Emmy-winning actor Jack Warden dead at 85

Posted:
Jul 21, 2006

Jack Warden, who won an Emmy for his supporting role as Coach George Halas in the 1971 TV-movie Brian's Song, died Wednesday in a New York hospital. He was 85.

Known for playing cops, coaches and soldiers, the longtime character actor had been suffering from medical problems in recent years, business manager Sidney Pazoff said Friday.

"Everything gave out. Old age," Pazoff said. "He really had turned downhill in the past month; heart, and then kidney, and then all kinds of stuff."

Warden was nominated twice for an Oscar for best supporting actor: in 1976 for portraying shady Los Angeles businessman Lester in Shampoo, and in 1979 for his role as Max Corkle in Heaven Can Wait. He appeared alongside Warren Beatty and Julie Christie in both films.

The Manhattan resident also had voice roles (starring with Maureen Stapleton) in two cartoons released by Hubley Studios. He was in 1972's Dig, the first network Saturday morning cartoon special (it aired on CBS). Warden supplied the voice of Rocko in the 1986 film The Cosmic Eye, Faith Hubley's only feature-length animated work.

Warden was nominated for an Emmy in 1985 and 1986 for his lead acting role as Harrison "Harry" Fox in the comedy series Crazy Like a Fox.

Born John H. Lebzelter on September 18, 1920 in Newark, New Jersey, the 5'9" Warden was raised in Louisville, Kentucky. At 17, "Jack" Lebzelter was expelled from Du Pont Manuel High School for repeatedly fighting.

Becoming a professional boxer, he fought as a welterweight under the name "Johnny Costello." He became a nightclub bouncer and worked as a lifeguard before joining the United States Navy in 1938, where he served in China for most of his three-year stint.

He joined the Merchant Marine in 1941, but quit a year later to enlist in the U.S. Army. He became a paratrooper with the elite 101st Airborne Division, but shattered his leg landing on a fence during a nighttime practice jump shortly before D-Day.

While recuperating, he read a Clifford Odets play and decided to become an actor after the Second World War.

Warden fought in the Battle of the Bulge, was demobilized and sought an acting career on the G.I. Bill.

Moving to New York to attend acting school, he joined the Dallas Alley Theater in 1947 and took his his father's middle name as his surname. He first appeared on television in 1948.

He made his Broadway debut in the 1952 revival of Odets' Golden Boy. In 1955, he originated the role of Marco in the original Broadway production of Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge.

His film debut came alongside Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson (then billed as Charles Buchinsky) in 1951's You're in the Navy Now. He often appeared as a soldier or sailor; other 1950s films included From Here to Eternity, Twelve Angry Men and Run Silent Run Deep.

Warden played the coach on the TV comedy series Mr. Peepers (starring Wally Cox). He had the title role in the 1976 detctive series Jigsaw John.

He was Harry M. Rosenfeld, the metro news editor of the Washington Post, in the 1976 film All the President's Men. Other 1970s and 1980s films where he had a supporting role included Death on the Nile, ...And Justice for All, Being There, Used Cars and The Verdict.

In the mid-1980s TV series Crazy as a Fox, he portrayed a detective.

Warden's last film was The Replacements (2000); he subsequently retired.

In 1958, he married French stage actress Vanda Dupre, who gave up her career after marriage. The two were estranged at the time of his death.

Pazoff said that Warden is survived by longtime girlfriend Marucha Hinds, his wife Vanda, their son Christopher and two grandchildren.