Actor Rod Steiger dead at 78

Associated Press ^ | July 9, 2002 | Associated Press Staff

[MeekOneGOP]

Actor Rod Steiger dead at 78

07/09/2002

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Rod Steiger, the beefy, intense actor who won the Academy Award as best actor of 1967 for his role as the unrelenting Southern police chief in "In the Heat of the Night," died Tuesday. He was 78.

Steiger died at a Los Angeles-area hospital of pneumonia and kidney failure, said his publicist, Lori De Waal.

AP

Rod Steiger

A devoted practitioner of method acting, Steiger prided himself in undertaking challenging roles, especially real-life persons. "My generation of actors was taught to be able to create different people; that's what an actor is supposed to do," he explained.

In movies and television, he convincingly portrayed such figures as Mussolini, Rasputin, Pope John XXIII, Rudolph Hess, Pontius Pilate, Napoleon, W.C. Fields and Al Capone.

"I'm 60 percent virgin and 40 percent whore," he claimed in a 2000 TV interview. "I've not sold out that much, and I've made my own mistakes."

He admitted that he made a big mistake in declining the lead in "Patton," believing the film would glorify war and killing. George C. Scott played the role, and it brought him an Academy Award, which he refused.

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/070902dnentsteiger.637d4752.html

[Bahbah]

I thought the Pawnbroker was a good film. Tough to watch.

[Argus]

You shoulda looked out for me a little, Charlie, instead of makin' me take all them dives for the short end money.

[stands2reason]

Hey, Meek, look at the time the article was posted. How'd you do that?

[Saundra Duffy]

Oh oh. Doesn't this happen in three's? Who's next?

[RightWhale]

He would have been a good Patton. Better than George C. Scott's Patton? Maybe.

[Registered]

Bob Hope?

[mhking]

From "Mars Attacks!" as General Decker: "Intellectuals! Liberals! Peacemongers! IDIOTS!"

From "In the Heat of the Night" as Chief Bill Gillespie: "I got the motive which is money and the body which is dead."

[RikaStrom]

Then there was "The Illustrated Man".....

I just saw that again last week. Do you realize it finally dawned on me that he played in every scene?

What an excellent movie.

[Petronski]

Monsieur Komarovsky, RIP

[freedomson]

I oft repeat one of his lines from 'Dr. Schivago' as he addressed it to the young idealist, socialist Strelnekoff:

"You're a high minded man aren't you? You are the kind of man the world pretends to love but, in fact, despises"!

[Carry_Okie]

Steiger was a genius. A couple of his more obscure films:

The Illustrated Man,

The Loved One

[freedomson]

"Well, it doesn't mean you're a bad person"

from 'No Way to Treat a Lady'

[carton253]

He's the third. Rosemary Clooney, Ted Williams, and now Rod...

[MinuteGal]

He was a typical Hollyweird leftist. But I think he was an excellent character actor, notably as one of the villains in "Dr. Zhivago", one of my favorite movies. He played the part to perfection.

Leni

[mombonn]

No Way to Treat a Lady is the Steiger film that I always think of. Still scares me.

[Remole]

He played the title role in the TV version (before the movie starring Borgnine) of "Marty."

[slouper]

"He would have been a good Patton. Better than George C. Scott's Patton? Maybe."

BWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....get serious.

[hellinahandcart]

Poor Jud is daid...