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Jack Warden (born John Warden Lebzelter Jr.,[1][2] September 18, 1920 – July 19, 2006) was an American character actor of film and television. He was twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor—for Shampoo (1975), and Heaven Can Wait (1978). He received a BAFTA nomination for the former movie, and won an Emmy for his performance in Brian's Song (1971).
Warden worked as a nightclub bouncer, tugboat deckhand and lifeguard before joining the United States Navy in 1938. He was stationed for three years in China with the Yangtze Patrol.[6]
In 1941, he joined the United States Merchant Marine but he quickly tired of the long convoy runs, and in 1942, he moved to the United States Army, where he served as a paratrooper in the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, with the 101st Airborne Division in World War II. In 1944, on the eve of the D-Day invasion (in which many of his friends died), Warden, then a staff sergeant, shattered his leg when he landed in a tree during a night-time practice jump in England. He spent almost eight months in the hospital recuperating, during which time he read a Clifford Odets play and decided to become an actor. Warden later portrayed a paratrooper from the 101st's rivals—the 82nd Airborne Division—in That Kind of Woman.[7][8]
After leaving the military, he moved to New York City, and studied acting on the G.I. Bill. He joined the company of the Dallas Alley Theatre and performed on stage for five years. In 1948, he made his television debut on the anthology series The Philco Television Playhouse, and also appeared on the series Studio One. His first film role, uncredited, was in the 1951 film You're in the Navy Now, a film that also featured the screen debuts of Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson.[3]
Warden worked as a nightclub bouncer, tugboat deckhand and lifeguard before joining the United States Navy in 1938. He was stationed for three years in China with the Yangtze Patrol.[6]
In 1941, he joined the United States Merchant Marine but he quickly tired of the long convoy runs, and in 1942, he moved to the United States Army, where he served as a paratrooper in the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, with the 101st Airborne Division in World War II. In 1944, on the eve of the D-Day invasion (in which many of his friends died), Warden, then a staff sergeant, shattered his leg when he landed in a tree during a night-time practice jump in England. He spent almost eight months in the hospital recuperating, during which time he read a Clifford Odets play and decided to become an actor. Warden later portrayed a paratrooper from the 101st's rivals—the 82nd Airborne Division—in That Kind of Woman.[7][8]
After leaving the military, he moved to New York City, and studied acting on the G.I. Bill. He joined the company of the Dallas Alley Theatre and performed on stage for five years. In 1948, he made his television debut on the anthology series The Philco Television Playhouse, and also appeared on the series Studio One. His first film role, uncredited, was in the 1951 film You're in the Navy Now, a film that also featured the screen debuts of Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson.[3]
Jack Warden - Wikipedia
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Junket interview with Jack Warden regarding the TV Series Crazy Like a Fox. Conducted circa January 1985. Interview broadcast on KOLN/KGIN-TV (Lincoln, NE).
Thank you, my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that September 18 is the anniversary of the birth of American character actor of film and television Jack Warden who "was twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor—for Shampoo (1975), and Heaven Can Wait (1978)."
Rest in peace John 'Jack' Warden Lebzelter Jr.
Interview with Jack Warden
"Junket interview with Jack Warden regarding the TV Series Crazy Like a Fox. Conducted circa January 1985. Interview broadcast on KOLN/KGIN-TV (Lincoln, NE)."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AhrSArtAj0
Images:
1. Jack Warden in the 1976 film 'All the President’s Men.'jpg.
2. Jack Warden 1962 Lehi High School Yearbook.
3. Jack Walden and his wife Vanda Dupre Brzoskiewicz Warden.
4. Jack Warden ancient faces.
Background from
Jack Warden Biography
Overview
Born September 18, 1920 in Newark, New Jersey, USA
Died July 19, 2006 in New York City, New York, USA (heart and kidney failure)
Birth Name John Warden Lebzelter Jr.
Nickname Johnny Costello
Height 5' 9½" (1.77 m)
Bio
Jack Warden was born John Warden Lebzelter, Jr. on September 18, 1920 in Newark, New Jersey, to Laura M. (Costello) and John Warden Lebzelter. His father was of German and Irish descent, and his mother was of Irish ancestry. Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, at the age of seventeen, young Jack Lebzelter was expelled from Louisville's DuPont Manual High School for repeatedly fighting. Good with his fists, he turned professional, boxing as a welterweight under the name "Johnny Costello", adopting his mother's maiden name. The purses were poor, so he soon left the ring and worked as a bouncer at a night club. He also worked as a lifeguard before signing up with the U.S. Navy in 1938. He served in China with the Yangtzee River Patrol for the best part of his three-year hitch before joining the Merchant Marine in 1941.
Though the Merchant Marine paid better than the Navy, Warden was dissatisfied with his life aboard ship on the long convoy runs and quit in 1942 in order to enlist in the U.S. Army. He became a paratrooper with the elite 101st Airborne Division, and missed the June 1944 invasion of Normandy due to a leg badly broken by landing on a fence during a nighttime practice jump shortly before D-Day. Many of his comrades lost their lives during the Normandy invasion, but the future Jack Warden was spared that ordeal. Recuperating from his injuries, he read a play by Clifford Odets given to him by a fellow soldier who was an actor in civilian life. He was so moved by the play, he decided to become an actor after the war. After recovering from his badly shattered leg, Warden saw action at the Battle of the Bulge, Nazi Germany's last major offensive. He was demobilized with the rank of sergeant and decided to pursue an acting career on the G.I. Bill. He moved to New York City to attend acting school, then joined the company of Theatre '47 in Dallas in 1947 as a professional actor, taking his father's middle name as his surname. This repertory company, run by Margo Jones, became famous in the 1940s and '50s for producing 'Tennesse Williams''s plays. The experience gave him a valuable grounding in both classic and contemporary drama, and he shuttled between Texas and New York for five years as he was in demand as an actor. Warden made his television debut in 1948, though he continued to perform on stage (he appeared in a stage production in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1966)). After several years in small, local productions, he made both his Broadway debut in the 1952 Broadway revival of Odets' "Golden Boy" and, three years later, originated the role of "Marco" in the original Broadway production of Miller's "A View From the Bridge". On film, he and fellow World War II veteran, Lee Marvin (Marine Corps, South Pacific), made their debut in You're in the Navy Now (1951) (a.k.a. "U.S.S. Teakettle"), uncredited, along with fellow vet Charles Bronson, then billed as "Charles Buchinsky".
With his athletic physique, he was routinely cast in bit parts as soldiers (including the sympathetic barracks-mate of Montgomery Clift and Frank Sinatra in the Oscar-winning From Here to Eternity (1953). He played the coach on TV's Mister Peepers (1952) with Wally Cox.
Aside from From Here to Eternity (1953) (The Best Picture Oscar winner for 1953), other famous roles in the 1950s included Juror #7 (a disinterested salesman who wants a quick conviction to get the trial over with) in 12 Angry Men (1957) - a film that proved to be his career breakthrough - the bigoted foreman in Edge of the City (1957) and one of the submariners commended by Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster in the World War II drama, Run Silent Run Deep (1958). In 1959, Warden capped off the decade with a memorable appearance in The Twilight Zone (1959) episode, The Twilight Zone: The Lonely (1959), in the series premier year of 1959. As "James Corry", Warden created a sensitive portrayal of a convicted felon marooned on an asteroid, sentenced to serve a lifetime sentence, who falls in love with a robot. It was a character quite different from his role as Juror #7.
In the 1960s and early 70s, his most memorable work was on television, playing a detective in The Asphalt Jungle (1961), The Wackiest Ship in the Army (1965) and N.Y.P.D. (1967). He opened up the decade of the 1970s by winning an Emmy Award playing football coach "George Halas" in Brian's Song (1971), the highly-rated and acclaimed TV movie based on Gale Sayers's memoir, "I Am Third". He appeared again as a detective in the TV series, Jigsaw John (1976), in the mid-1970s, The Bad News Bears (1979) and appeared in a pilot for a planned revival of Topper (1937) in 1979.
His collaboration with Warren Beatty in two 1970s films brought him to the summit of his career as he displayed a flair for comedy in both Shampoo (1975) and Heaven Can Wait (1978). As the faintly sinister businessman "Lester" and as the perpetually befuddled football trainer "Max Corkle", Warden received Academy Award nominations as Best Supporting Actor. Other memorable roles in the period were as the metro news editor of the "Washington Post" in All the President's Men (1976), the German doctor in Death on the Nile (1978), the senile, gun-toting judge in ...and justice for all. (1979), the President of the United States in Being There (1979), the twin car salesmen in Used Cars (1980) and Paul Newman's law partner in The Verdict (1982).
This was the peak of Warden's career, as he entered his early sixties. He single-handedly made Andrew Bergman's So Fine (1981) watchable, but after that film, the quality of his roles declined. He made a third stab at TV, again appearing as a detective in Crazy Like a Fox (1984) in the mid-1980s. He played the shifty convenience store owner "Big Ben" in Problem Child (1990) and its two sequels, a role unworthy of his talent, but he shone again as the Broadway high-roller "Julian Marx" in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994). After appearing in Warren Beatty's Bulworth (1998), Warden's last film was The Replacements (2000) in 2000. He then lived in retirement in New York City with his girlfriend, Marucha Hinds. He was married to French stage actress Wanda Ottoni, best known for her role as the object of Joe Besser's desire in The Three Stooges short, Fifi Blows Her Top (1958). She gave up her career after her marriage. They had one son, Christopher, but separated several years ago.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood
Spouse (1)
Wanda Ottoni
(10 October 1958 - 19 July 2006) ( his death) ( 1 child)
Trivia (16)
1. Moved to Louisville, KY, as a youth to live with his grandparents. He graduated from DuPont Manual High School in Louisville.
2. Boxed as a welterweight under the name "Johnny Costello" in his youth.
3. Fought on the same card as Charles Durning in Madison Square Garden.
4. Served in the US Navy from 1938-41 then joined the Merchant Marine as water tender in the engine room but disliked convoy duty because of Axis aircraft attacks and his location three decks below the main deck--this, as he says, ended his "romance with the life of a sailor". He left the Merchant Marine in 1942, joined the US Army and became a platoon sergeant and parachute jump master in the 101st Airborne. While hospitalized with a leg injury sustained in a jump, he read a play written by Clifford Odets and decided to become an actor.
5. Fought in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.
6. Separated from wife Wanda Ottoni some time in the mid-1970s. However, they never got divorced and were still legally married at the time of his death.
7. Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Actors Branch).
8. He and Gilbert Gottfried are the only two actors to appear in all three "Problem Child" films. Unlike Gottfried, Warden did not participate in the animated series.
9. Best remembered by the public for his starring role as Lt. Mike Haines on N.Y.P.D. (1967).
10. Acting mentor and friends with Robert Hooks, John Rubinstein and Penny Peyser.
11. His father was of German and Irish ancestry, and his mother was of Irish ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Phillip Lebzelter, was the son of German immigrants, Johann Wilhelm Lebzelter and Martha Ackerman. Jack's three other grandparents (paternal grandmother Catherine O'Brien, and maternal grandparents Edward F. Costello and Mary H. McGrath) were all of Irish origin.
12. Parents are John Warden Lebzelter and Laura M. Costello.
13. Played Cpl. Steve Henshaw in the unaired pilot of The Phil Silvers Show (1955).
14. Appeared in five films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: From Here to Eternity (1953), 12 Angry Men (1957), All the President's Men (1976), Heaven Can Wait (1978) and The Verdict (1982). Of those, From Here to Eternity (1953) was the only one to win the award.
15. Appeared in five films directed by Sidney Lumet: 12 Angry Men (1957), That Kind of Woman (1959), Bye Bye Braverman (1968), The Verdict (1982) and Guilty as Sin (1993).
16. He has appeared in five films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Asphalt Jungle (1950), From Here to Eternity (1953), 12 Angry Men (1957), All the President's Men (1976) and Being There (1979)."
FYI MSgt David HoffmanSgt (Join to see)SFC (Join to see)cmsgt-rickey-denickeSGT Forrest FitzrandolphLTC (Join to see)Sgt John H.PVT Mark Zehner1sg-dan-capriSGT Robert R.CPT Tommy CurtisSGT (Join to see) SGT Steve McFarlandCol Carl WhickerSGT Mark AndersonSSG Michael NollSFC(P) (Join to see)CPT Daniel CoxSFC David Reid, M.S, PHR, SHRM-CP, DTM
Rest in peace John 'Jack' Warden Lebzelter Jr.
Interview with Jack Warden
"Junket interview with Jack Warden regarding the TV Series Crazy Like a Fox. Conducted circa January 1985. Interview broadcast on KOLN/KGIN-TV (Lincoln, NE)."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AhrSArtAj0
Images:
1. Jack Warden in the 1976 film 'All the President’s Men.'jpg.
2. Jack Warden 1962 Lehi High School Yearbook.
3. Jack Walden and his wife Vanda Dupre Brzoskiewicz Warden.
4. Jack Warden ancient faces.
Background from
Jack Warden Biography
Overview
Born September 18, 1920 in Newark, New Jersey, USA
Died July 19, 2006 in New York City, New York, USA (heart and kidney failure)
Birth Name John Warden Lebzelter Jr.
Nickname Johnny Costello
Height 5' 9½" (1.77 m)
Bio
Jack Warden was born John Warden Lebzelter, Jr. on September 18, 1920 in Newark, New Jersey, to Laura M. (Costello) and John Warden Lebzelter. His father was of German and Irish descent, and his mother was of Irish ancestry. Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, at the age of seventeen, young Jack Lebzelter was expelled from Louisville's DuPont Manual High School for repeatedly fighting. Good with his fists, he turned professional, boxing as a welterweight under the name "Johnny Costello", adopting his mother's maiden name. The purses were poor, so he soon left the ring and worked as a bouncer at a night club. He also worked as a lifeguard before signing up with the U.S. Navy in 1938. He served in China with the Yangtzee River Patrol for the best part of his three-year hitch before joining the Merchant Marine in 1941.
Though the Merchant Marine paid better than the Navy, Warden was dissatisfied with his life aboard ship on the long convoy runs and quit in 1942 in order to enlist in the U.S. Army. He became a paratrooper with the elite 101st Airborne Division, and missed the June 1944 invasion of Normandy due to a leg badly broken by landing on a fence during a nighttime practice jump shortly before D-Day. Many of his comrades lost their lives during the Normandy invasion, but the future Jack Warden was spared that ordeal. Recuperating from his injuries, he read a play by Clifford Odets given to him by a fellow soldier who was an actor in civilian life. He was so moved by the play, he decided to become an actor after the war. After recovering from his badly shattered leg, Warden saw action at the Battle of the Bulge, Nazi Germany's last major offensive. He was demobilized with the rank of sergeant and decided to pursue an acting career on the G.I. Bill. He moved to New York City to attend acting school, then joined the company of Theatre '47 in Dallas in 1947 as a professional actor, taking his father's middle name as his surname. This repertory company, run by Margo Jones, became famous in the 1940s and '50s for producing 'Tennesse Williams''s plays. The experience gave him a valuable grounding in both classic and contemporary drama, and he shuttled between Texas and New York for five years as he was in demand as an actor. Warden made his television debut in 1948, though he continued to perform on stage (he appeared in a stage production in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1966)). After several years in small, local productions, he made both his Broadway debut in the 1952 Broadway revival of Odets' "Golden Boy" and, three years later, originated the role of "Marco" in the original Broadway production of Miller's "A View From the Bridge". On film, he and fellow World War II veteran, Lee Marvin (Marine Corps, South Pacific), made their debut in You're in the Navy Now (1951) (a.k.a. "U.S.S. Teakettle"), uncredited, along with fellow vet Charles Bronson, then billed as "Charles Buchinsky".
With his athletic physique, he was routinely cast in bit parts as soldiers (including the sympathetic barracks-mate of Montgomery Clift and Frank Sinatra in the Oscar-winning From Here to Eternity (1953). He played the coach on TV's Mister Peepers (1952) with Wally Cox.
Aside from From Here to Eternity (1953) (The Best Picture Oscar winner for 1953), other famous roles in the 1950s included Juror #7 (a disinterested salesman who wants a quick conviction to get the trial over with) in 12 Angry Men (1957) - a film that proved to be his career breakthrough - the bigoted foreman in Edge of the City (1957) and one of the submariners commended by Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster in the World War II drama, Run Silent Run Deep (1958). In 1959, Warden capped off the decade with a memorable appearance in The Twilight Zone (1959) episode, The Twilight Zone: The Lonely (1959), in the series premier year of 1959. As "James Corry", Warden created a sensitive portrayal of a convicted felon marooned on an asteroid, sentenced to serve a lifetime sentence, who falls in love with a robot. It was a character quite different from his role as Juror #7.
In the 1960s and early 70s, his most memorable work was on television, playing a detective in The Asphalt Jungle (1961), The Wackiest Ship in the Army (1965) and N.Y.P.D. (1967). He opened up the decade of the 1970s by winning an Emmy Award playing football coach "George Halas" in Brian's Song (1971), the highly-rated and acclaimed TV movie based on Gale Sayers's memoir, "I Am Third". He appeared again as a detective in the TV series, Jigsaw John (1976), in the mid-1970s, The Bad News Bears (1979) and appeared in a pilot for a planned revival of Topper (1937) in 1979.
His collaboration with Warren Beatty in two 1970s films brought him to the summit of his career as he displayed a flair for comedy in both Shampoo (1975) and Heaven Can Wait (1978). As the faintly sinister businessman "Lester" and as the perpetually befuddled football trainer "Max Corkle", Warden received Academy Award nominations as Best Supporting Actor. Other memorable roles in the period were as the metro news editor of the "Washington Post" in All the President's Men (1976), the German doctor in Death on the Nile (1978), the senile, gun-toting judge in ...and justice for all. (1979), the President of the United States in Being There (1979), the twin car salesmen in Used Cars (1980) and Paul Newman's law partner in The Verdict (1982).
This was the peak of Warden's career, as he entered his early sixties. He single-handedly made Andrew Bergman's So Fine (1981) watchable, but after that film, the quality of his roles declined. He made a third stab at TV, again appearing as a detective in Crazy Like a Fox (1984) in the mid-1980s. He played the shifty convenience store owner "Big Ben" in Problem Child (1990) and its two sequels, a role unworthy of his talent, but he shone again as the Broadway high-roller "Julian Marx" in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994). After appearing in Warren Beatty's Bulworth (1998), Warden's last film was The Replacements (2000) in 2000. He then lived in retirement in New York City with his girlfriend, Marucha Hinds. He was married to French stage actress Wanda Ottoni, best known for her role as the object of Joe Besser's desire in The Three Stooges short, Fifi Blows Her Top (1958). She gave up her career after her marriage. They had one son, Christopher, but separated several years ago.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood
Spouse (1)
Wanda Ottoni
(10 October 1958 - 19 July 2006) ( his death) ( 1 child)
Trivia (16)
1. Moved to Louisville, KY, as a youth to live with his grandparents. He graduated from DuPont Manual High School in Louisville.
2. Boxed as a welterweight under the name "Johnny Costello" in his youth.
3. Fought on the same card as Charles Durning in Madison Square Garden.
4. Served in the US Navy from 1938-41 then joined the Merchant Marine as water tender in the engine room but disliked convoy duty because of Axis aircraft attacks and his location three decks below the main deck--this, as he says, ended his "romance with the life of a sailor". He left the Merchant Marine in 1942, joined the US Army and became a platoon sergeant and parachute jump master in the 101st Airborne. While hospitalized with a leg injury sustained in a jump, he read a play written by Clifford Odets and decided to become an actor.
5. Fought in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.
6. Separated from wife Wanda Ottoni some time in the mid-1970s. However, they never got divorced and were still legally married at the time of his death.
7. Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Actors Branch).
8. He and Gilbert Gottfried are the only two actors to appear in all three "Problem Child" films. Unlike Gottfried, Warden did not participate in the animated series.
9. Best remembered by the public for his starring role as Lt. Mike Haines on N.Y.P.D. (1967).
10. Acting mentor and friends with Robert Hooks, John Rubinstein and Penny Peyser.
11. His father was of German and Irish ancestry, and his mother was of Irish ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Phillip Lebzelter, was the son of German immigrants, Johann Wilhelm Lebzelter and Martha Ackerman. Jack's three other grandparents (paternal grandmother Catherine O'Brien, and maternal grandparents Edward F. Costello and Mary H. McGrath) were all of Irish origin.
12. Parents are John Warden Lebzelter and Laura M. Costello.
13. Played Cpl. Steve Henshaw in the unaired pilot of The Phil Silvers Show (1955).
14. Appeared in five films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: From Here to Eternity (1953), 12 Angry Men (1957), All the President's Men (1976), Heaven Can Wait (1978) and The Verdict (1982). Of those, From Here to Eternity (1953) was the only one to win the award.
15. Appeared in five films directed by Sidney Lumet: 12 Angry Men (1957), That Kind of Woman (1959), Bye Bye Braverman (1968), The Verdict (1982) and Guilty as Sin (1993).
16. He has appeared in five films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Asphalt Jungle (1950), From Here to Eternity (1953), 12 Angry Men (1957), All the President's Men (1976) and Being There (1979)."
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