Actor Jack Palance Dies

Oscar And Emmy-Winner Was Perhaps Best Known For Comic Role In 'City Slickers'

(AP)  He spent six years abroad but returned home complaining that his European film roles were "the same kind of roles I left Hollywood because of."

His career failed to regain momentum upon his return, and his later films included "The Professionals," "The Desperadoes," "Monte Walsh," "Chato's Land" and "Oklahoma Crude."

When he appeared as Fidel Castro in 1969's "Che!" about Latin American revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, he told a reporter: "At this stage of my career, I don't formulate reasons why I take roles — the price was right."

He also appeared frequently on television in the 1960s and `70s, winning an Emmy in 1965 for his portrayal of an end-of-the-line boxer in "Requiem for a Heavyweight."

He and his daughter Holly Palance hosted the oddity show "Ripley's Believe It or Not" and he starred in the short-lived series "The Greatest Show on Earth" and "Bronk."

Forty-one years after his auspicious film debut, Palance played against type, to a degree. His "City Slickers" character, Curly, was still a menacing figure to dude ranch visitors Crystal, Daniel Stern and Bruno Kirby, but with a comic twist. And Palance delivered his one-liners with surgeon-like precision.

Through most of his career, Palance maintained his distance from the Hollywood scene. In the late 1960s he bought a sprawling cattle and horse ranch north of Los Angeles. He also owned a bean farm near his home town of Lattimer, Pa.

Although most of his film portrayals were as primitives, Palance was well-spoken and college-educated. His favorite pastimes away from the movie world were painting and writing poetry and fiction.

A strapping 6-feet-4 and 210 pounds, Palance excelled at sports and won a football scholarship to the University of North Carolina. He left after two years, disgusted by commercialization of the sport.

He decided to use his size and strength as a prizefighter, but after two hapless years that resulted in little more than a broken nose that would serve him well as a screen villain, he joined the Army Air Corps in 1942.

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See photos of Jack Palance.

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A year later he was discharged after his B-24 lost power on takeoff and he was knocked unconscious.

The GI Bill of Rights provided Palance's tuition at Stanford University, where he studied journalism. But the drama club lured him, and he appeared in 10 comedies. Just before graduation he left school to try acting professionally in New York.

"I had always wanted to express myself through words," he said in a 1957 interview. "But I always thought I was too big to be an actor. I could see myself knocking over tables. I thought acting was for little ... guys."

He made his Broadway debut in a comedy, "The Big Two," in which he had but one line, spoken in Russian, a language his parents spoke at home.

The play lasted only a few weeks, and he supported himself as a short-order cook, waiter, lifeguard and hot dog seller between other small roles in the theater.

His career breakthrough came when he was chosen as Anthony Quinn's understudy in the road company of "A Streetcar Named Desire," then replaced Marlon Brando in the Stanley Kowalski role on Broadway. The show's director, Elia Kazan, chose him in 1950 for "Panic in the Streets."

Born Walter Jack Palahnuik in Pennsylvania coal country on Feb. 18, 1919, Palance was the third of five children of Ukrainian immigrants. His father worked the mines for 39 years until he died of black lung disease in 1955.

In interviews, Palance recalled bitterly that his family had to buy groceries at the company store, though prices were cheaper elsewhere.

Yet, he told a Saturday Evening Post writer, he had "a good childhood, like most kids think they have."

"It was fine to play there in the third-growth birch and aspen, along the sides of slag piles," he said.

[pmid77]

I always enjoyed watching Jack Palance. It is regretable that in the Saturday morning story about his passing, CBS chose to include the clip from a movie of Palance shooting a man at point blank range. The scene with the gratuitous violence was shown several times throughout the morning. Very unpleasant. I am sure that CBS could have found a better clip.

I am reminded of another CBS show that I saw on the news about fifteen years ago in which, in a "health" segment about violence, CBS showed a scene from the movie "Thelma and Loise" in which a man was shot at point blank range. I did not appreciate that, either. Jack C.

[elgodsell]

This guy was really cool. It was only a couple of days ago that I had given thought to this man. Wondering about him - I hadn't seen anything of him on television. Rest in his wonderful Grace and Peace. Thanks for giving me so much to watch and talk about.

[sircaptjohn]

I say Jack was a Great man as well as Real good in his profession as an actor we all will miss him as he was one of the last of the Mahoneys!!!.
May he rest in peace.
Sircaptjohn.

what shame, a great man and actor, we will miss him

[loudpipes3]

I remember watching Jack Palance in movies ever since I was a kid. I am 58 now. He was one of my favorite TV heroes! ---I wonder what he will say to John Wayne, when he runs into him, --- on the other side?

[aevans60]

Palance was an awesome actor, but I think I remember [vaguely] his role as Dracula. Am I correct?