Alan Arkin

Biography

Early life and career

Alan Arkin was born in New York City, of Jewish heritage. His father, David I. Arkin, was a painter and writer who mostly worked as a teacher. Both his father and his mother, Beatrice, were accused of being Communists, which led to his father losing his job during the 1950s after he had refused to answer questions regarding his political affiliation. His father challenged the dismissal and ultimately prevailed, but after his death.

Arkin played recorder on the 1956 Ed McCurdy release "When Dalliance Was in Flower" (Elektra Records LP EKL-110). The liner notes described Arkin as "an accomplished young man in his early twenties. He plays the guitar and recorder and has worked as a television and stage actor, delivery boy, dude ranch entertainer, pot washer and baby sitter. He has recorded an entire album for Elektra titled Folksongs - Once Over Lightly". From 1958 to 1968, Arkin performed and recorded with the children's folk group, The Baby Sitters.

In the mid-1950s, Arkin also sang and played guitar in the folk group The Tarriers, and composed the group's 1956 hit "Banana Boat Song", a reworking of a traditional Jamaican calypso folk song with new lyrics. It reached #4 on the Billboard magazine chart the same year as Harry Belafonte's version.

Arkin attended Los Angeles City College from 1951 to 1953, and Bennington College from 1954 to 1955.

Acting career

Arkin is one of only five actors to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance (for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming) in 1966. Two years later, he was again nominated, for The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. In a piece he wrote for the Second City book, Arkin said he had wanted to be an actor since he was five. It was in a performance in St. Louis that Arkin caught a casting director's eye, who later met with the actor to tell him about a comedy troupe he was assembling in Chicago and if he wanted a job, it was open. Arkin politely declined, before heading back to New York City with the impression that he wasn't going to lose out on a career by moving to Chicago. But after another year as a struggling actor at 29 years old, Arkin called the director and asked if the offer was still open. With the offer still on the table, he packed his bags and headed for the midwest, thinking it was a mistake. But Arkin later said that it turned out to be the best thing in his life since it turned around when he joined what was The Second City comedy troupe.

Arkin is equally comfortable in comedy and dramatic roles, in such diverse films as Inspector Clouseau, Catch-22, Freebie and The Bean, Hearts of the West, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (where he played Sigmund Freud), The Return Of Captain Invincible, Little Murders, Edward Scissorhands, The Rocketeer, the 1979 The In-Laws, Glengarry Glen Ross, Four Days in September, So I Married an Axe Murderer, Jerky Boys: The Movie, Raising Flagg, The Defection of Simas Kudirka, Slums of Beverly Hills and Little Miss Sunshine. He is also well-known for playing the villainous Roat in the 1967 suspense film, Wait Until Dark, opposite Audrey Hepburn.

Writing

Arkin has published science fiction stories in Galaxy and Fantasy and Science Fiction magazines; his story "The Amazing Grandy", in the August 2001 issue of the latter, involved Martin Gardner-style debunkers. He has also written the children's books including The Clearing, Tony's Hard Work Day, and Cassie Loves Beethoven.

Filmography (actor)

In chronological order. For releases in same year/month, specific dates are given.

Episodic television

Filmography (director)