Alan Arkin
Yossarian, as portrayed by Alan Arkin
Birth name	Alan Wolf Arkin
Born	March 26, 1934 (1934-03-26) (age 73) New York City, New York, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Jeremy Yaffe (1955-1960) Barbara Dana (m.1964) Suzanne Newlander (1996-)
Children	Adam Arkin (b.1956) Matthew Arkin (b.1960) Anthony Arkin (b.1967)
Awards Academy Awards Best Supporting Actor 2006 Little Miss Sunshine BAFTA Awards Best Actor in a Supporting Role 2006 Little Miss Sunshine Golden Globe Awards Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy 1966 The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming Screen Actors Guild Awards Best Cast - Motion Picture 2006 Little Miss Sunshine Tony Awards Best Featured Actor in a Play 1963 Enter Laughing

Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an Academy Award-winning American actor and director. He is best-known for starring in such films as Catch-22, The In-Laws, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, Glengarry Glen Ross and Little Miss Sunshine, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2007. He is the father of actor Adam Arkin.

Biography

Early life and career

Arkin was born in New York City to a Jewish family; his maternal grandfather was an immigrant from Odessa, Ukraine.[1] His father, David I. Arkin, was a painter and writer who mostly worked as a teacher. His mother was Beatrice Arkin[2]. The family moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, California when Arkin was 11 years old,[1] but an eight-month Hollywood strike cost Arkin's father a set designer job he had wanted to take. Arkin's parents were accused during the 1950s Red Scare of being Communists, which led to Arkin's father losing his job after refusing to answer questions regarding his political affiliation. David Arkin challenged the dismissal and ultimately prevailed, but after his death.[3]

Arkin, who had been taking acting lessons since age 10, became a scholarship student at various drama academies, including one run by Stanislavsky student Benjamin Zemach, who had taught Arkin a psychological approach to acting.[4] Arkin attended Franklin High School,[5] in Los Angeles, followed by Los Angeles City College from 1951 to 1953. With two friends, he formed the folk music group The Tarriers,[6] in which Arkin sang and played guitar. The band-members co-composed the group's 1956 hit "The Banana Boat Song" â€" a reworking, with some new lyrics, of a traditional, same-name Jamaican calypso folk song combined with another titled "Hill and Gully Rider".[7] It reached #4 on the Billboard magazine chart the same year as Harry Belafonte's better-known hit version.[8]

From 1958 to 1968, Arkin performed and recorded with the children's folk group, The Baby Sitters.[9]

Acting career

Arkin is one of only six actors to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance (for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming) in 1966. Two years later, he was again nominated, for The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.

Arkin is equally comfortable in comedy and dramatic roles. Among those for which he has garnered the most favorable critical attention are his Oscar-nominated turns above; Wait Until Dark, as the erudite killer stalking Audrey Hepburn; director Mike Nichols' Catch-22; The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (where he played Sigmund Freud); writer Jules Feiffer's Little Murders, which Arkin directed; the The In-Laws, co-starring Peter Falk; Glengarry Glen Ross; and Little Miss Sunshine, for which he received his third Oscar nomination, in the category of Best Supporting Actor. On the 11th February 2007 he received a BAFTA Film Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his portrayal of Grandfather Edwin in Little Miss Sunshine. On February 25, 2007, upon winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Arkin, who plays a foul-mouthed grandfather with a taste for heroin said, "More than anything, I'm deeply moved by the open-hearted appreciation our small film has received, which in these fragmented times speaks so openly of the possibility of innocence, growth and connection".[10] At 72 years old, Arkin became the sixth oldest winner of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

On Broadway, Arkin starred in Enter Laughing, for which he won a Tony Award, and Luv. He also directed The Sunshine Boys, among others.

Author

Arkin is also the author of many books, including the children's stories The Lemming Condition and The Clearing.

Personal life

Arkin has been married three times. He and Jeremy Yaffe, to whom he was married from 1955 to 1960, have two sons: Adam Arkin, born Aug. 19, 1956 or 1957 (accounts differ), and Matthew Arkin, born circa 1960. In 1967, Arkin had son Anthony (Tony) Dana Arkin with actress-screenwriter Barbara Dana (born 1940), to whom he was married from June 16, 1964 to the mid-1990s. Circa 1996, Arkin married a psychotherapist, Suzanne Newlander.[3][11] As of 2007, they live in New Mexico.

Filmography (actor)

In chronological order. For releases in same year/month, specific dates are given.

• Calypso Heat Wave (1957) â€" Tarriers lead singer (uncredited)
• "That's Me" (1963 short; nominated for 1964 Academy Award for Live-Action Short Subject)
• The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966) - Lt. Rozanov
• "The Last Mohican" (1966 short) â€" Pretzel Peddler
• Woman Times Seven (June 1967) - Fred (segment "The Suicides")
• Wait Until Dark (Oct. 1967) - Harry Roat
• Inspector Clouseau (July 19, 1968) - Insp. Jacques Clouseau
• The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (July 31, 1968) - John Singer
• Popi (May 1969) - Abraham Rodriguez
• The Monitors (Oct. 1969) - Cameo appearance
• Catch-22 (1970) - Capt. John Yossarian
• Little Murders (1971; also director) - Lt. Practice
• Last of the Red Hot Lovers (Aug. 1972) - Barney Cashman
• Deadhead Miles (month n.a., 1972) - Cooper
• It Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Guy (Nov. 1974 TV-movie)
• Freebie and the Bean (Dec. 1974) - Bean
• Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins (Feb. 1975; a.k.a. Rafferty and the Highway Hustlers) - Gunny Rafferty
• Hearts of the West (Oct. 1975) - Burt Kessler
• The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976) - Dr. Sigmund Freud
• Fire Sale (movie) (1977; also director) - Ezra Fikus
• The Other Side of Hell (Jan. 17, 1978 TV-movie) - Frank Dole
• The Defection of Simas Kudirka (Jan. 23, 1978 TV-movie) - Simas Kudirka
• The In-Laws (June 1979) - Sheldon S. Kornpett, D.D.S.
• The Magician of Lublin (Nov. 1979) - Yasha Mazur
• Simon (1980) - Prof. Simon Mendelssohn
• Full Moon High (1981; U.S. release uncertain) - Dr. Brand
• Improper Channels (May 1981) - Jeffrey Martley
• Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (Aug. 1981) - Flash
• The Last Unicorn (1982) (voice of Schmendrick)
• The Return of Captain Invincible (1983) - Captain Invincible
• A Matter of Principle (1984 TV-movie) - Flagg Purdy
• The Fourth Wise Man (March 1985 TV-movie) - Orontes
• Joshua Then and Now (Sept.1985) - Reuben Shapiro
• Bad Medicine (Nov. 1985) - Dr. Ramón Madera
• A Deadly Business (March 1986) (TV) - Harold Kaufman
• Big Trouble (May 1986) - Leonard Hoffman
• Escape from Sobibor (1987) (TV) - Leon Feldhendler
• Necessary Parties (1988) (TV) - Archie Corelli
• Coupe de Ville (March 1990) - Fred Libner
• Edward Scissorhands (Dec. 7, 1990) - Bill
• Havana (Dec. 12, 1990) - Joe Volpi
• The Rocketeer (1991) - A. 'Peevy' Peabody
• Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) - George Aaronow
• Cooperstown (Jan. 1993 TV-movie) - Harry Willette
• Indian Summer (April 1993) - Unca Lou Handler
• Taking the Heat (June 1993 TV-movie) - Tommy Canard
• So I Married an Axe Murderer (July 1993) - Police Captain (uncredited)
• Samuel Beckett is Coming Soon (1993 short; also director) - The Director (character)
• North (July 22, 1994) - Judge Buckle
• Doomsday Gun (July 23, 1994 TV-movie) - Col. Yossi
• Picture Windows (Oct. 1994 TV-movie) â€" Tully in segment "Soir Bleu"
• The Jerky Boys (Feb. 1995) - Ernie Lazarro
• Steal Big Steal Little (Sept. 1995) - Lou Perilli
• Heck's Way Home (March 1996) (TV) - Dogcatcher
• Mother Night (Nov. 1996) - George Kraft
• Grosse Pointe Blank (April 1997) - Dr. Oatman
• O Que É Isso, Companheiro? (Brazil-U.S) (May 1997; U.S. Jan. 1998, a.k.a. Four Days in September) - Charles Burke Elbrick
• Gattaca (Oct. 1997) - Det. Hugo
• Slums of Beverly Hills (1998) - Murray Samuel Abromowitz
• Jakob the Liar (Sept. 1999) - Max Frankfurter
• Blood Money (month n.a. 1999 TV-movie) - Willy "The Hammer" Canzaro
• Arigo (2000? produced? produced and unreleased? also director)
• Magicians (2000 direct-to-video) - Milo
• Varian's War (UK-US-Canada) (April 2001 TV-movie) - Freier
• America's Sweethearts (July 2001) - Wellness Guide
• Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2002) â€" Gene
• The Pentagon Papers (March 2003 TV-movie) - Harry Rowen
• And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (Sept. 2003 TV-movie) - Sam Drebben
• The Novice (Sept. 2004) - Father Benkhe
• Noel (Nov. 2004 TV-movie) - Artie Venzuela
• Eros (multinational) (First theatrical release Italy Dec. 2004; U.S. April 2005) - Dr. Pearl / Hal in segment "Equilibrium"
• Firewall (Feb. 2006) - Arlin Forester
• Little Miss Sunshine (July 2006) - Edwin Hoover
• The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (Dec. 2006) - Bud Newman
• Raising Flagg (Feb. 2007) - Flagg Purdy
• Bee Movie (scheduled 2007) - voice of Uncle Howard
• Rendition (scheduled 2007)
• Sunshine Cleaning (scheduled 2008)
• Get Smart (scheduled July 2008) - the Chief of CONTROL [1]

Episodic television

• East Side/West Side â€" "The Beatnik and the Politician" (1964) - Ted Miller
• ABC Stage 67 â€" "The Love Song of Barney Kempinski" (1966) - Barney Kempinski
• Sesame Street (1969) - Larry (episodes n.a., 1970â€"1972)
• Carol Burnett & Company: Episode 1, Season 2 (1979)
• St. Elsewhere: "Ties That Bind," "Lust En Veritas," "Newheart"
• Faerie Tale Theatre: "The Emperor's New Clothes" (1985)
• Harry (March 4â€"25,1987 ABC TV series - Harry Porschak
• Chicago Hope: The Son Also Rises (1997) - Zoltan Karpathein
• 100 Centre Street (2001â€"2002 A&E TV series - Joe Rifkind
• Will & Grace: "It's a Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad World" (2005) - Marty Adler
• Boston Legal Two episodes in Season 3 as a prosecutor.

Filmography (director)

• Little Murders (1971; also actor)
• Fire Sale (1977; also actor)

Footnotes

External links

• Alan Arkin at the Internet Movie Database
• Alan Arkin at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• AndTheWinnerIs.Blog.com (Oct. 30, 2006): "ATWI Interview Series: Grandpa Sunshine"
• Q&A with Arkin at Time.com
• Folkera Tarriers article