The actor Alan Arkin has died. He was 89 years of age. His family announced it on July 1st. Arkin had a body of work spanning six decades and was known for his roles in "Catch-22", "Edward Scissorhands", "Grosse Point Blank", and "Argo".
Alan Arkin was born in New York in 1934 into a family of Jewish immigrants who came to the US. Beginning in 1957, Arkin made his film debut in a small part in the musical film "Calypso Heat Wave". He subsequently secured roles in movies, television and even as a Broadway actor, making his stage debut in "From the Second City" at the Royale Theatre in 1961. But his first significant role was that of a Russian sailor in Norman Jewison's 1966 Cold War comedy "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming". Arkin's portrayal would receive him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. In 1967, he appeared in the psychological thriller "Wait Until Dark" with Audrey Hepburn. The following year, he was in a lead role as a lonely deaf-mute in "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter", for which he earned his second Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
The most notable role of Arkin's early career was Capt. John Yossarian in Mike Nichols's 1970 adaptation of "Catch-22". While his performance was strong, the movie got beaten by the similarly-themed "M*A*S*H", which came out in the same year. In 2006, Arkin would eventually play the heroin-snorting grandfather in the tragicomedy "Little Miss Sunshine". His performance earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
He also appeared in "Last of the Red Hot Lovers", "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution", "Fire Sale" (which he also directed), "The In-Laws", "Simon", "Edward Scissorhands", "The Rocketeer", "Glengarry Glen Ross", "Grosse Point Blank", "Get Smart", "Sunshine Cleaning", "Stand Up Guys", and "Going In Style". He also won acclaim for his performance as a fictional Hollywood producer in Ben Affleck's 2012 thriller "Argo", for which he received his Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Later in his life, Arkin starred in the Netflix series, "The Kominsky Method", for which he earned back-to-back Emmy nominations.
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