was soon on his way. Briefly billed as Walter Jack Palance before eliminating the first name, the actor made fine use of his former boxing skills and war experience for the filmHalls of Montezuma (1951) as a boxing Marine inRichard Widmark's platoon. He followed this with the first of his back-to-back Oscar nods. InSudden Fear (1952), only his third film, he played rich-and-famous playwrightJoan Crawford's struggling actor/husband who plots to murder her and run off with gorgeousGloria Grahame. Finding just the right degree of intensity and menace to pretty much steal the proceedings without chewing the scenery, he followed this with arguably his finest villain of the decade, that of sadistic gunslinger Jack Wilson who takes onAlan Ladd's titular hero, played byShane (1953), in a classic showdown.

Throughout the 1950s, Palance doled out strong leads and supports such as those inMan in the Attic (1953) (his first lead),The Big Knife (1955) and the war classicKôgeki (1956). Mixed in were a few routine to highly mediocre parts inFlight to Tangier (1953),Sign of the Pagan (1954) (as Attila the Hun), and the biblical bombThe Silver Chalice (1954). In between filmmaking were a host of television roles, none better than his down-and-out boxer inRequiem for a Heavyweight (1956), a rare sympathetic role that earned him an Emmy Award.

Back and forth overseas in the 1960s and 1970s, Palance would dominate foreign pictures in a number of different genres -- sandal-and-spear spectacles, biblical epics, war stories and "spaghetti westerns." Such films includedAusterlitz (1960),Môko no arashi (1961),Barabbas (1961),Il criminale (1962),Le mépris (1963),Il mercenario (1968),Marquis de Sade: Justine (1969),The Desperados (1969),Si può fare... amigo (1972),Chatozu Rando (1972),Sangue di sbirro (1976),Welcome to Blood City (1977). Back home, he played Fidel Castro inGuevara! (1969) while also appearing inMonte Walsh (1970),Oklahoma Crude (1973) andThe Four Deuces (1975).

On the made-for-television front, Jack played a number of nefarious nasties to perfection, ranging from Mr. Hyde (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968)) to Dracula inDracula (1974) to Ebenezer Scrooge in a "Wild West" version of the Dickens classicEbenezer (1998). He also played one of the Hatfields inThe Hatfields and the McCoys (1975). Jack switched gears to star as a "nice guy" lieutenant in the single-season TV cop dramaBronk (1975). In later years, the actor mellowed with age, as exemplified by roles inBagdad Cafe (1987), but could still display his bad side as he did as an evil rancher, crime boss or drug lord in, respectively,Young Guns (1988),Batman (1989) andDead Fall (1989). Into his twilight years he showed a penchant for brash, quirky comedy capped by his Oscar-winning role inCity Slickers (1991) and its sequel. He ended his film career playing Long John Silver inTreasure Island (1999).

His three children by his first wife, actressVirginia Baker --Holly Palance,Brooke Palance, andCody Palance -- all pursued acting careers and appeared with their father at one time or another. A man of few words off the set, he owned his own cattle ranch and displayed other creative sides as a exhibited painter and published poet.

His last years were marred by both failing health and the 1998 death of his son Cody from melanoma. He was later diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died at the Santa Barbara County home of his daughter, Holly Palance, in 2006.