ROVIN' AND RAVIN' WITH MIKE
Copyright © 2000 by Michael Segers, All rights reserved
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Mr. Matasschanskayasky, We’ll Miss You!
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Walter
Matasschanskayasky has died, and this year, July is the cruelest month, with his
death on the first day of the month dimming the fireworks a few days later. That
may not mean much to you, but when I remind you how much pleasure and how many
laughs this man, better known as Walter Matthau, has brought to movie audiences
for years, I hope you’ll agree that we have lost one of the great ones.
Seventy-nine
years young, Matthau leaves an amazing body of work behind him. Often teamed
with Jack Lemmon (since Billy Wilder cast them together in The Fortune Cookie
in 1966) and memorably directed by his son Charles in The Grass Harp in
1995, Matthau was one of those actors who never lost himself in a role (as
another craggy master, Harvey Keitel does). Instead, he built his
characterizations on the bedrock of himself, his appearance, his mannerisms, and
his personality.
Probably
in no other role could he leave a confused audience wondering where that bedrock
ended and the characterization began as thoroughly as in the role of Oscar
Madison in the 1968 film The Odd Couple, a rehash of his performance on
stage (with Art Carney as his roommate Felix). He and his inevitable costar (of
the film) Lemmon repeated their roles some three decades later in Odd Couple
II.
Born
in New York City in 1920, he grew up on the Lower East Side in the
Russian-Jewish community. That community, characterized by strong family ties,
poverty, and hard work, was steeped in a misery that probably had some of his
family wondering why they had ever made the trip to the brave new world of
America. It was also a community as intellectually rich as it was financially
impoverished, with a flourishing Yiddish-language theatre in which many of the
greatest performers of the American stage, including Matthau, served their
apprenticeships.
As
it did for many a farm boy or son of an immigrant neighborhood, World War II
took him outside his tight-knit community and into the world. The boy came home
a sergeant. From then until The Kentuckian, his first film in 1955, he
went through many of the tribulations of young actors with stars in their eyes
and hopes of becoming stars themselves. He took what roles he could get,
studying at the New School and working a variety of jobs to support himself and
his habit—acting.
He
broke into films playing heavies, and it was not until his success in The
Fortune Cookie that Matthau became identified with comedy—an
identification he never liked—despite the variety of roles that he did play.
Besides The Odd Couple and its sequel, Matthau teamed with
his friend Jack Lemmon in Buddy Buddy, The Front
Page, Out to Sea, and Grumpy Old Men and its sequel (Grumpier). His last performance, regrettably,
was in this year’s dreadful Hanging Up.
Although
my favorite of Matthau’s films is The Grass Harp, his
portrayal of Albert Einstein in IQ (1994) has a special place
in my heart and memories, especially now, since I watched it again just a few
days before his death, watched it again, and was charmed, fascinated again. In
this film, he smoothed away most of his curmudgeonly mannerisms to give us an
Einstein cuddly enough to be Meg Ryan’s uncle, but still, an Einstein who was
a fully rounded character, someone we care about, even come to worry about.
Matthau
was one of those people, like Georgia
O’Keeffe or
W. H.
Auden, who had a face made to be carved on Mt. Rushmore. (If you don’t
know what O’Keeffe and Auden looked like, just click on their
names—delicious privilege of Internet readers and writers.) Like them, he was
such a natural resource and natural treasure that that would be a tribute he
deserves. Keep your feet dry, though your eyes may shed a tear, and your heart
full of noble thoughts, even an echo of the laughs that Walter Matuchanskayasky
shared with us. You can continue your raving about Walter Matthau, as well as
his son Charles, as you rove through their listings in the Internet Movie Data
Base: