Actor Walter Matthau dies at 79

Walter Matthau in the 1974 film "The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three"

July 1, 2000
Web posted at: 10:05 a.m. EDT (1405 GMT)

SANTA MONICA, California (CNN) -- Oscar-winning actor Walter Matthau, who brought to life such memorable characters as sloppy Oscar Madison in "The Odd Couple" and the eternally frustrated Mr. Wilson in "Dennis the Menace," died early Saturday morning at St. John's Health Center of a heart attack. He was 79.

Matthau was brought to the hospital by ambulance and was pronounced dead shortly afterward at 1:42 a.m., hospital spokeswoman Lindi Funston said.

Born Walter Matasschanskayasky on October 1, 1920, to a pair of Russian-Jewish immigrants in New York City, Matthau grew up poor on the Lower East Side and started out selling soft drinks and playing bit parts at a Yiddish theater at age 11. He was paid 50 cents each for his occasional onstage appearances.

After graduating from Seward Park High School during the Depression, he took government jobs as a forester in Montana, a gym instructor for the Works Progress Administration and a boxing coach for policemen.

Matthau began his film career after a stint in World War II as a radio cryptographer in a heavy bomber unit of the U.S. Army Air Corps in Europe.

MESSAGE BOARD Remembering Walter Matthau     ALSO Walter Matthau's Filmography

His credits include more than 70 movies and a number of television appearances. Some of his most popular films were "The Odd Couple" (1968), "The Bad News Bears" (1976) and "California Suite" (1978).

Matthau's performance as the brother-in-law of co-star Jack Lemmon in "The Fortune Cookie" garnered the tall, gangly thespian a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1966.

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