Karl Malden (born as Mladen Sekulovich in Chicago March 22, 1912) is an American actor, known for his bulbous nose and expansive manner.
Malden is the son of a Serbian father and a Czech mother. The Sekulovich family roots trace back to the city of Bileća in Herzegovina. At the age of five, Karl and his family moved to Gary, Indiana, where he grew up, after which he moved to New York City. He first appeared as an actor on Broadway in 1937, then did some radio work, before becoming a movie character actor in 1940. His acting career was interupted by World War II and Malden served as a noncommissioned officer the US 8th Air Force.
Among the many films Malden has acted in are A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), Pollyanna (1960), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), How the West Was Won (1962), and Patton (1970) (playing Gen. Omar Bradley). Notable TV appearances include The Streets of San Francisco (1972) (co-starring with a young Michael Douglas), and the film The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro (1989) (as wheelchair-bound senior citizen Leon Klinghoffer).
He famously delivered the line "Don't leave home without it!" in a series of US television commercials for American Express in the 1970s and 1980s.
Karl Malden is a past president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In October of 2003, Malden was named the 40th recipient of the Screen Actors Guild's Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment.
Karl Malden inspired the newsgroup alt.fan.karl-malden.nose.
Filmography
External link
Last updated: 10-15-2005 18:28:10
