Jack Warden(1920-2006)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jack Warden was born John Warden Lebzelter, Jr. on September 18, 1920 in Newark,
New Jersey, to Laura M. (Costello) and John Warden Lebzelter. His father
was of German and Irish descent, and his mother was of Irish ancestry.
Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, at the age of seventeen, young Jack Lebzelter
was expelled from Louisville's DuPont Manual High School for repeatedly
fighting. Good with his fists, he turned professional, boxing as a
welterweight under the name "Johnny Costello", adopting his mother's
maiden name. The purses were poor, so he soon left the ring and worked
as a bouncer at a night club. He also worked as a lifeguard before
signing up with the U.S. Navy in 1938. He served in China with the
Yangtze River Patrol for the best part of his three-year hitch before
joining the Merchant Marine in 1941.
Though the Merchant Marine paid better than the Navy, Warden was
dissatisfied with his life aboard ship on the long convoy runs and quit
in 1942 in order to enlist in the U.S. Army. He became a paratrooper
with the elite 101st Airborne Division, and missed the June 1944
invasion of Normandy due to a leg badly broken by landing on a fence
during a nighttime practice jump shortly before D-Day. Many of his
comrades lost their lives during the Normandy invasion, but the future
Jack Warden was spared that ordeal. Recuperating from his injuries, he
read a play by Clifford Odets given to
him by a fellow soldier who was an actor in civilian life. He was so
moved by the play, he decided to become an actor after the war. After
recovering from his badly shattered leg, Warden saw action at the
Battle of the Bulge, Nazi Germany's last major offensive. He was
demobilized with the rank of sergeant and decided to pursue an acting
career on the G.I. Bill. He moved to New York City to attend acting
school, then joined the company of Theatre
'47 in Dallas in 1947 as
a professional actor, taking his middle name as his surname.
This repertory company, run by
Margo Jones,
became famous in the 1940s and '50s for producing Tennessee Williams's
plays. The experience gave him a valuable grounding in both classic and
contemporary drama, and he shuttled between Texas and New York for five
years as he was in demand as an actor. Warden made his television debut
in 1948, though he continued to perform on stage (he appeared in a
stage production in
Arthur Miller's
Death of a Salesman (1966)).
After several years in small, local productions, he made both his
Broadway debut in the 1952 Broadway revival of Odets' "Golden Boy" and,
three years later, originated the role of "Marco" in the original
Broadway production of Miller's "A View From the Bridge". On film, he
and fellow World War II veteran,
Lee Marvin (Marine Corps, South
Pacific), made their debut in
You're in the Navy Now (1951)
(a.k.a. "U.S.S. Teakettle"), uncredited, along with fellow vet
Charles Bronson, then billed as
"Charles Buchinsky".
With his athletic physique, he was routinely cast in bit parts as
soldiers (including the sympathetic barracks-mate of
Montgomery Clift and
Frank Sinatra in the Oscar-winning
From Here to Eternity (1953).
He played the coach on TV's
Mister Peepers (1952) with
Wally Cox.
Aside from
From Here to Eternity (1953)
(The Best Picture Oscar winner for 1953), other famous roles in the
1950s included Juror #7 (a disinterested salesman who wants a quick
conviction to get the trial over with) in
12 Angry Men (1957) - a film that
proved to be his career breakthrough - the bigoted foreman in
Edge of the City (1957) and one
of the submariners commended by
Clark Gable and
Burt Lancaster in the World War II drama,
Run Silent Run Deep (1958).
In 1959, Warden capped off the decade with a memorable appearance in
The Twilight Zone (1959)
episode,
The Lonely (1959),
in the series premier year of 1959. As "James Corry", Warden created a
sensitive portrayal of a convicted felon marooned on an asteroid,
sentenced to serve a lifetime sentence, who falls in love with a robot.
It was a character quite different from his role as Juror #7.
In the 1960s and early 70s, his most memorable work was on television,
playing a detective in
The Asphalt Jungle (1961),
The Wackiest Ship in the Army (1965)
and N.Y.P.D. (1967). He opened up
the decade of the 1970s by winning an Emmy Award playing football coach
"George Halas" in
Brian's Song (1971), the
highly-rated and acclaimed TV movie based on
Gale Sayers's memoir, "I Am Third". He
appeared again as a detective in the TV series,
Jigsaw John (1976), in the
mid-1970s,
The Bad News Bears (1979)
and appeared in a pilot for a planned revival of
Topper (1937) in 1979.
His collaboration with
Warren Beatty in two 1970s films
brought him to the summit of his career as he displayed a flair for
comedy in both Shampoo (1975) and
Heaven Can Wait (1978). As the
faintly sinister businessman "Lester" and as the perpetually befuddled
football trainer "Max Corkle", Warden received Academy Award
nominations as Best Supporting Actor. Other memorable roles in the
period were as the metro news editor of the "Washington Post" in
All the President's Men (1976),
the German doctor in
Death on the Nile (1978), the
senile, gun-toting judge in
And Justice for All (1979),
the President of the United States in
Being There (1979), the twin car
salesmen in Used Cars (1980) and
Paul Newman's law partner in
The Verdict (1982).
This was the peak of Warden's career, as he entered his early sixties.
He single-handedly made
Andrew Bergman's
So Fine (1981) watchable, but after that
film, the quality of his roles declined. He made a third stab at TV,
again appearing as a detective in
Crazy Like a Fox (1984) in
the mid-1980s. He played the shifty convenience store owner "Big Ben"
in Problem Child (1990) and its two
sequels, a role unworthy of his talent, but he shone again as the
Broadway high-roller "Julian Marx" in
Woody Allen's
Bullets Over Broadway (1994).
After appearing in Warren Beatty's
Bulworth (1998), Warden's last film was
The Replacements (2000) in 2000.
He then lived in retirement in New York City with his girlfriend,
Marucha Hinds. He was married to French stage actress
Wanda Ottoni, best known for her role as
the object of Joe Besser's desire in
The Three Stooges short,
Fifi Blows Her Top (1958). She
gave up her career after her marriage. They had one son, Christopher,
but had been separated for many years.
New Jersey, to Laura M. (Costello) and John Warden Lebzelter. His father
was of German and Irish descent, and his mother was of Irish ancestry.
Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, at the age of seventeen, young Jack Lebzelter
was expelled from Louisville's DuPont Manual High School for repeatedly
fighting. Good with his fists, he turned professional, boxing as a
welterweight under the name "Johnny Costello", adopting his mother's
maiden name. The purses were poor, so he soon left the ring and worked
as a bouncer at a night club. He also worked as a lifeguard before
signing up with the U.S. Navy in 1938. He served in China with the
Yangtze River Patrol for the best part of his three-year hitch before
joining the Merchant Marine in 1941.
Though the Merchant Marine paid better than the Navy, Warden was
dissatisfied with his life aboard ship on the long convoy runs and quit
in 1942 in order to enlist in the U.S. Army. He became a paratrooper
with the elite 101st Airborne Division, and missed the June 1944
invasion of Normandy due to a leg badly broken by landing on a fence
during a nighttime practice jump shortly before D-Day. Many of his
comrades lost their lives during the Normandy invasion, but the future
Jack Warden was spared that ordeal. Recuperating from his injuries, he
read a play by Clifford Odets given to
him by a fellow soldier who was an actor in civilian life. He was so
moved by the play, he decided to become an actor after the war. After
recovering from his badly shattered leg, Warden saw action at the
Battle of the Bulge, Nazi Germany's last major offensive. He was
demobilized with the rank of sergeant and decided to pursue an acting
career on the G.I. Bill. He moved to New York City to attend acting
school, then joined the company of Theatre
'47 in Dallas in 1947 as
a professional actor, taking his middle name as his surname.
This repertory company, run by
Margo Jones,
became famous in the 1940s and '50s for producing Tennessee Williams's
plays. The experience gave him a valuable grounding in both classic and
contemporary drama, and he shuttled between Texas and New York for five
years as he was in demand as an actor. Warden made his television debut
in 1948, though he continued to perform on stage (he appeared in a
stage production in
Arthur Miller's
Death of a Salesman (1966)).
After several years in small, local productions, he made both his
Broadway debut in the 1952 Broadway revival of Odets' "Golden Boy" and,
three years later, originated the role of "Marco" in the original
Broadway production of Miller's "A View From the Bridge". On film, he
and fellow World War II veteran,
Lee Marvin (Marine Corps, South
Pacific), made their debut in
You're in the Navy Now (1951)
(a.k.a. "U.S.S. Teakettle"), uncredited, along with fellow vet
Charles Bronson, then billed as
"Charles Buchinsky".
With his athletic physique, he was routinely cast in bit parts as
soldiers (including the sympathetic barracks-mate of
Montgomery Clift and
Frank Sinatra in the Oscar-winning
From Here to Eternity (1953).
He played the coach on TV's
Mister Peepers (1952) with
Wally Cox.
Aside from
From Here to Eternity (1953)
(The Best Picture Oscar winner for 1953), other famous roles in the
1950s included Juror #7 (a disinterested salesman who wants a quick
conviction to get the trial over with) in
12 Angry Men (1957) - a film that
proved to be his career breakthrough - the bigoted foreman in
Edge of the City (1957) and one
of the submariners commended by
Clark Gable and
Burt Lancaster in the World War II drama,
Run Silent Run Deep (1958).
In 1959, Warden capped off the decade with a memorable appearance in
The Twilight Zone (1959)
episode,
The Lonely (1959),
in the series premier year of 1959. As "James Corry", Warden created a
sensitive portrayal of a convicted felon marooned on an asteroid,
sentenced to serve a lifetime sentence, who falls in love with a robot.
It was a character quite different from his role as Juror #7.
In the 1960s and early 70s, his most memorable work was on television,
playing a detective in
The Asphalt Jungle (1961),
The Wackiest Ship in the Army (1965)
and N.Y.P.D. (1967). He opened up
the decade of the 1970s by winning an Emmy Award playing football coach
"George Halas" in
Brian's Song (1971), the
highly-rated and acclaimed TV movie based on
Gale Sayers's memoir, "I Am Third". He
appeared again as a detective in the TV series,
Jigsaw John (1976), in the
mid-1970s,
The Bad News Bears (1979)
and appeared in a pilot for a planned revival of
Topper (1937) in 1979.
His collaboration with
Warren Beatty in two 1970s films
brought him to the summit of his career as he displayed a flair for
comedy in both Shampoo (1975) and
Heaven Can Wait (1978). As the
faintly sinister businessman "Lester" and as the perpetually befuddled
football trainer "Max Corkle", Warden received Academy Award
nominations as Best Supporting Actor. Other memorable roles in the
period were as the metro news editor of the "Washington Post" in
All the President's Men (1976),
the German doctor in
Death on the Nile (1978), the
senile, gun-toting judge in
And Justice for All (1979),
the President of the United States in
Being There (1979), the twin car
salesmen in Used Cars (1980) and
Paul Newman's law partner in
The Verdict (1982).
This was the peak of Warden's career, as he entered his early sixties.
He single-handedly made
Andrew Bergman's
So Fine (1981) watchable, but after that
film, the quality of his roles declined. He made a third stab at TV,
again appearing as a detective in
Crazy Like a Fox (1984) in
the mid-1980s. He played the shifty convenience store owner "Big Ben"
in Problem Child (1990) and its two
sequels, a role unworthy of his talent, but he shone again as the
Broadway high-roller "Julian Marx" in
Woody Allen's
Bullets Over Broadway (1994).
After appearing in Warren Beatty's
Bulworth (1998), Warden's last film was
The Replacements (2000) in 2000.
He then lived in retirement in New York City with his girlfriend,
Marucha Hinds. He was married to French stage actress
Wanda Ottoni, best known for her role as
the object of Joe Besser's desire in
The Three Stooges short,
Fifi Blows Her Top (1958). She
gave up her career after her marriage. They had one son, Christopher,
but had been separated for many years.