Karin Silvina Hiebaum – International Press
Whether as a party companion in love with the same woman in A Tram Called Desire (1951) or as the priest who faced the mafia in Rat’s Nest (1954), Karl Malden – world famous as Detective Mike Stone from the TV series The Streets of San Francisco – offered his best performances in front of a Hollywood legend: Marlon Brando. He won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the first title and received a second nomination in that same category for the second.
That golden statuette he won had his story. In 1985, Malden sent it to the manufacturer in Chicago to restore its original shine, but he discovered, as early as 2006, that the Oscar he received back was fake and that the original had gone on sale on eBay that year. It all ended with a lawsuit from the Hollywood Academy and the fraud managers, Randy and Matt Mariani, finally returned the prize to its owner.
In the 50s and 60s he acted in several film classics. He received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1952 for his role as Mitch in the film adaptation of the Tennessee Williams classic “A Tram Called Desire” by Elia Kazan.
Malden, born on March 22, 1912 in Chicago to a Czech mother and Serbian father, played Detective Mike Stone from “The Streets of San Francisco” along with Michael Douglas in the role of Inspector Steve Keller in the 1970s, which gave him worldwide fame and several Emmy nominations.
However, in Hollywood he was already known decades ago as a race actor, both in cinema and in theater. Before the series, the man with the characteristic wide nose and rough voice had called television a “bastar”
In total, he worked on more than 70 films and television shows during his career. He was a distinguished supporting actor. He once said: “I always knew that I wouldn’t be a leading actor. Look at my face.”
He had already performed “A tram called desire” in the theater in 1947, on Broadway. Vivien Leigh also won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1952 for her role as Blanche Dubois in the film adaptation of Williams’ play.
In 1955 he was nominated again for an Oscar for “On the Waterfront,” by Elia Kazan (known as “Rat’s Nest” or “The Law of Silence” in the Spanish-speaking world), in which he again acted alongside Marlon Brando and played the priest. In 1984 he received an Emmy Award for the TV film “Fatal Vision”. In 1989 Malden, who was always one of the most respected spokespeople in Hollywood, was elected president of the American Academy of Sciences and Arts – which awards the Oscars – and held the position until 1993.
He also acted in remembered films such as “Beyond the Poseidon Adventure” and “Patton”.
“I was so lucky in my life,” he once said. Actually, more than luck there was a lot of work and talent. Above all, Elia Kazan held him in high esteem.
He played an impressive leading role in 1956 in the once scandalous film “Baby Doll”, where he acted as the husband of a woman-girl (Carroll Baker) who had to wait until he was “mature for marriage.” Tennessee Williams wrote the script and Kazan directed the film. Most critics were enthusiastic, except for the guardians of American morality, who considered it “dirt.”
There was never too much gossip about his figure: in 1938 he married his colleague Mona Graham, had two daughters with her and never divorced, his being one of the longest-lived marriages in Hollywood. His last appearance as an actor was in 2000 in the TV series “The West Wing”, which recreated the daily life of an American president.
Malden, whose real name was Malden George Sekulovich – he changed it to “be in the canopies” – was born in Chicago in March 1912 and was the son of a Czechoslovak immigrant. His father was of Serbian origin and was a milkman for 38 years. He married Mona Greenberg in 1938 and had two daughters, Mila and Carla, with whom he wrote his autobiography When Do I Start?: A Memoir, in 1997.
