XDA

Actor Jack Palance has died, at his home in Montecito, Calif., surrounded by family. He was probably 87 but the Actors Guild has his age at 85--you know how vain those actors are. Palance was the son of a Pennsylvanian coal miner, a Ukrainian; his birth name was Vladimir Palaniuk. Palance was a heavyweight fighter with 15 victories, 12 by knockout, before 1941. After Pearl Harbor, he signed up for the Army and was badly burned (so it is reported) bailing out of a burning B-24 on a training flight near Tucson, AZ in 1942. He had to have his face reconstructed and was discharged after several operations in 1944 as a "pilot in training.' He hit the acting trail running thereafter; given his size and the fierce demeanor his war service had given him, he was almost always the heavy. He was great in two good 50s B movies, Panic in the Streets and The Halls of Montezuma. He was equally good in a bigger part in seldom seen noir film Sudden Fear with Joan Crawford, but then had to do TV here and there (including a good version of Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight) both before and after his defining role in Shane in 1953 (he was the bad guy of course, but it was an intelligently guided performance (and I swear something else, something weird, was going on between him and Alan Ladd--tough to pin down)). Other highlights include The Professionals in 1966 and Monte Walsh in 1970. The rest are pretty bad, especially the foreign ones where he usually just stands there looking mean and/or being larger than life in a totally unbelievable way. The bad ones number nearly 120--that's a lot of movie roles.

He also had a minor but going career in European, mainly Italian, movies (Palance spoke Ukrainian, Russian, English, Italian, Spanish and French). Despite his tough guy screen persona, he painted girly man paintings (actually some are quite beautiful) and wrote poetry. He graduated from Stanford in 1949 with a BA in Drama. He could do several one armed push-ups in his 70s, as he demonstrated at the Academy Awards when words failed him during his poorly practiced acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor in City Slickers.

One day in late 1971, when I was crossing the football practice field to get to soccer practice, Jack Palance was out there watching the last Stanford team to go to the Rose Bowl and win. Our eyes met, but I was too shy to say anything. He was a big guy and imposing. Hollywood doesn't produce many like him anymore. RIP.