"Movie icon" Jack Palance dies
Jack Palance during his 1950s heyday
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Saturday, 11, Nov 2006 08:52
Jack Palance, the Oscar-winning actor who starred in Hollywood westerns of the 1950s, died yesterday in California.
Palance passed away peacefully from natural causes while surrounded by his family, his spokesman Dick Guttman said. He was 87 years old.
The former cowboy actor, whose lean and mean features were perfect for his role as a rugged man of the wild west, got his showbiz breakthrough when he replaced Marlon Brando in a Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire.
A movie career quickly followed. Palance received two Oscar nominations in the 1950s, including one for his acclaimed portrayal of Jack Wilson in 1953's Shane, but it was not until 1992 that he finally won his well-earned Academy Award.
That was for the self-parodying City Slickers, a film in which he played a cowboy teaching three holidaymakers from the big city the ways of the west. Although his Oscar for best supporting actor was greatly respected, it was his impromptu behaviour during the acceptance speech which perhaps won him his greatest notoriety.
With the momentousness of the occasion seeming to cause words to fail him, Palance decided that actions were better than words. He leapt to the floor and began to perform a series of one-handed push-ups, much to the audience's delight.
"I am deeply shocked and saddened by the loss of my dear friend Jack Palance, a true movie icon," US comedian Billy Crystal said yesterday evening following the news of Palance's death.