Wallach went on to a prolific career as “one of the greatest ‘character actors’ ever to appear on stage and screen,” notes Turner Classic Movies,[1] acting in over 90 films.[27] Having grown up on the “mean streets” of an Italian American neighborhood,[31] and his versatility as a method actor, Wallach developed the ability to play a wide variety of different roles, although he tried to not get pinned down to any single type of character. “Right now I’m playing an old man,” he said at age 84. But “I’ve been through all the ethnic groups, from Mexican bandits to Italian Mafia heads to Okinawans to half-breeds, and now I’m playing old Jews. Who knows?”[7]
What does this have to do with Electric Eli Wallach?