Actor Eli Wallach Dead at 98

“You never had a rope around your neck. Well, I’m going to tell you something. When that rope starts to pull tight, you can feel the Devil bite your ass.”

A shame when they go so young!

98! –and his last role was just four years ago! Eli Wallach had such a long and memorable career beginning with BABY DOLL in 1956. It was always nice seeing him in more recent films like Eastwood’s MYSTIC RIVER and in the back of my mind I would think about the great villains he played like Tuco in THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, Calvera in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, and even Mr. Freeze on TV’s Batman! He was a great actor and true gentleman who, fortunately for us, led a long and active life. Wallach enjoyed a long, loving relationship with his wife of 66 years, actress Anne Jackson and is also survived by three children, five grandchildren and several great-grandchildren. In early 2005, Eli Wallach released his much anticipated autobiography, “The Good, The Bad And Me: In My Anecdotage”. He will be missed.

Here’s Wallach at his nastiest in Don Siegel’s great 1958 noir THE LINEUP

From THE NEW YORK TIMES:

Eli Wallach, who was one of his generation’s most prominent and prolific character actors in film, onstage and on television for more than 60 years, died on Tuesday. He was 98.

His death was confirmed by his daughter Katherine.

A self-styled journeyman actor, the versatile Mr. Wallach appeared in scores of roles, often with his wife, Anne Jackson. No matter the part, he always seemed at ease and in control, whether playing a Mexican bandit in the 1960 western “The Magnificent Seven,” a bumbling clerk in Ionesco’s allegorical play “Rhinoceros,” a henpecked French general in Jean Anouilh’s “Waltz of the Toreadors,” Clark Gable’s sidekick in “The Misfits” or a Mafia don in “The Godfather: Part III.”……..

Read the rest HERE

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/25/movies/eli-wallach-multifaceted-actor-dies-at-98.html?_r=0