Walter Matthau
Birthday: 1920-10-01
Place of Birth: New York City, New York, USA
Biography: Walter Matthau (born Walter John Matthow; October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American actor, comedian and film director. He is best known for his film roles in A Face in the Crowd (1957), King Creole (1958) and as a coach of a hapless little league team in the baseball comedy The Bad News Bears (1976). He also starred in 10 films alongside Jack Lemmon, including The Odd Couple (1968), The Front Page (1974) and Grumpy Old Men (1993). Matthau won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the Billy Wilder film The Fortune Cookie (1966). Matthau is also known for his performances in Stanley Donen's romance Charade (1963), Gene Kelly's musical Hello, Dolly! (1969), Elaine May's screwball comedy A New Leaf (1971) and Herbert Ross' ensemble comedy California Suite (1978). He also starred in Plaza Suite, Kotch (both 1971), Charley Varrick (1973), The Sunshine Boys (1975), and Hopscotch (1980). On Broadway, Matthau originated the role of Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple by playwright Neil Simon, for which he received a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1965, his second after A Shot in the Dark in 1962. Matthau also received two British Academy Film Awards and a Golden Globe Award. In 1963, he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his performance in The DuPont Show of the Week. In 1982, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Movies
The Front Page
A journalist suffering from burn-out wants to finally say goodbye to his office – but his boss doesn...
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Fail Safe
Because of a technical defect an American bomber team mistakenly orders the destruction of Moscow. T...
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JFK
Follows the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy led by New Orleans dis...
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The Fortune Cookie
A cameraman is knocked over during a football game. His brother-in-law, as the king of the ambulance...
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Hanging Up
Three sisters - Georgia, Eve, and Maddy - do what they do best with life, love, and lunacy on the te...
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Charade
After Regina Lampert falls for the dashing Peter Joshua on a skiing holiday in the French Alps, she ...
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Earthquake
Various interconnected people struggle to survive when an earthquake of unimaginable magnitude hits ...
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A Guide for the Married Man
A man gives his friend a series of lessons on how to cheat on one's wife without being caught....
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A Face in the Crowd
The rise of a raucous hayseed named Lonesome Rhodes from itinerant Ozark guitar picker to local medi...
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The Odd Couple
In New York, Felix, a neurotic news writer who just broke up with his wife, is urged by his chaotic ...
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Grumpy Old Men
For decades, next-door neighbors and former friends John and Max have feuded, trading insults and wi...
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Last of the Independents: Don Siegel and the Making of 'Charley Varrick'
Don Siegel’s classic crime thriller "Charley Varrick," made in 1972 in the wake of the immensely suc...
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I.Q.
Albert Einstein helps a young man who's in love with Einstein's niece to catch her attention by pret...
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The Bad News Bears
An aging, down-on-his-luck ex-minor leaguer coaches a team of misfits in an ultra-competitive Califo...
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The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
In New York, armed men hijack a subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers. Even if it's paid...
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The Couch Trip
The escaped mental patient and delinquent John W. Burns Jr. replaces Dr. Maitlin on a radio show, sa...
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Hopscotch
When CIA operative Miles Kendig deliberately lets KGB agent Yaskov get away, his boss threatens to r...
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Dennis the Menace
Mr. Wilson's ever-present annoyance comes in the form of one mischievous kid named Dennis. But he'll...
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The Odd Couple II
Brucey, the son of Oscar, calls his father to invite him to his wedding to Felix's daughter next Sun...
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Bigger Than Life
A friendly, successful suburban teacher and father grows dangerously addicted to cortisone, resultin...
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California Suite
The misadventures of four groups of guests at the Beverly Hills Hotel....
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Charley Varrick
Charley Varrick robs a bank in a small town with his friends, but instead of obtaining a small amoun...
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Cactus Flower
A dentist pretends to be married to avoid commitment, but when he falls for his girlfriend and propo...
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The Survivors
Having both lost their jobs, two strangers become unlikely friends after a run in with a would be ro...
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Buddy Buddy
During a high profile Mafia testimony case, a contract killer checks-in a hotel room near the courth...
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I Ought to Be in Pictures
Grandmother has nothing to say when Libby tells her that she is off to LA to look up Dad, a Hollywoo...
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Hello, Dolly!
Dolly Levi is a strong-willed matchmaker who travels to Yonkers, New York in order to see the miserl...
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The Laughing Policeman
When a gunman opens fire on a crowded city bus in San Francisco, Detective Dave Evans is killed, alo...
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House Calls
Charley is a surgeon who's recently lost his wife; he embarks on a tragicomic romantic quest with on...
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Plaza Suite
Film version of the Neil Simon play has three separate acts set in the same hotel suite in New York'...
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A New Leaf
After running out of funds, Henry Graham, a carefree playboy, plots to marry and murder wealthy bota...
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Ensign Pulver
1945, on an old cargo ship somewhere deep in the Pacific ocean: Captain Morton strives to become com...
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Lonely are the Brave
A fiercely independent cowboy arranges to have himself locked up in jail in order to then escape wit...
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I'm Not Rappaport
Old Nat Moyer is a talker, a philosopher, and a troublemaker with a fanciful imagination. His compan...
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The Little Devil
Father Maurice, a priest living in a residential college for priests in Rome, is called out one day ...
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Grumpier Old Men
A family wedding reignites the ancient feud between next-door neighbors and fishing buddies John and...
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Ride a Crooked Trail
After robbing a bank Murphy assumes the identity of his pursuer, a famous US Marshal, when he stumbl...
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The Sunshine Boys
Lewis and Clark, aka The Sunshine Boys, were famous comedians during the vaudeville era, but off-sta...
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Candy
A high school girl encounters a variety of kookie characters and humorous sexual situations while se...
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Little Miss Marker
Sorrowful Jones is a cheap bookie in the 1930s. When a gambler leaves his daughter as a marker for a...
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The Grass Harp
Based on the novel by Truman Capote, this often-witty coming-of-age drama looks at a young man growi...
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Out to Sea
Care-free Charlie cons his widower brother-in-law Herb into an expenses-paid luxury cruise in search...
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King Creole
Danny Fisher, young delinquent, flunks out of high school. He quits his job as a busboy in a nightcl...
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Gangster Story
Gangster and cop killer Jack Martin is on the run from the law, and hides out in a small town. Low o...
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Mirage
After a blackout in his office building, accountant David Stillwell emerges outside to find out a ma...
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Voice in the Mirror
Jim Burton, chronic alcoholic, is cared for by Ellen, his incredibly patient, sexy, hard-working wif...
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Slaughter on 10th Avenue
A rookie assistant DA is assigned to investigate the murder of a longshoreman, killed for exposing g...
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Incident in a Small Town
Lily and her son John live alone in a small town as her husband has been killed fighting the war in ...
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Casey's Shadow
Young Casey comes from a family of racehorse trainers, and his best friend, a foal called Casey's Sh...
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First Monday in October
For the first time in history a woman is appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where she becomes a fr...
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Kotch
When retired salesman Joseph Kotcher begins to feel pressure to move out of the house he shares with...
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The Indian Fighter
A scout leading a wagon train through hostile Indian country gets involved with a Sioux chief's daug...
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Strangers When We Meet
A suburban architect loves his wife but is bored with his marriage and with his work, so he takes up...
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Who's Got the Action?
A lawyer begins to win after his wife secretly becomes his bookie to save their money....
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Movers & Shakers
Studio head Joe Mulholland promises his dying producer and mentor, Saul Gritz, to adapt a popular se...
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Pete 'n' Tillie
A fun-loving bachelor woos and weds a secretary, but the bonds of this marriage aren't strong enough...
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Island of Love
Con artist Steve Blair persuades Tony Dallas, a Manhattan gangster, to finance a movie about Adam an...
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Hollywood: The Gift of Laughter
A retrospective look at 60 years of great moments in film comedy, from the 1920s to 1982....
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Revisiting 'Fail-Safe'
Documentary featuring interviews with director Sidney Lumet, "Fail-Safe" (2000) producer George Cloo...
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'Fail-Safe' and the Cold War
Film critic J. Hoberman discusses the best-selling 1962 novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler o...
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The Incident
Small town lawyer, Harmon Cobb, defends a Nazi prisoner of war against murder charges. Set during Wo...
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Portrait of a '60% Perfect Man': Billy Wilder
French film critic Michel Ciment interviews Billy Wilder about his life and filmmaking....
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Onionhead
An irresponsible student enlists in the Coast Guard expecting to sit out World War II....
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The Gentleman Tramp
A film about the life and work of the master comedy filmmaker, Charles Chaplin....
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The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
Based on the first centenary of the largest exporter of films in the world, that is Hollywood, is th...
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The Stingiest Man in Town
An animated adaptation of A Christmas Carol from Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass -- the duo behind ...
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A Beverly Hills Christmas
An evening of Christmas music from stars living in Beverly Hills, California....
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Mrs. Lambert Remembers Love
Longtime singles Lillian Lambert and Clifford Pepperman enjoy a romance late in their lives....
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Goodbye Charlie
When a cavorting Hollywood writer is killed by the angry husband of a woman he was having an affair ...
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Funny Business
A documentary hosted by Walter Matthau, which discussed and showed examples from cinematic comedy cl...
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Awake and Sing!
The Bergers, a blue-collar Jewish family living in an overstuffed tenement and undone by the Depress...
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The Secret Life of an American Wife
A bored housewife poses as a call girl for a movie star sex-symbol, hoping she can prove to her husb...
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How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
This short video features illustrations from the Dr Seuss story book with narration by Walter Mattha...
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Kraft Salutes the George Burns 90th Birthday Special
An all-star cast celebrates George Burn's 90th birthday and showcases highlights in Burns' career....
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Two by Saroyan: 'Once Around the Block' and 'My Heart's in the Highlands'
Two plays by William Saroyan portraying writers stymied, inspired, frustrated, excited, listful, wis...
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The Marriage Fool
Recently widowed after 41 years of marriage, Frank Walsh meets the outgoing Florence, sparking joy b...
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Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore
In the second dramatic case for lawyer Harmon Cobb, he defends an incarcerated woman who is wrongly ...
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Atomic Attack
A family living 50 miles away try to flee from the fallout of an atomic bomb that fell on New York C...
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James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
Documentary about James Stewart's long career as an actor and positive personal life....
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Jack Lemmon: America's Everyman
Jack Lemmon made over 60 films and received numerous awards, including eight Academy Award Nominatio...
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Big Deal in Laredo
A timid man with money problems gets into a big card game with some high-rollers....
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The Lion Roars Again
A chronicle of the 1975 International Press Conclave hosted by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer over two days in ...
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Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy
This spellbinding documentary re-examines the issues raised by Oliver Stone's JFK, and explores the ...
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Laurel and Hardy: A Tribute to the Boys
Modern comedians share their thoughts about Laurel and Hardy. Also includes archival footage of cont...
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Private Screenings: Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau
Robert Osborne hosts this TCM original featuring an exclusive interview with the original Odd Couple...
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Carol Channing and 101 Men
Carol Channing hosts musical variety special with guests Walter Matthau, George Burns, U.S. Air Forc...
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Jack Benny's Bag
Jack Benny's 1968 TV specials features topical references including a parody of The Graduate....
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Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre
A study of the Group Theatre, a company that changed the face of American drama. The Group was found...
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Chaplin
An aged Charlie Chaplin narrates his life to his autobiography's editor, including his rise to wealt...
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Elvis: A Life in Music
A retrospective on the life of the legendary entertainer Elvis Presley, featuring the most significa...
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