New York, June 25 (IANS) Eli Wallach, the actor who starred as weaselly Mexican in the 1960s film classics “The Magnificent Seven” and “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”, has died. He was 98.
Wallach, who was one of his generation’s most prominent and prolific character actors in film, onstage and on television for more than 60 years, died on Tuesday, his daughter Katherine told The New York Times.
No other details of his death were immediately available, reports hollywoodreporter.com.
Wallach, who won a Tony Award in 1951 for playing Alvaro in Tennessee Williams’ original production of “The Rose Tattoo”, made his movie debut as a cotton-gin owner trying to seduce a virgin in Elia Kazan’s “Baby Doll” and worked steadily well into his nineties.
“As an actor I’ve played more bandits, thieves, warlords, molesters and mafioso that you could shake a stick at,” Wallach said in November 2010 when he accepted an Honorary Academy Award at the second annual Governors Awards, becoming the oldest Oscar recipient.
Among his survivors is actress and frequent co-star Anne Jackson, his wife of 66 years.