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Karl Malden, Everyman Actor, Dies at 97

By ROBERT BERKVIST
Published: July 1, 2009
Karl Malden, the Academy Award-winning character actor whose half-century in show business carried him from the theater to films and then to television, where he policed the streets of San Francisco and became indelibly identified with a commercial for traveler's checks, died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 97.

His family announced his death.

In many ways, Mr. Malden was the ideal Everyman. He realized early on that he lacked the physical attributes of a leading man; he often joked about his blunt features, particularly his crooked, bulbous nose, which he had broken several times while playing basketball in school. But he was determined "to be No. 1 in the No. 2 parts I was destined to get," he once said.

He wound up playing everything from a whiskey-swigging cowboy to a prison warden, from an Army drill sergeant to a combative priest.

On Broadway, he appeared with Marlon Brando in a legendary production of Tennessee Williams's "Streetcar Named Desire," then repeated the role in a film version that brought him an Oscar. On film he won memorable parts in major productions like "On the Waterfront," "Ruby Gentry" and "Patton."

And on television he found broad popularity as Lt. Mike Stone in "The Streets of San Francisco" and as a long-running pitchman for American Express travelers' checks in the 1970s. His signature line, "Don't leave home without them" - delivered as he peered intently from under the brim of his "San Francisco" fedora - entered the popular lexicon as a catch phrase.

Mikey wrote:I really don't get the thread title, but a shame nonetheless. Malden was a vastly underrated performer.