American actor Alan Arkin, Oscar winner for his role as a grumpy grandfather in “Little Miss Sunshine”, has died at the age of 89, his family announced on Friday.
The comedian, a popular second role in American cinema and recognized for his improvisational skills, died at his home in California, according to a statement from his sons. He “was a force of nature and a very talented artist,” praised Adam, Matthew and Anthony. “He will be greatly missed. »
Many tongue-in-cheek characters
Over his 70-year career, Alan Arkin has played many tongue-in-cheek characters. The best known remains his incarnation of a cantankerous grandfather with a flowery language in Little Miss Sunshinefor which he received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2007.
His role as a gruff Hollywood producer, capable of creating a fake film for the CIA, in the Argo by Ben Affleck, had also marked the spirits and had earned him an Oscar nomination. Earlier in his career, he had also been nominated for Cold War satire The Russians are coming (1966) and the drama The Heart is a lone hunter (1968), where he plays a deaf-mute.
Actor in film and television as well as in the theater, Alan Arkin also played in the adaptation of the novel Wrestling 22 by Mike Nichols, or in Edward Scissorhands by Tim Burton and Welcome to Gattaca.
“Such a wonderful and original voice of comedy”
In recent years, the actor had also been nominated several times for the Emmy Awards, the television equivalent of the Oscars, for his performance in the Netflix series The Kominsky method, where he gave the reply to Michael Douglas.
“Today we lost a wonderful actor whose intelligence, sense of comedy and impeccable professionalism over the past 70 years have left an indelible mark on our industry,” Michael Douglas responded on Instagram. “My experiences working with Alan have been some of the most memorable. He will be greatly missed. »
Many other Hollywood actors paid tribute to Alan Arkin on social media on Friday, including Mia Farrow, Michael Rapaport and Patton Oswalt. Alan Arkin was “such a wonderful, original voice in comedy. And the few times I have been in his presence, he was a kind and generous soul,” greeted the actor of the series on Twitter. Seinfeld, Jason Alexander. “I learned so much watching him. And the laughs his glorious work gave me seem endless. May he rest in peace. »