And only because of a face, could not go unnoticed or not having a huge career as a comedian, though he began in dramatic roles, especially “bad” characters. Walter Matauone of Hollywood’s most important karatelists, will reach the top, developing an incredible chemistry with the unprecedented Jack Lemon, with whom they co -starred in ten films and making a terrible duet, even today, as well as the superior, Abbot and Costello.

Walter Matau, known for his “misleading face”, this brutal face, who did not need any tricks or effects to understand that he was thinking of a wicked or that he wants to manipulate Jack Lemon, to pass his own. Playing with the look, but many times with all his huge steel body, he will be unbeatable as a “scammer”. After all, with Billy Wilder’s film “A Wonderful Scammer” he will also receive his first Oscar, delivering a wonderful interpretation, surpassing Jack Lemon’s amazing co -star.

Having completed 25 years since his death (July 1, 2000), it is an opportunity to remember his highlights on the big screen, get to know his difficult poor years and his chronic gambling addiction.

Cursed poverty

Walter Matau will be born on October 1, 1920 in Lower Weaid, New York. He was the middle of three sons, who had his poor Jewish parents, the Lithuanian mother worker in a clothing factory, and the father of Ukrainian descent and a street vendor.

His father, according to Matau’s story, would “disappear” when he was three years old and his older brother five. All he will learn about his father is his death in 1935. As a child he would grow up in great poverty, in an apartment building where Ukrainians lived and had no hot water, and he was forced to abandon her with his mother, when the landlord threatened them. As he said, he had no nostalgia for his childhood, “he was a terrible horrible, dirty nightmare.”

In the same fate as James Stewart

Still, he will go to a Jewish free camp, where he began to play on Saturdays in Yiddis, and was forced to work as a treasurer on a stand. During World War II, Matau will serve as a wireless bomber in England and was in the same fate as James Stewart. He made missions to the Battle of Ardennes, and in 1945 he would return to the US, with the rank of sergeant, with which he demobilized.

Theatrical steps

His dream of becoming an actor, he will start from the dramatic workshop of the new school, taught by the politicized German director Ervin Pisscator. He will enter the theater, even creating a few minutes of appearances, and will then take on important roles and be honored with the Tony Award in 1962 in the project “A Shot in the Dark”.

Wave up the Elvis

In the cinema he will make his 1955 debut in Western “The Kentuckian”, with Bart Lancaster, playing a whipped sadist. There will be another role of evil in the remarkable drama “King Creole”, where he is beating the protagonist Elvis Presley, he will play some more westerns, and previously, in 1957, he will appear in the collection of Elias Kazan “A Face in the Crowd”. the mirror. ” In 1963, his first great success will come by playing the radioactive killer in the romantic light thriller “Appointment in Paris”, with a protagonist of a glittering Curry Grand and Audrey Hepburn. In the film, which will stand up to commercial success, there are other important karatelis – between James Coburn and George Kennedy – but Matau will stand out.

A wonderful scammer

With Jack Lemmon he will meet on the plate in 1963, in Billy Wilder’s magnificent comedy “A Wonderful Scammer”. A hilarious comedy in which Matau plays a engineer who persuades Lemon to pretend to be paralyzed to get a huge compensation from security. This role will give him an Oscar for a male role and will take his reputation as a duet with Jack Lemon. His interpretation of Neil Simon’s wonderful play “The Odd Couple” in 1965 will give him the role of transferring the work to the cinema, entitled “A Strange Couple”, next to Jack Lemon, two years later, a huge commercial and artistic success. A hilarious comedy of characters, where Jack Lemon is a neurotic microbiophobic and that a bulk of the lazy, sloppy sportswriter.

Walter Matau

The first page

In 1974, he will again star with Jack Lemon in the excellent comedy “The First Page”, again directed by the Great Billy Wilder. A hilarious satire (third transfer to the cinema) for the press, public opinion and vanity, based on a theatrical of Ben Hekk and Charles McCarthar, with Matau being the pompering publisher who does not want to lose his best reporter. Intelligent dialogues, with an ideal timing, elaborate plot and, of course, an unparalleled leading couple giving their backs.

Forever buddies

Several films will follow, from which “The Buddies” (with Lemon), “The Pirates” (by Roman Polanski) and “Erotic Equation” (Matau in the role of Einstein) stand out. In 1998, in his latest film, Matau will meet for the last time with Lemon, in the without any particular claims of comedy “a strange couple on a theatrical journey”, from which you keep their moving appearance, at an early age.

Gambler

Walter Matau, who had a quiet personal life (two marriages and three children), as a character, was closer to the one who played in the “strange couple” as they were addicted to gambling and a frantic smoker. Indeed, as he confessed, in 1961 in a turn in Florida, he would lose a huge amount by betting on baseball matches, an amount that revealed that he owed to the Mafia and had difficulty repaying, while in the 1970s he would begin to reduce his bets.

In vain

Matau will suffer his first heart attack in 1966, turning the “a wonderful cheat” and eventually ending up in 2000 again from a heart attack on the third in a row. He will leave behind his best friend and closest partner, Jack Lemon, but also a series of amazing interpretations that many will try – in vain – to imitate.