Alan Arkin was nominated for an Oscar for his first film ever – in 2007 he finally received it for the role of the grumpy grandfather in “Little Miss Sunshine”. The actor has died at the age of 89.
US actor and Oscar winner Alan Arkin is dead. His sons Adam, Matthew and Anthony announced through their father’s publicist that the actor had died at the age of 89. “Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature, both as an artist and as a person,” the statement said.
Oscar for the best supporting cast
Arkin won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2007 for his role in the hit film Little Miss Sunshine. The quirky role as a sex- and drug-obsessed grandfather, who rolls in the trunk of the US highway after his death, finally brought the character actor the award after a long career with more than 50 films.
Arkin was promptly nominated for an Oscar for his first film role in Norman Jewison’s 1966 satire The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming. A year later, as a psychopathic killer, he bullied a blind woman, played by Audrey Hepburn, in the thriller Wait Until Dark.
His second Oscar nomination came in 1969 for portraying a deaf man in the drama The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. In 2013, the old star was nominated again for a supporting role in the political thriller “Argo”.
Star on Hollywood’s “Walk of Fame”
Born in New York in 1934, Arkin actually wanted to be a musician after school and had his first successes, but then turned to acting. He also worked as a director and children’s book author. Arkin’s memorable roles include his appearance as a bomber pilot in the 1970 war farce Catch-22, directed by Mike Nichols.
He stood in front of the camera until old age. With Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman he shot the crime comedy “Abgang mit Stil” in 2017, a year later the Netflix series “The Kominsky Method” with Michael Douglas. In 2019, at the age of 85, he received a star plaque on Hollywood’s “Walk of Fame”.