Jack Palance (1919 - 2006)
craggy faced actor voiced Lord Rothbart in The Swan Princess
Nov 13, 2006
(Source: www.bcdb.com)
Jack Palance, one of the great tough guys of Hollywood's Golden Era, died of natural causes in Montecito, California. He was 87.
Palance, a former boxer and World War II veteran, had a varied career in Hollywood. His first break came when he understudied for Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski in the Broadway version of A Streetcar Named Desire. Palance replaced Brando after he accidentally punched the star in the nose during a workout, sending Brando to hospital. Palance's stellar reviews in the play earned him an immediate contract with 20th Century Fox.
A later training accident, this time with Burt Lancaster, wasn't quite so successful. After hitting Lancaster in the face while filming a fight scene, Lancaster responded by punching him in the stomach, causing Palance to throw up.
Palance's craggy looks (the result of a short-lived boxing career, plus injuries sustained after bailing out of a burning B-24 during a 1942 training accident) quickly earned him movie roles as the heavy. He gained his first Academy Award nomination in 1952 as aspiring actor Lester Blaine in the movie Sudden Fear. It was his third movie role.
The following year, Palance earned his second nomination for one of his most memorable roles: vicious gunfighter Jack Wilson in the classic western, Shane.
Despite working non-stop for the next thirty years, Palance's next Oscar nomination was in 1991, for the 1991 comedy City Slickers. The 73-year-old-actor celebrated his win by performing a series of one-armed pushups onstage, an act which host (and City Slickers co-star) Billy Crystal used as comedy fodder for the rest of the Oscar broadcast.
The one-armed pushups gag even found its way into Palance's best-known animated film, 1994's The Swan Princess. He voiced the role of the villainous Lord Rothbart in the movie.
Palance is survived by his second wife, Elaine Rogers, and their daughters Holly and Brooke. Holly is known for hosting Ripley's Believe It or Not! with her father from 1982 to 1986.
