Actor Alan Arkin, as gifted in comedy as in tragedy, Oscar winner for his role as a heroin-addicted grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), has died at 89. The American comedian died on Thursday June 29 at his home in Carlsbad, California.
Alan Arkin’s sons, Adam, Matthew and Anthony immediately paid tribute to him in the American media: “Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature, both as an artist and as a man. A loving husband, father, great and great-grandfather, he was adored and will be deeply missed.”
Alan Arkin was nominated four times for the Oscars and won a Tony Award, Broadway’s highest honour, in 1963 for his first major stage role in Carl Reiner’s Enter Laughing. His first major film role also earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination for playing a Soviet sailor in a 1966 comedy, “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians are coming!”
By a curious paradox Alan Arkin was first refused for the role of Little Miss Sunshine which finally earned him the Oscar for best actor in a supporting role. And this because the directors thought he was in too good health, the character to embody being an 80-year-old grandfather weakened after years of drug addiction. The actor who had a solid sense of humor declared years later: “It’s the happiest vexation of my life. they thought I was too manly.” Alan Arkin also portrayed a psychopath in the 1967 film Wait Until Dark, opposite Audrey Hepburn. He would later say that he hated the scenes in which his character terrorized the charming actress: “I didn’t like being cruel to her. It made me very uncomfortable.”
He also received critical acclaim for his composition in the 2012 thriller Argo, which brought the true story of a CIA mission to the screen. It will be remembered that this production by Ben Affleck won the Oscar for best film. And of course in this superb filmography we cannot forget his incredible presence alongside Michael Douglas in The Kominsky Method, one of the most subtle television series of recent years.