Jack Lemmon
| Jack Lemmon | |
|---|---|
 Lemmon at the 40th Emmy Awards, August 1988 |
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| Born | John Uhler Lemmon III February 8, 1925 Newton, Massachusetts, United States |
| Died | June 27, 2001 (aged 76) Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Occupation | Actor, Comedian, Director |
| Years active | 1949–2000 |
| Spouse | Cynthia Stone (1950–1956) (divorced) 1 child Felicia Farr (1962–2001) (his death) 1 child |
John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts (for which he won the 1955 Best Supporting Actor Academy Award), Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger (for which he won the 1973 Best Actor Academy Award), The Out-of-Towners, The China Syndrome, Missing, Glengarry Glen Ross, Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men.
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Early life
Lemmon was born in an elevator at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. He was the son and only child of Mildred Burgess LaRue (née Noel) and John Uhler Lemmon, Jr., who was the president of a doughnut company.[1][2] Lemmon attended John Ward Elementary School in Newton and The Rivers School in Weston, Massachusetts. He later revealed that he knew he wanted to be an actor from the age of eight. Lemmon attended Phillips Academy (Class of 1943) and Harvard University (Class of 1947) where he lived in Adams House and was an active member of several Drama Clubs - becoming president of the Hasty Pudding Club - as well as a member of the Delphic Club for Gentleman, a final club at Harvard. After Harvard, Lemmon joined the Navy, receiving V-12 training and serving as an ensign. On being discharged, he took up acting professionally, working on radio, television and Broadway. He studied acting under Uta Hagen. He also became enthused with the piano and learned to play it on his own. He could also play the harmonica and the double bass.
Career
Lemmon's film debut was a bit part as a plasterer/painter in the 1949 film The Lady Takes a Sailor but he was not noticed until his official debut opposite Judy Holliday in the 1954 comedy It Should Happen to You. Lemmon worked with many legendary leading ladies, among them Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, Betty Grable, Janet Leigh, Shirley MacLaine, Romy Schneider, Doris Day, Kim Novak, Judy Holliday, Rita Hayworth, June Allyson, Virna Lisi, Ann Margret, Sophia Loren and many, many more. He was also close friends with Tony Curtis, Ernie Kovacs, Walter Matthau and Kevin Spacey. He made two films with Curtis, three films with Kovacs, and eleven with Matthau.
Early in Lemmon's career, Lemmon met Ernie Kovacs during the filming of Operation Mad Ball [3] and co-starred with the comedian in this film. Lemmon and Kovacs became close friends and appeared together in two subsequent films - Bell, Book, and Candle[4] and It Happened to Jane[5]. In 1977 PBS broadcast a compilation series of Kovacs' television work, and Lemmon served as the narrator of the series. Lemmon discussed his friendship with Kovacs in the documentary, Ernie Kovacs: Television's Original Genius [6].
He became a favorite actor of director Billy Wilder, starring in his films Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Irma la Douce, The Fortune Cookie, Avanti!, The Front Page and Buddy Buddy. Wilder felt Lemmon had a natural tendency toward overacting that had to be tempered; the Wilder biography Nobody'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". The biography also quotes Jack Lemmon as saying, "I am particularly susceptible to the parts I play... If my character was having a nervous breakdown, I started to have one".
He also had a longtime working relationship with director Blake Edwards, starring in Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The Great Race (1965) and That's Life! (1986).
Lemmon recorded an album in 1958 while filming Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe. Twelve jazz tracks were created for Lemmon and another twelve were added. Lemmon played the piano and recorded his own versions of Monroe's trademark songs, I Wanna Be Loved By You and I'm Through With Love, for the album which was released in 1959 as A Twist of Lemmon/Some Like It Hot.
Lemmon was awarded the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1956 for Mister Roberts (1955) and the Best Actor Oscar for Save the Tiger (1973), becoming the first actor to achieve this double. He was also nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his role in the controversial film Missing in 1982 and for his role in Some Like it Hot. In 1988, the American Film Institute gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Days of Wine and Roses (1962) was one of his favorite roles. He portrayed Joe Clay, a young, fun-loving alcoholic businessman. In that film, Lemmon delivered the line, "My name is Joe Clay ... I'm an alcoholic." Three and a half decades later, he admitted on the television program, Inside the Actors Studio, that he was not acting when he delivered that line, that he really was a recovering alcoholic at the end of his life.
Lemmon's production company JML produced Cool Hand Luke in 1967. Paul Newman was grateful to Lemmon for his support and offered him the role later made famous by Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but Lemmon turned it down. He did not like riding horses and he also felt he'd already played too many aspects of the Sundance Kid's character before.[7]
Lemmon often appeared in films partnered with Walter Matthau. Among their pairings was 1968's The Odd Couple, as Felix Ungar (Lemmon) and Oscar Madison (Matthau). They also starred together in The Fortune Cookie (for which Matthau won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), The Front Page and Buddy Buddy. In 1971, Lemmon directed Matthau in the comedy Kotch. It was the only movie that Lemmon ever directed and Matthau was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for his performance.
Additionally, Lemmon and Matthau had small parts in Oliver Stone's 1991 film, JFK (the only film in which both appeared without sharing screen time). In 1993, the duo teamed up again to star in Grumpy Old Men. The film was a surprise hit, earning the two actors a new generation of young fans. During the rest of the decade, they would go on to star together in Out to Sea, Grumpier Old Men and the widely panned The Odd Couple II.
A rare death scene for Lemmon came in The China Syndrome, for which he was awarded Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1982, he won another Cannes award for his performance in Missing (which received the Palme d'Or). His characters died in very few films other than that one, 1989's Dad and 1999's Tuesdays With Morrie.
At the 1998 Golden Globe Awards, he was nominated for "Best Actor in a Made for TV Movie" for his role in Twelve Angry Men losing to Ving Rhames. After accepting the award, Rhames asked Lemmon to come on stage and, in a move that stunned the audience, gave his award to him. (The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which presents the Golden Globes, decided to have a second award made and sent to Rhames.).
He received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1988.
Personal life
Kevin Spacey recalled that Lemmon is remembered as always making time for other people. When already regarded as a legend, he met the teenage Spacey backstage after a theater performance and spoke to him about pursuing an acting career.[8] Spacey would later work with Lemmon in Dad (1989), the critically acclaimed film Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) and on stage in a revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night. Lemmon's performance also inspired Gil Gunderson, a character on The Simpsons that is modeled on Lemmon's.
Lemmon was married twice. His son Chris Lemmon (b. 1954), was his first child by his first wife, actress Cynthia Stone (b. February 26, 1926, Peoria, Illinois). His second wife was the actress Felicia Farr, with whom he had a daughter, Courtney, born in 1966.
Death
Jack Lemmon died of colon cancer and metastatic cancer of the bladder on June 27, 2001.[9] He had been fighting the disease, very privately, for two years before his death. He was interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California where he is buried near his friend and co-star, Walter Matthau. In typical Jack Lemmon wit, his gravestone simply reads 'Jack Lemmon — in'. After Matthau's death in 2000, Lemmon appeared with friends and relatives of the actor on a Larry King Live show in tribute. A year later, many of the same people appeared on the show again to pay tribute to Lemmon.
Filmography
Film
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 | The Lady Takes a Sailor | Plasterer | Uncredited |
| 1954 | It Should Happen to You | Pete Sheppard | |
| Phffft! | Robert Tracey | ||
| 1955 | Three for the Show | Martin 'Marty' Stewart | |
| Mister Roberts | Ens. Frank Thurlowe Pulver | Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor |
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| My Sister Eileen | Robert 'Bob' Baker | ||
| Hollywood Bronc Busters | Himself | ||
| 1956 | You Can't Run Away from It | Peter Warne | |
| 1957 | Fire Down Below | Tony | |
| Operation Mad Ball (1957) | Pvt. Hogan | ||
| 1958 | Cowboy | Frank Harris | |
| Bell, Book and Candle | Nicky Holroyd | ||
| 1959 | Some Like It Hot | Jerry - 'Daphne' | BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor |
| It Happened to Jane | George Denham | ||
| 1960 | The Apartment | C.C. Baxter | BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor |
| Stowaway in the Sky | Narrator | voice | |
| Pepe | Himself | Cameo appearance as Daphne | |
| The Wackiest Ship In the Army | Lt. Rip Crandall | ||
| 1962 | The Notorious Landlady | William 'Bill' Gridley | |
| Days of Wine and Roses | Joe Clay | San Sebastián International Film Festival Award for Best Actor Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama |
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| 1963 | Irma la Douce | Nestor Patou / Lord X | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy |
| Under the Yum Yum Tree | Hogan | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy | |
| 1964 | Good Neighbor Sam | Sam Bissel | Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor |
| 1965 | How to Murder Your Wife | Stanley Ford | Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor |
| The Great Race | Professor Fate / Prince Hapnick | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy | |
| 1966 | The Fortune Cookie | Harry Hinkle | |
| 1967 | Luv | Harry Berlin | |
| 1968 | There Comes a Day | ||
| The Odd Couple | Felix Ungar | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy | |
| 1969 | The April Fools | Howard Brubaker | |
| 1970 | The Out-of-Towners | George Kellerman | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy |
| 1971 | Kotch | Sleeping bus passenger | uncredited |
| 1972 | The War Between Men and Women | Peter Edward Wilson | |
| Avanti! | Wendell Armbruster, Jr. | Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy | |
| 1973 | Save the Tiger | Harry Stoner | Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama |
| 1974 | The Police Can't Move | Narrator | voice |
| The Front Page | Hildy Johnson | David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actor shared with Walter Matthau Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy |
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| 1975 | Wednesday | Jerry Murphy | |
| The Gentleman Tramp | Narrator | ||
| The Prisoner of Second Avenue | Mel Edison | ||
| 1976 | Alex & the Gypsy | Alexander Main | |
| 1977 | Airport '77 | Capt. Don Gallagher | |
| 1979 | The China Syndrome | Jack Godell | Best Actor Award (Cannes Film Festival) David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actor tied with Dustin Hoffman for Kramer vs. Kramer BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama |
| 1980 | Tribute | Scottie Templeton | Silver Bear for Best Actor - Berlin Genie Award for Best Performance by a Foreign Actor Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated — American Movie Award for Best Actor Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama |
| 1981 | Buddy Buddy | Victor Clooney | |
| 1982 | Missing | Ed Horman | Best Actor Award (Cannes Film Festival) Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama |
| 1984 | Mass Appeal | Father Tim Farley | |
| 1985 | Macaroni | Robert Traven | |
| 1986 | That's Life! | Harvey Fairchild | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy |
| 1989 | Dad | Jake Tremont | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama |
| 1991 | JFK | Jack Martin | |
| 1992 | Beyond 'JFK': The Question of Conspiracy | Himself | also archive footage |
| The Player | Himself | ||
| Glengarry Glen Ross | Shelley Levene | National Board of Review Award for Best Actor Valladolid International Film Festival Award for Best Actor Volpi Cup |
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| 1993 | Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman In Carver County | Himself | |
| Short Cuts | Paul Finnigan | Golden Globe Special Award for Best Ensemble Cast Volpi Cup |
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| Grumpy Old Men | John Gustafson | Nominated — American Comedy Award for Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture | |
| 1995 | The Grass Harp | Dr. Morris Ritz | |
| Grumpier Old Men | John Gustafson | ||
| 1996 | Getting Away with Murder | Max Mueller / Karl Luger | |
| My Fellow Americans | President Russell P. Kramer | ||
| Hamlet | Marcellus | ||
| 1997 | Out to Sea | Herb Sullivan | |
| Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's | Himself | ||
| 1998 | Puppies for Sale | Pet Shop Owner | |
| The Odd Couple II | Felix Ungar | ||
| 2000 | The Legend of Bagger Vance | Narrator / Old Hardy Greaves | uncredited |
Television
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1949–1950 | That Wonderful Guy | Harold | |
| 1950 | Toni Twin Time | Host | Episode dated May 31, 1950 |
| 1951 | The Ad-Libbers | Celebrity Panelist | cancelled after 5 episodes |
| 1951–1952 | The Frances Langford-Don Ameche Show | Newlywed | in 'The Couple Next Door' sketches |
| 1952 | Heaven for Betsy | Pete Bell | cancelled after a few weeks |
| 1954 | The Road of Life | Surgeon | cancelled after a few weeks |
| 1957 | What's My Line? | Mystery Guest | November 3, 1957 Episode # 388, Season 9, Ep 10 |
| 1957–1958 | Alcoa Theatre | Henry Coyle Steve Tyler Wally Mall Lieutenant Tony Crawford Edward King |
Episode "Disappearance" Episode "Most Likely to Succeed" Episode "Loudmouth" Episode "The Days of November" Episode "Souvenir" |
| 1976 | The Entertainer | Archie Rice | |
| 1987 | Long Day's Journey Into Night | James Tyrone Sr. | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film |
| 1988 | The Murder of Mary Phagan | Gov. John Slaton | Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film |
| 1992 | For Richer, for Poorer | Aram Katourian | |
| 1993 | A Life in the Theater | Robert | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film |
| 1996 | A Weekend in the Country | Bud Bailey | |
| 1997 | The Simpsons | Frank Ormand (voice) | Episode "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson" |
| 12 Angry Men | Juror #8 | Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie |
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| 1998 | The Long Way Home | Thomas Gerrin | |
| 1999 | Inherit the Wind | Henry Drummond | Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie |
| Tuesdays with Morrie | Morrie Schwartz | Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film |
Discography
- A Twist of Lemmon/Some Like It Hot (1959)
- Piano Selections from Irma La Douce (1963)
- Piano and Vocals (1990)
- Peter and the Wolf (1991)
- Songs and music from Some Like It Hot (2001)
Personal quotes
- Death ends a life, not a relationship. (Tuesdays with Morrie)
- I won't quit until I get run over by a truck, a producer or a critic.
- Failure seldom stops you. What stops you is the fear of failure.
- If you think it's hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball.
- It's hard enough to write a good drama, it's much harder to write a good comedy, and it's hardest of all to write a drama with comedy. Which is what life is.
- Nobody deserves this much money - certainly not an actor.
- Stay humble. Always answer your phone - no matter who else is in the car.
- [on Marilyn Monroe] Difficult? Yes. But she was a wonderful comedienne and she had a charisma like no one before or since.
- [on Judy Holliday] She was intelligent and not at all like the dumb blonds she so often depicted. She didn't give a damn where the camera was placed, how she was made to look, or about being a star. She just played the scene—acted with, not at. She was also one of the nicest people I ever met.
- [on Billy Wilder] I've had directors who were marvelous at breaking scenes down and handling people. But when you would string all the pearls together, they wouldn't make a beautiful necklace. But Billy is the kind of picture-maker who can make a beautiful string of pearls. He makes the kind of movies that are classics and last forever.
- [on Walter Matthau] Walter is a helluva actor. The best I've ever worked with.
Bibliography
- Lemmon, Chris (2006). A Twist of Lemmon: A Tribute to My Father. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. ISBN 9781565124806.
References
- ↑ Lemmon stated (on Inside the Actors Studio) that he had an Ulster-Scots heritage.1
- ↑ Jack Lemmon Biography (1925-2001)
- ↑ IMDB entry for Operation Mad Ball [1]
- ↑ IMDB entry Bell, Book, and Candle [2]
- ↑ IMDB entry for It Happened to Jane [3]
- ↑ IMDB entry for Ernie Kovacs: Television's Original Genius[4]
- ↑ A slice of Lemmon for extra character, Bob Flynn, Panorama, p. 7, Canberra Times, August 15, 1998
- ↑ YouTube - Charlie Rose - Kevin Spacey / Jamaica Kincaid
- ↑ Aljean Harmetz (June 29, 2001). "Jack Lemmon, Dark and Comic Actor, Dies at 76". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/29/movies/jack-lemmon-dark-and-comic-actor-dies-at-76.html. Retrieved 2010-08-22. "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 and lived in Beverly Hills. The cause was complications from cancer, said a spokesman, Warren Cowan."
External links
- Jack Lemmon at Find a Grave
- Jack Lemmon at the Internet Broadway Database
- Jack Lemmon at the Internet Movie Database
- Jack Lemmon at the TCM Movie Database
- Actor Jack Lemmon dead at 76
- Jack Lemmon at the Archive of American Television
- Obituary in the Los Angeles Times
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