Jack Warden (real name John Warden Lebselter, Jr.) is an American film and theater actor, twice Oscar nominee, Emmy Award winner for his role in Brian's Song and twice nominated for this award. He is well known to Russian viewers for his films "Problem Child", "The Twilight Zone", "While You were Sleeping."
Biography Warden has more than one hundred and sixty roles in television and film projects, including participation in popular entertainment shows and Emmy awards. He made his theater debut in 1947. In the early 1950s, he began acting in films.
His creative career lasted over fifty years. Warden appeared on the screen for the last time in 2000. Then, because of poor health, he stopped working.
He died in 2006 at the age of eighty-five at a New York clinic from acute heart and kidney failure.
Biography facts
Jack was born in the fall of 1920 in America, in Newark, New Jersey. His father was of German and Irish descent, and his mother was Irish. As a boy, Jack settled with his grandparents in Louisville, Kentucky, where he spent his childhood and went to study at DuPont Manual High School.
When Jack was seventeen years old, he was expelled from school for constant fights. Then he decided to professionally engage in boxing, which he was fond of since early childhood. The young man began to train hard and soon already competed in welterweight competitions under the name Johnny Costello. But Jack did not stay long in professional sports. He needed money. The young man went to work as a bouncer in a nightclub and a lifeguard at a boat station.
In 1938, he enlisted in the US Navy and served in China for almost three years. In 1941, Jack joined the merchant marine. Although the pay was much better there, Warden was unhappy with his life on the ship.
In 1942, he decided to enlist in the army, where he became a paratrooper in the elite 101st Airborne Division and a platoon sergeant. He was supposed to participate in the famous D-Day, when in June 1944 the American fleet landed in Normandy, but during a night jump, he broke his leg and was in the hospital.
During treatment in the hospital, a friend who worked as an actor before the war gave him a book of plays by K. Odets. Jack was so shocked by what he read that he decided to become an actor after the war.
Creative way
After leaving the hospital, Jack was demobilized with the rank of sergeant and went to New York to begin his acting school. In 1947, he joined the Margot Jones Theater Company for the production of Tennessee Williams' plays based in Dallas. There the actor began performing on stage under the pseudonym Jack Warden.
He played many roles in classical and contemporary plays and quickly became a sought-after actor. For five years, Warden cruised between Texas and New York, performing with success in various cities. In 1952, the actor made his Broadway debut in the play Golden Boy, and then again appeared in Broadway performances and musicals.
Warden made his film debut in 1948. He got his first small roles in television series: Kraft's Television Theater, Filko's Television Theater, First Studio, Suspense, Important Material, Lux-Video Theater, Tomorrow's Tales.
In 1953, he got a small role in the war drama "From Now and Forever" directed by Fred Zinnemann, based on the novel of the same name by James Jones.
The picture was highly appreciated by viewers and film critics. In 1954, the film received eight Oscars and five more nominations for this award, a special prize at the Cannes Film Festival and a nomination for the Grand Prix, two Golden Globes, and a nomination for a British Academy Award.
Over the next two years, Warden again starred in television series: "Steel Hour of the United States", "Climax", "Disneyland", "Hour of Alcoa", "Theater 90".
A breakthrough in Jack's acting career was his work in the drama "Twelve Angry Men" by Sidney Lumet, where he played juror No. 7. According to the plot of the picture, the young man is charged with the murder of his own father. The jury must deliver the final verdict: guilty or not guilty. At the beginning of the trial, one of the twelve jurors questioned the crime. Gradually, the opinions of others also begin to change.
The film received three Oscar nominations and four Golden Globe nominations. Received an award from the British Academy and the Berlin Film Festival.
In his later career, Warden had a huge number of roles in television and film projects. The most famous are: "Go quietly, go deep", "The Twilight Zone", "Naked City", "The Untouchables", "Such a Woman", "Escape from Zahrain", "Donovan's Reef", "The Runaway", "My Wife Me bewitched”,“Invaders”,“New York Police”,“Great Shows”.
In the early 1970s, Warden starred in the sports drama Brian's Song. The film told the story of American football players Brian and Gale, who decided to link their fortunes with sports. Despite their complex and different characters, young people become friends. Everything in their life begins to change when one of the young men becomes seriously ill.
The film was nominated for a Golden Globe and Jack won the main Emmy for Best Supporting Actor.
In the 1990s, Warden's most memorable work was the role of Big Ben Healy in the family comedy "Problem Child" and two sequels of this tape.
Jack's last work was a small role in the comedy "Understudies", which was released in 2000. After that, the actor was no longer filmed due to poor health.
He passed away six years later at the age of eighty-five.
Personal life
Not much is known about Warden's personal and family life.
In 1958 he became the husband of actress Wanda Ottoni. Soon their only son, Christopher, was born.
In 1970, there was a discord in the family. Jack and Wanda began to live separately from each other. However, they never filed for divorce and remained husband and wife until Jack's death.
