ALAN ARKIN (1934 - 2023)

Alan Arkin, the highly honored actor and director with a distinguished career that spanned eight decades, has passed away on June 30th at the age of eighty-nine. Born Alan Wolf Arkin in Brooklyn, he began pursing acting as a child, taking lessons and attending various drama academies. Arkin joined the Second City comedy troupe, honing his improv skills. He made his stage debut on Broadway in 1963 with the comedy, "Enter Laughing", winning Arkin a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

This lead to Hollywood taking notice and he was cast in Norman Jewison's 1966 comedy, "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming", earning Arkin his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and winning a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical. Arkin would go to appear in "Inspector Clouseau" (briefly taking over the role from Peter Sellers in 1968), "Catch-22", "Popi", "Wait Until Dark", The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" (earning him a second Best Actor Oscar nomination), "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" and "Freebie and the Bean".

In 1972, Arkin returned to the stage but this time as a director with the original production of Neil Simon's now-classic comedy, "The Sunshine Boys" and received a Tony nomination for Best Director. But Arkin didn't stay away from performing long, returning to appear on the big screen with some remarkable supporting work in "Edward Scissorhands", "Slums of Beverly Hills", "Grosse Point Blank", "Glengarry Glen Ross" and "Little Miss Sunshine" which would help him finally take home an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2006. He would continue to work, appearing in "Argo", "Marley & Me", "Going in Style" and on television, lending his voice in the animated series, "Bojack Horseman" and appearing with Michael Douglas for two seasons in the Netflix series "The Kominsky Method".