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

[SerpentDove]

>>That's Rod Serling. He wrote almost all the Twilight Zone episodes himself.<<

And Ray Bradbury wrote quite a few also.

[LibWhacker]

Illustrated Man Bump!

It's a sad day.

[eddie willers]

Steiger's role of Monsieir Kamarovsky in Doctor Zhivago is still one of the greatest screen performances I've seen.

Warning to all the men out there.
After 30 years of avoiding Zhivago I finally watched it....

It's a chick flick!

Pretty photography, though.

[monkey]

Gillespie: Well I think that you're the first human being that's ever been in here.
Virgil: You can't be too careful, man.
Gillespie: I got no wife. I got no kids. Boy...I got a town that ... don't want me. I'll tell you a secret. Nobody comes here, never.

RIP

[waterstraat]

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"!

The entire quote is good, and true.

Stieger was outstanding, and convincing, in both "Zhivago" and "In the Heat of the Night"

[Positive]

You get a life.

I was just playing with the words "dead at 78" and pointing out what I know to be his politics in that context.

Maybe "sick humor," maybe you don't find it funny - but I do have a life.

[laconic]

I enjoyed watching Dr. Zhivago for two reasons: first, the historical sweep of Russian history it presents. Second, having an opportunity to watch a young and very beautiful Julie Christie. If that makes me the watcher of a "chick flick" as you put it, so be it.

[eddie willers]

If Julie Christie had played a young Ayn Rand who mows down commies with a Tommy Gun, the picture would have been great. : )

[Sans-Culotte]

I always thought Steiger stole Zhivago.

I also think his Napoleon in Waterloo was spot on:

Politically, he was (sadly) nearer People For the American Way than Free Republic, but he was good at his primary profession.

[Eowyn-of-Rohan]

You are so sick......you beat me to it. Don't you just know, ever since he played that role he knew people would think of this when he passed away? He must be laughing...

[SBprone]

According to the bio I read a few years ago Patton was a tormented man who worried that he might someday somehow turn into a coward. His insane appearances on the front lines were a way of proving to himself that he hadn't yet "turned yellow." Steiger could have played this side of Patton to perfection.

Steiger was also twice as nuts as Patton.

[Bonaparte]

The Sergeant (1968)

[Bonaparte]

Rent the film in post 92 sometime. You may change your mind about Steiger.

[willyboyishere]

Amazing---just saw him, for the first time in years, just
a few nights ago on the Jon Favreau show "Dinner for Five".
Always liked him as an actor, especially in Dr. Zhivago.

[Pompah]

A great actor. He'll be missed.
Have to agree on the "Great Actor"part. But I have friends who tell me from experence that he was his own worst enemy.

[rockfish59]

He was 'spindled & mutilated' in that scene!

[rockfish59]

You mean 'The (Gay) Sergeant?'

[Misterioso]

I've seen "The Sergeant" once or twice. Very good movie. I've only given my current feeling about Rod. It is only in the past few years I've begun to see him as "the actor" instead of "the character" when he is on screen. It could be I just don't like his smirk and the affected raised eyebrow(s). Maybe it's just that I wouldn't want to have him to dinner. :o)

[Misterioso]

Of course, everything happens in threes if you wait long enough.

Everything happens in twenties if you wait even longer. :o}

[1234]

Rod Steiger played Marty...Somehow PBS got a copy and ran it about 20 years ago. It ...completely blew the doors off of the movie version that Ernest Borgnine won his Oscar for.

that's sayin alot