Alan Arkin Quotes
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Arkin performed in the sketch comedy group The Second City before acting on the Broadway stage, starring as David Kolowitz in the Joseph Stein play Enter Laughing in 1963, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He returned to Broadway acting in the comedic play Luv (1964), and directed Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys (1971), for which he received a Tony Award nomination.
Arkin gained stardom with his roles in many films, including Russians Are Coming (1966), Woman Times Seven Wait Until Dark (Both in 1967), Inspector Clouseau and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Both in 1968), Popi (1969), Catch-22 (1970), Freebie and the Bean (1974), Hearts of the West (1975), The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), The In-Laws (1979), Simon (1980), Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (1981), and Big Trouble (1986). Later, he took on supporting roles in many films, including Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Rocketeer (1991), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Indian Summer (1993), North (1994), Grosse Pointe Blank and Gattaca (Both in 1997), Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), Jakob the Liar (1999), America's Sweethearts and Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (Both in 2001), Firewall (2006), Rendition (2007), Sunshine Cleaning and Get Smart (Both in 2008), Marley & Me, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, and City Island (All in 2009), The Change-Up (2011), Argo and Stand Up Guys (Both in 2012), The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and Grudge Match (Both in 2013), Million Dollar Arm (2014), Love the Coopers (2015), Going in Style (2017), Dumbo (2019), and Spenser Confidential (2020). His television roles included Leon Felhendler in Escape from Sobibor (1987), and as Harry Rowen in The Pentagon Papers (2003) for which he earned Emmy nominations respectively for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. Arkin also directed three films, including the two comedy films Little Murders (1971) and Fire Sale (1977). For his performance, Arkin starred as a foul-mouthed grandfather Edwin Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.Arkin was voiced as Schmendrick in The Last Unicorn (1982), as J. D. Salinger in the Netflix animated series BoJack Horseman (2015–16), and as Wild Knuckles in Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022).
From 2018 to 2019 alongside his co-star Michael Douglas, Arkin starred as a talent agent Norman Newlander (named after his second wife Suzanne's surname) in the Netflix comedy series The Kominsky Method, earning two consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.Arkin died of cardiac arrest at his home in San Diego, California, on June 29, 2023, at the age of 89.