Eli Wallach Biography

Although Eli Wallach is best known as the leader of the bandits in the movie The Magnificent Seven, Wallach has gone on to outlive each of the other stars, except for Robert Vaughn, who is also still living. This is despite the fact Wallach was older than everyone in the film, except Yul Brynner. And now after a sixty year career in acting, it seems very appropriate that he is now appearing in both a movie and a television series, starring as a Hollywood legend.Wallach was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 7, 1915, and grew up with his Jewish family in a mostly Italian neighborhood. A well-educated man, he earned his Bachelor's degree at the University of Texas at Austin, his Master's Degree at the City College of New York, and trained in drama at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Wallach then became an officer for the United States Army and served in France during WWII. His extensive dramatic training was discovered, and he was asked to entertain the patients at a hospital. He and others wrote a play called, Is This the Army?, with Wallach playing Adolph Hitler.Released from the service, Wallach entered Broadway in 1945, and played in Skydrift, where Rita Moreno was also making her stage debut. He then appeared in Antony and Cleopatra, written by William Shakespeare, and acted alongside Charlton Heston and Maureen Stapleton. By 1951, he appeared again with Stapleton in The Rose Tattoo, and won a Tony Award for his performance.Wallach then turned to television, and had a number of guest starring roles, with several on The Philco Television Playhouse, Studio One, and Playhouse 90. More than fifty years later, he guest starred on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, as a writer for a fictional show The Philco Comedy Hour. His first film role was starring with Karl Malden in Baby Doll.The Magnificent Seven came along for Wallach in 1960, and other Hollywood legends such as Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, and Charles Bronson, were part of the Seven hired to keep Wallach and his bandits from terrorizing a small village. Next up for him was working with legendary actress Marilyn Monroe in one of her last films, The Misfits. His next film, How the West Was Won, had him appearing alongside more legends including, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, and John Wayne.In 1966, after a number of other television and movie roles, Wallach starred in another pivotal role for his career, as the Ugly in The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, with Clint Eastwood starring as the Good, and Lee Van Cleef starring as the Bad. Wallach didn't enjoy working with director Sergio Leone, and was put in many dangerous situations while on set. He was nearly killed during a train scene, and later drank acid after it was carelessly placed next to his soda. A few years later Leone convinced him to turn down another role he wanted in order to film Duck, You Sucker, but later replaced Wallach with Rod Steiger. Wallach threatened to sue Leone and never talked to him again.Wallach was one of the three actors to play Mr. Freeze on TV's Batman, and then returned to films, starring with Dean Martin and Wallach's real-life wife, Anne Jackson, in How to Save a Marriage (And Ruin Your Life). In McKenna's Gold, Wallach appeared with the legendary actors Gregory Peck and Omar Sharif. He followed this success with several guest star roles on television and a few Italian films. In 1976, he filmed Independence, a short about the signing of the Declaration of Independence in celebration of the bicentennial; he also played Benjamin Franklin in the short.The leading men roles were mostly out of Wallach's reach at this point due to his age, making many of his roles footnotes or minor characters. Yet, in 1977 he co-starred with Jacqueline Bisset, Nick Nolte, and Louis Gosset Jr. in the thriller The Deep. The rest of his career followed in much the same manner with a few major roles here and there in films such as The Executioner's Song and The Godfather: Part III. Late in 2006, Wallach played the part of a legendary Hollywood writer in The Holiday with Kate Winslet and Jack Black.Wallach has been married to actress Anne Jackson since 1948, and they have three children together, Peter Wallach, Katherine Wallach, and Roberta Wallach, all working at one time or another in the film industry. In 2005, he published his biography, The Good, The Bad, and Me: In My Anecdotage, and one of his admissions in the book was that he had lost sight in his right eye years earlier from a hemorrhage.