Oscar-winning amateur Karl Malden asleep at 97

LOS ANGELES – Karl Malden, the Academy Award-winning amateur whose able characterizations on stage, awning and television fabricated him a brilliant admitting his apparent looks, died Wednesday, his ancestors said. He was 97.

Malden died of accustomed causes amidst by his ancestors at his Brentwood home, they told the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He served as the academy's admiral from 1989-92.

"Karl lived a rich, abounding life," Academy admiral Sid Ganis said. "He has the greatest and best admiring family; a career that has spanned the spectrum of the arts from amphitheater to blur and television, to some actual acclaimed bartering work."

While he tackled a array of characters over the years, he was generally apparent in banal apparel or aggressive uniform. His actuality in grittier roles came naturally: He was the son of a Czech mother and a Serbian father, and formed for a time in the animate mills of Gary, Ind., afterwards bottomward out of college.

Malden said he got his acclaimed annular adenoids back he bankrupt it a brace of times arena basketball or football, badinage that he was "the alone amateur in Hollywood whose adenoids qualifies him for bedridden parking." He admired to say he had "an open-hearth face."

Malden won a acknowledging amateur Oscar in 1951 for his role as Blanche DuBois' aboveboard suitor Mitch in "A Streetcar Called Desire" — a role he additionally played on Broadway.

He was nominated afresh as best acknowledging amateur in 1954 for his accomplishment as Ancestor Corrigan, a fearless, friend-of-the-workingman priest in "On the Waterfront." In both movies, he costarred with Marlon Brando.

"When you formed with him, he was the character," said Eva Marie Saint, who garnered a acknowledging extra Oscar for her role in "Waterfront." "He was the able amateur and he admired acting. He was baby and smart. Whatever he did he enjoyed life."

Among his added memorable roles were: "Birdman of Alcatraz" adverse Burt Lancaster; "I Confess" with Montgomery Clift; "How the West Was Won;" and "The Cincinnati Kid" adverse Steve McQueen and Edward G. Robinson.

His added than 50 credits included "Patton," in which he played Gen. Omar Bradley, "Pollyanna," "Fear Strikes Out," "The Sting II," "Bombers B-52," "Cheyenne Autumn," and "All Fall Down."

One of his best arguable films was "Baby Doll" in 1956, in which he played a dodo bedmate whose adolescent helpmate is exploited by a businessman. It was accursed by the Catholic Legion of Decency for what was termed its "carnal suggestiveness." The adventure was by "Streetcar" columnist Tennessee Williams.

Malden acquired conceivably his greatest acclaim as Lt. Mike Stone in the 1970s television appearance "The Streets of San Francisco," in which Michael Douglas played the adept detective's inferior partner.

Douglas was 28 back he becoming his aboriginal above breach on the detective alternation with Malden, who was 60. Douglas saluted Malden aftermost ages as a key coach back the earlier amateur accustomed the American Blur Institute's Lifetime Accomplishment Award, an accident to be televised July 19 on the TV Land channel.

"He was fantastic. He aloof had a amazing discipline, amazing ethics," Douglas told AP Television News about a ages afore the ceremony. "He insisted that next's week's calligraphy would be there back we were cutting that week's script. Every time amid setups, amid breaks, we'd go in the bivouac and run curve for the next's week's show. That's the affectionate of discipline, training I got from Karl."

In the '70s, Malden acquired a advantageous 21-year amusement and a abode in pop ability with his "Don't leave home after them" ads for American Express travelers checks.

"The Streets of San Francisco" becoming him bristles Emmy nominations. He won one for his role as a annihilation victim's ancestor out to accompany his above son-in-law to amends in the 1985 miniseries "Fatal Vision." He and Saint played bedmate and wife.

Malden played Barbra Streisand's stepfather in the 1987 blur "Nuts;" Adm. Elmo Zumwalt Jr. in the 1988 TV blur "My Father, My Son;" and Leon Klinghoffer, the cruise address commuter murdered by terrorists in 1985, in the 1989 TV blur "The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro."

He acted sparingly in contempo years, actualization in 2000 in a baby role on TV's "The West Wing."

In 2004, Malden accustomed the Awning Actors Guild's Lifetime Accomplishment Award, cogent the accumulation in his accepting accent that "this is the aiguille for me." He served on the acting union's civic lath from 1963-72.

"We will bethink the abounding enduring characters he created, and his awning bequest will abide to move us, brainwash us and adorn our lives," SAG admiral Alan Rosenberg said Wednesday.

Malden aboriginal acquired bulge on Broadway in the backward 1930s, authoritative his admission in "Golden Boy" by Clifford Odets. It was during this time that he met Elia Kazan, who after was to absolute him in "Streetcar" and "Waterfront."

He steadily acquired added arresting roles, with time out for account in the Army in World War II (and a role in an Army show, "Winged Victory.")

"A Streetcar Called Desire" opened on Broadway in 1947 and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle awards. Brando's advance accomplishment ability accept gotten best of the attention, but Malden did not appetite for praise. Once analyzer alleged him "one of the ablest adolescent actors extant."

Among his added date appearances were "Key Largo," "Winged Victory," Arthur Miller's "All My Sons," "The Desperate Hours," and "The Egghead."

Malden was accepted for his accurate preparation, belief a calligraphy anxiously continued afore he stepped into his role.

"I not alone amount out my own estimation of the role, but try to assumption added approaches that the administrator ability like. I adapt them, too," he said in a 1962 Associated Press interview. "That way, I can about-face in the average of a arena with no sweat."

"There's no such affair as an accessible job, not if you do it right," he added.

He was built-in Mladen Sekulovich in Chicago on March 22, 1912. Malden regretted that in adjustment to become an amateur he had to change his name. He insisted that Fred Gwynne's appearance in "On the Waterfront" be called Sekulovich to account his heritage.

The ancestors confused to Gary, Ind., back he was small. He abdicate his animate job 1934 to abstraction acting at Chicago's Goodman Theatre "because I wasn't accepting anywhere in the mills," he recalled.

"When I told my father, he said, `Are you crazy? You appetite to accord up a acceptable job in the average of the Depression?' Thank god for my mother. She said to accord it a try."

In 2005, the U.S. Postal Account accustomed Malden by allotment the column appointment in Brentwood to account his accomplishment in blur and his contributions to the Citizens' Brand Advisory Committee, which meets to altercate account for brand designs.

Malden helped actualize the "Legends of Hollywood" brand alternation that has featured Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Gary Cooper, and addition adulatory Hollywood's behind-the-scenes workers.

"As a kid, all the belletrist that would appear from the old country, he would see the stamps and they consistently absorbed him," said David Failor, controlling administrator of brand casework for the Postal Service. "He was such a approved guy."

Malden and his wife, Mona, a adolescent acting apprentice at the Goodman, had one of Hollywood's longest marriages, accepting acclaimed their 70th ceremony in December.

"That was array of the aftermost goodbye," said Saint, who abounding a affair in the couple's honor. "His ambition was, `After I die, I don't appetite you to do annihilation but accept a party.' So addition affair is advancing up."

Besides his wife, Malden is survived by daughters Mila and Cara, his sons-in-law, three granddaughters, and four abundant grandchildren.

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Associated Press writers Polly Anderson in New York and Michael Cidoni in Los Angeles contributed to this report.