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Biography
Early life
Malden was born as Mladen Sekulovich in Gary, Indiana, to a Serbian father, Petar Sekulovich, who left San Francisco, California in 1910, to move to Eastern Indiana, where he worked as a factory worker in the steel mills, and Minnie Sevarian, a Czech mother, who was a seamstress. The Sekulovich family roots trace back to the city of Bileća in Herzegovina. He also grew up with his 2 younger brothers in Eastern Europe and in Mexico. As a youth, he would joined the Carol George Choir where he would sing and would bash in his performances with his father. In high school, he was proven to be a popular student, as he would be the star of the school's basketball team, participated in the Drama Department, and was even elected, Class President. After his graduation from Emerson High School in 1931, with higher grades, he wanted to leave his native Gary, Indiana, to move someplace else, like Arkansas, where he would get a sports scholarship at a college. But during the depression, upon his arrival in Arkansas, the college rejected him; and had no choice other than to go back to his hometown. That same year (up until 1934), he would work as a factory worker in the steel mills, just like his father did.
Stage Work and Education
Late in 1934, when he arrived in Chicago, Illinois, he heard of the play Juno of the Payback as he jumped the chance to join his first stage production play. That decision proved to be the best moved for Malden after he decided to leave his native, Gary, Indiana, once and for all. When he moved there, he had barely enough money in his pocket which had held him up just to attend the Kenneth Sawyer Goldman Memorial Theatre. He worshipped and loved the school that he would put out a series of plays he acted in. Feeling like the oldest student that he was, he came from a working-class family. He graduated from college in 1937, but soon after, despite of low money he had in his pocket, once again, Malden had no choice other than to head back to Gary, Indiana, again.
Film career before and after World War II
His miserable life at his hometown would come to an end as he traveled to New York City, and was finding some more appropriate plays for the city. He first appeared as an actor on Broadway in 1937, then did some radio work, before becoming a movie character actor in 1940, where his first film was They Knew What They Wanted (1940). He also attended the Group Theatre where he began acting in many plays and was introduced by a young Elia Kazan, who would soon work with him on (A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and On the Waterfront (1954). His acting career was interrupted by World War II and Malden served as a noncommissioned officer the US 8th Air Force. While in the War, he was offered a small and important role in Winged Victory (1944). After the war in 1945, he resumed his acting career, receiving yet another small role in the play, Truckline Cafe, with a young, unfamiliar actor, Marlon Brando. Jobs were getting harder to find for him as he was in his mid-30s and was about to give up. He received a co-starring role in the play, All My Sons with the help of director, Elia Kazan. With that success, he would then transfer into movies.
Film career
Malden has resumed his film acting career in the 1950s, starting with The Gunfighter (1950), the following year, he starred in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), where he played a card-playing friend of Stanley's, On the Waterfront (1954), where he played a priest who must testify their mob bosses. In Baby Doll (1956), he played a powerhungry sexual man who had been interfered by a teenaged wife. When that movie was in theaters, the Catholic Churches thought it was a sin; as Malden would be the star of his own family, in real-life. Before and after he arrived in Hollywood, he starred in dozens of films of the late 1950s to the early 1970s, such as, Fear Strikes Out (1957), Pollyanna (1960), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), How the West Was Won (1962), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), and Patton (1970) (playing Gen Omar Bradley). On this film, he played an officer who had an injured brother, in real-life, which proved to be the blockbuster movie of 1970, after all the movies he starred in (A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront). After his last film, Summertime Killer (1972), movies were getting harder to find, however, he also starred in the television movie The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro (1989) (as wheelchair-bound senior citizen Leon Klinghoffer).
Television work
The Streets of San Francisco
After years of starring in films and in stage work, he was looking for a producer to help Malden get a successful TV series, and Quinn Martin was kind enough for Malden to star in a 2 hr. movie The Streets of San Francisco, in which he played veteran widowed police officer, Detective Lt. Mike Stone. However, in order for him to have a TV series of the same name, he would look for a young actor in the acting family whose father is an actor like Malden. Since the early 1930s, Malden would act in a New York summer stock with a teenaged Kirk Douglas and hired Kirk's son and future movie star, Michael Douglas to play plainclothes detective, Inspector Steve Keller, a man who graduated from college and was starting to work for his boss in this popular 1970s crime drama. The chemistry of Malden and Douglas were a hit. In its first season in 1972, it was a ratings winner among many other 1970s police series, and Malden's own catch-phrase to co-star's Michael Douglas's, "Buddy Boy" have been heard frequently. He was nominated for an Emmy twice in 1976 and 1977 for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and he was also nominated for a Golden Globe in 1976, but didn't win. During the show's fourth season in 1976, his co-star Michael Douglas had left the show to produce the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, was replaced by Richard Hatch, ratings continued to take a nosedive that season. After a 5 season run in 1977, ABC had canceled the show.
After Streets
He tried getting another hit series, Skag, but unlike his role on Streets, it was less successful and was cancelled in 1980. In 1987, he also tried hosting the popular mystery series, Unsolved Mysteries, but lost the part to Robert Stack.
American Express
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.
Awards
Karl Malden won the 1951 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for A Streetcar Named Desire and was nominated in 1954 for his supporting tole in On the Waterfront. 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.
Private life
Malden has been married to Mona Graham since December 18, 1938. Their marriage is the second longest in Hollywood history. Bob Hope's sixty-nine year marriage to Dolores Reade, which lasted from February 19, 1934 until his death on July 27, 2003, is the longest.
Filmography
They Knew What They Wanted (1940)
Winged Victory (1944)
13 Rue Madeleine (1947)
Boomerang! (1947)
Kiss of Death (1947)
The Gunfighter (1950)
Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)
Halls of Montezuma (1951)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
The Sellout (1952)
Diplomatic Courier (1952)
Operation Secret (1952)
Ruby Gentry (1952)
I Confess (1953)
Take the High Ground! (1953)
Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954)
On the Waterfront (1954)
Baby Doll (1956)
Fear Strikes Out (1957)
Bombers B-52 (1957)
The Hanging Tree (1959) (also director)
Pollyanna (1960)
The Great Imposter (1961)
One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Parrish (1961)
All Fall Down (1962)
Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
How the West Was Won (1962)
Gypsy (1962)
Come Fly with Me (1963)
Dead Ringer (1964)
Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
Nevada Smith (1966)
Murderers' Row (1966)
Hotel (1967)
The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin (1967)
Billion Dollar Brain (1967)
Blue (1968)
Hot Millions (1968)
Patton (1970)
The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971)
Wild Rovers (1971)
Summertime Killer (1972)
Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)
Meteor (1979)
Twilight Time (1982)
The Sting II (1983)
Dario Argento's World of Horror (1985) (documentary)
Billy Galvin (1986)
Nuts (1987)
Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (2003) (documentary)
