Oscar Winner Karl Malden Dies

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Oscar Winner Karl Malden Dies

Wed., Jul. 1, 2009 2:47 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg

Karl Malden, Vivien Leigh, A Street Car Named Desire

Warner Bros. Pictures

Karl Malden, the acting great who worked the Waterfront with Marlon Brando and patrolled The Streets of San Francisco with Michael Douglas, died today at 97.

Malden passed away from natural causes at his home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, his family announced.

While Gen Xers may know Malden best as the guy who warned us not to leave home without an American Express card in a series of 1980s TV commercials, he was one of the most respected stars in Tinseltown.

Known for his tough-guy persona and crooked nose, Malden rose through the Hollywood ranks with fellow Method man Brando, winning a Supporting Actor Oscar as best buddy Mitch to the latter's Stanley Kowalski in 1951's A Streetcar Named Desire.

Malden was nominated again in the same category three years later for playing a priest who persuaded Brando's Terry Malloy to testify against a mob-backed union boss in Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront. (Coincidentally, Brando also died on July 1, five years ago.)

Other notable movie credits include Baby Doll (1956), Fear Strikes Out (1957), Pollyanna (1960), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Gypsy (1962), How the West Was Won (1962), The Cincinnatti Kid (1965) and Patton, playing Gen. Omar Bradley opposite Oscar winner George C. Scott.

Malden showed Douglas the ropes as Lt. Mike Stone on the hit '70s TV crime series The Streets of San Francisco, earning four Emmy nominations. He eventually won an Emmy for his supporting role in the 1984 TV movie Fatal Vision.

In 2003, the Screen Actors Guild presented Malden with its Lifetime Achievement Award, while the U.S. House of Representatives even authorized a Los Angeles post office to be named in his honor.

Last month, at his own AFI tribute (to which Malden contributed a video salute), Douglas hailed the man he called "my true mentor."

"It was Karl more than anyone who got me to understand that an actor is just one part of a whole team that makes a TV series or a movie work. And thanks to him, I learned about the dichotomy of standing alone in a craft where one must collaborate.

"For 104 episodes of Streets of San Francisco Karl Malden was a caring, thorough and generous teacher who i can never repay for all he has done for me...And Karl know this—you taught your adopted son well."

And in a statement today, Douglas called Malden "a great actor, father and husband," adding, "I admired and loved him deeply."

Malden's survivors include his wife, Nona, and daughters Mila and Cara.

(Originally published July 1, 2009, at 12:38 p.m. PT)