Oscar Winner Jack Palance Dies

Actor Jack Palance, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in City Slickers, died today in California. His family gave his age as 87, though some reports said he was 85.

Palance, who also acted on stage under the name of Walter J. Palance, appeared four times on Broadway, most notably as a replacement for Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire. He also appeared in two short-lived plays in 1948, Temporary Island and The Vigil. In 1951, he co-starred with Claude Rains and Kim Hunter in Darkness at Noon, which earned him a Theater World Award.

Palance had been nominated twice for the Academy Award before his nod for City Slickers in 1992, for 1952’s Sudden Fear and 1953’s Shane. He also received the Emmy Award for this role as a prizefighter in 1956’s Requiem for a Heavyweight.

His many other film credits include Kiss of Fire, Panic in the Streets, High Sierra, The Silver Chalice, and Oklahoma Crude. His most recent television appearance was the film Back When We Were Grownups opposite Blythe Danner and Faye Dunaway.