Timeless Talent At 76, Walter Matthau Continues To Be A Formative Force On The Big Screen
With four movies completed, filming or scheduled, Walter Matthau admits he’s pretty busy for a 76-year-old.
Matthau 76? It seems impossible. In his 40-year movie career he has always seemed permanently, grouchily middle-aged. But the reference books confirm that he was born Oct. 1, 1920, in New York’s Lower East Side. He made his Broadway debut at the age of 27, playing an 85-year-old English bishop in “Anne of a Thousand Days.”
At the moment, the actor’s involved in four movies:
“The Grass Harp,” directed by son Charles Matthau, based on the Truman Capote story, featuring a stellar cast that includes Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon. It is currently in release.
“I’m Not Rappaport,” written, directed and produced by Herb Gardner, based on his successful Broadway play. Matthau and Ossie Davis star as Central Park benchwarmers trying to cope with urban living. The film opened Dec. 26 in New York and Los Angeles and will be released in other cities Jan. 24. Both Matthau and Davis have been touted as Oscar hopefuls.
“Out at Sea,” with Matthau and Lemmon as a couple of guys reduced to working as dance hosts on a cruise liner. (“It’s a comedy, or at least we think it’s a comedy; if people don’t laugh at it, then it’s not a comedy.”) Now filming.
“Grumpiest Old Men,” to be filmed in Rome next year. (“Sophia Loren and I are married, and for some reason or other she will take me back to Italy.”) Jack Lemmon and Ann-Margret will tag along, of course.
Matthau has been acting since the age of 11, when he did bit parts in the Yiddish theater at 50 cents a performance.
“Mainly, I work now because people want me, and they pay me,” he remarked. “I’m not as particular about the content.”
He quickly added that he was proud of his two most recent films, in part because of the writing of Gardner and Capote. Gardner had sent the “Rappaport” play to Matthau, hoping he would play the title role.
The actor’s response: “Are you crazy? I’m not going to learn all those bleeping lines. You got me talking for 10-15 minutes without a stop. You do it as a movie, I’ll do it.”
Matthau said “The Glass Harp” was “one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen, taking into account that I’m the father of the boy who directed it. I still think it’s one of the most tasteful, beautiful, penetrating, perceptive, delicious pieces of work that I’ve seen on the screen for a long time.”
Did he know early on that his son would turn into a director?
“Charlie had been in eight or nine of my pictures,” Matthau said. “In all the still photographs that I have, he’s always behind the camera. So it didn’t come as a surprise to me when he said he wanted to be a director. That was when he was ready to go to college.
“We got a hold of a small airplane, and over a weekend we went around to Harvard, Brown, Vassar and other colleges to look ‘em over. Charlie finally said, ‘I’d rather go to USC (University of Southern California), mainly because they have the best film program. Also, I’ll be near my parents.’
“He’s very sensitive, very attuned to actors’ needs - also to their ego problems. He whispers a lot, never embarrasses anybody, always probing, always questioning. I reap a lot of pleasure from just watching him work with other actors.
“The first time he whispered to me, I made sure everyone was watching. I pulled back and said, ‘… I’m not doing that!’ Everyone fell down laughing.”
Matthau has had physical setbacks: a heart bypass in 1976, bilateral infiltrate pneumonia (both lungs filled) at the end of “Grumpy Old Men.” His health now?
“I’m hanging in there, because I got two more pictures to go,” he said, sounding like George Burns. “I had a colon tumor removed last December; it was ‘nonbelligerent.’ I’ve had other little things like polyps and diverticulitis and hemorrhoids. I guess it’s from eating what I want to eat.
“If you eat celery and lettuce, you’ll never get sick. But you can’t eat anything else but celery and lettuce. I like celery and lettuce, but I like it with pickles, relish, corned beef, potatoes, peas. And I like Eskimo Pies, vanilla ice cream with chocolate covering.”
Matthau is notorious as a betaholic, once estimating his lifetime losses at $5 million. His recent luck? “I gave it up,” he declared.
When? “About a week ago.”