Eli Wallach, Method actor, dead at 98

Tony- and Emmy-winning actor Eli Wallach, an early practitioner of Method acting who made a breakout impression in the 1966 spaghetti Western "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," died on Tuesday at the age of 98.

Wallach’s death was confirmed by his daughter Katherine, according to The New York Times. The circumstances of his death were not immediately known, and representatives for Wallach did not immediately return requests for comment.

The actor, who appeared in a wide variety of stage, screen and television roles, often worked with his wife, Anne Jackson, particularly onstage, according to Variety.

Born on Dec. 7, 1915, Wallach graduated from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn and attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he learned to ride horses, an unusual skill for the son of Polish Jewish immigrants who lived in an Italian neighborhood in New York. According to critics, some of his best work was in Westerns.

Wallach returned to New York after graduation and earned a master’s degree in education at City College. But instead of becoming a teacher, he studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse until serving in the Army’s Medical Corps for five years during World War II.

Wallach made his Broadway debut in “Skydrift,” which had a one-week run in 1945.

In 1948 he joined Elia Kazan in starting the Actors Studio, where he studied with Lee Strasberg. Others included Jackson, David Wayne, Marlon Brando, Patricia Neal and Maureen Stapleton.

Wallach’s career took off in the late 1940s with a role in “Mister Roberts,” which he played until 1951 when Tennessee Williams cast him opposite Stapleton in “The Rose Tattoo,” for which he won a Tony, according to Variety.

Wallach’s movie career included roles in films such as “The Magnificent Seven,” “How to Steal a Million” and, in 2010, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” He turned down the role of Maggio in “From Here to Eternity”; Frank Sinatra played it instead and won an Oscar.

Despite his awards for work on Broadway and television, Wallach's film work wasn’t recognized until he received an honorary Academy Award in 2010 for “a lifetime’s worth of indelible screen characters.”

Many critics thought his definitive role was Calvera, the flamboyant, sinister bandit chief in "The Magnificent Seven." Others preferred him in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," as Tuco, a scuzzy character opposite Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone's classic spaghetti Western.

Years later, Wallach said strangers would start whistling the theme from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" when they saw him.

Onstage he appeared in Eugene Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros” with Zero Mostel and Jackson, “Brecht on Brecht,” Murray Schisgal’s “The Tiger and the Typist” (which he and Jackson made into a film in 1967 called “The Tiger Makes Out”) and “Luv.” The couple later did “The Typist” on television, according to Variety.

On television, Wallach performed in Reginald Rose’s drama “Dear Friends” on “CBS Playhouse,” for which he received an Emmy nomination; Clifford Odets’ “Paradise Lost”; and “20 Shades of Pink.” He won an Emmy for his role in the TV film “Poppies Are Also Flowers.” He appeared in episodes of shows such as “Batman,” “Law and Order,” “ER” and “Nurse Jackie.” He also did voiceover work.

Throughout his career, even with continued forays into film and television, Wallach said he could never imagine leaving the theater. “What else am I going to do?” he asked in an interview with the Times in 1997. “I love to act.”

Wire services