Jack Lemmon, Actor in Television and Movies
Academy Award Winner for Memorable Performances
Oct 31, 2009
John Uhler Lemmon was born February 8, 1925 in a hospital elevator at Newton, Massachusetts. After graduation from Harvard and a stint in the Navy, he went to New York to study acting.
Jack Lemmon's Television Acting
Jack Lemmon’s first work was a role on the radio soap opera The Brighter Day. He acted in at least 500 live television shows on some of the most important dramatic programs. Years later, he remarked that he wasn’t interested in film work because “live television was glorious”. During his career of more than five decades he performed in more than sixty movies.
After his film debut in The Lady Takes a Sailor in 1949, he received great notices for his work in It Should Happen to You with Judy Holliday in 1954.
Filmmaking and Ensign Pulver
During a visit to the studio, Jack was suddenly selected for the role of Ensign Pulver in Mister Roberts. His comedic performance as a wheeler-dealer in charge of morale and laundry earned him an Oscar for best supporting actor in 1955.
Both Jack Lemmon and his co-star Lee Remick received Oscar nominations for their strong portrayals of alcoholics in Days of Wine and Roses (1962).
His performances in a wide variety of roles invariably pulled in the audiences. In Neil Simon’s The Out-of-Towners (1970), Jack portrays the manic husband of Sandy Dennis. Their journey from Ohio to his new job in New York, and their arrival in the big city, offer only indignities and calamities. His frustration and the quiet resignation of Sandy’s character were wonderfully portrayed. Each received a Golden Globe nomination.
During an interview, Jack remarked that he was susceptible to the parts he played. An example he gave was that if his character had a nervous breakdown, he began to have one.
Academy Award for “Save the Tiger”
Lemmon and Walter Matthau first appeared together in The Fortune Cookie (1966). Both were nominated for Golden Globe Awards for their work in the classic film, The Odd Couple (1968). They went on to become lifelong friends and a famous comic duo in films such as Grumpy Old Men (1993).
In the 1973 movie Save the Tiger, Jack played an executive struggling with ruin and the complexities of modern life. Despite the film’s limited prospects commercially, he was so determined to make it that he worked for scale. His powerful portrayal of Harry Stoner earned him the best actor Academy Award. He was the first to win in both male actor categories.
His other Academy Award nominations were:
- Some Like It Hot (1959)
- The Apartment (1960)
- Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
- The China Syndrome (1979)
- Tribute (1980)
- Missing 1982)
Lemmon won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for The China Syndrome and Missing. The American Film Institute honored him with their Life Achievement Award in 1988. He received an Emmy Award for best actor in a miniseries or movie in 2000 (Morrie).
Highly Respected and Beloved Actor
Jack Lemmon was generous and kind to young performers. He was highly respected and beloved by many in Hollywood. Actor Ving Rhames won the Golden Globe Award for best actor in a television movie in 1998 for Don King: Only in America.
He called Lemmon who was nominated for Twelve Angry Men to join him on stage. He then gave the award to Jack, who tried to give it back to Rhames. A duplicate was later sent to the generous young actor.
Jack Lemmon who died of cancer June 27, 2001, was married twice. He and first wife, actress Cynthia Stone had son Chris in 1954. He and actress Felicia Farr had one daughter, Courtney, born in 1966.
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