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Alan Arkin
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Alan Arkin is an award-winning actor, who's starred in films, plays and on TV. A founding member of the famed Second City improv troupe, he's equally comfortable in comedy and dramatic roles. He's ... directed projects for all media. Arkin began his career as a singer-songwriter and co-wrote "The Banana Boat Song," which Harry Belafonte made into a mega-hit. The New York native is the author of a number of books, including The Lemming Condition, which is in the White House Library.
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Alan Arkin is the poor man's Jack Lemmon. Think of Lemmon's major film roles, from It Should Happen to You to The Apartment, Save the Tiger to Missing. Arkin could have played any one of these parts effectively. Both actors can play comical bumblers with serious sides, and both excel as sensitive characters whose nervous temperaments are hair-triggered. Considering Arkin's solid talent and his proven versatility, it is regrettable that this actor has not had Lemmon's opportunities to shine on the silver screen.
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Variety reports that Alan Arkin has joined the cast of "Marley& Me," in which Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston will star in this film based on the bestselling book by John Grogan. Scott Frank is the latest writer to adapt the book.
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Alan Arkin recently won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Little Miss Sunshine. He has long been recognized as an actor of great talent and versatility on stage, screen and television. Born in New York, Alan launched his career with Chicago's Second City improvisational revue. This led to his first part on Broadway, the lead in Carl Reiner's play "Enter Laughing," for which he won a Tony Award. After becoming a successful actor and director on Broadway, Arkin received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his first feature film, Norman Jewison's The Russians Are Coming, The Russian Are Coming. He received a second Oscar nomination and the New York Critic's Award for his performance in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
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At 14, Alan Arkin appeared in a professional play and got his first paycheck for acting. He later performed with Chicago's Second City improv group, and worked as a television and stage extra. When a few acquaintances formed a folk and pop group called the Tarriers, Arkin sang along, and played guitar and recorder. Their single of "Cindy, Oh Cindy" spent 12 weeks in the top 40 in 1956, peaking at #12. In 1957, they had the #27 song of the year with "The Banana Boat Song" (aka "Day-O"), though the later rendition by Harry Belafonte is the calypso hit everyone remembers.
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Veteran stage and screen star Alan Arkin is known to modern moviegoers mainly for his supporting roles in comedies, including Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Little Miss Sunshine (2006). Arkin began his career as a folk singer, then worked with the Second City improvisational troupe in Chicago and, later, on Broadway. He won a Tony for his first big stage role -- the lead in the Broadway version of Carl Reiner's Enter Laughing (1963) -- and he received an Oscar nomination for his first big movie role -- as a Soviet sailor in the film farce The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966). He then turned in memorable dramatic performances on screen, terrorizing Audrey Hepburn in the 1967 thriller Wait Until Dark and earning another Oscar nomination as the lead in the 1968 film version of the Carson McCullers novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
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Alan Arkin