Jack Palance died yesterday at the ripe old age of 87.
He was something of a legend, certainly for his acting in some of the great cowboy roles of 20th century cinema.
There are a bunch of things about his life that are interesting.
For example, a fire in a plane during his military training left him scarred yet that rugged scarred look he had added something really special to his career as a real cowboy.
He was a heavyweight boxer in his youth.
And he was very proud of his Ukrainian roots, named Vladimir Palaniuk at birth.
There's a great story of him being invited to a Russian film festival to receive an award, along with Dustin Hoffman. He too has Ukrainian roots though the story suggests Hoffman is maybe not so clear about exactly where his roots lie.
In the story Palance is invited up to the stage to collect his award. However when he got to the lectern he used the opportunity to announce himself to be Ukrainian and most definitely not Russian. He walked off, along with his small entourage, and left the ceremony without accepting the award which he considered to be bogus and ill-advised.
Hoffman, who had spoken earlier, had supposedly accepted the award and thanked the Russian people for saving his family during World War II.
Palance was not impressed by Hoffman's blurred picture of history and the actual events.
Great story. Read about it here.
A tough guy on screen. A tough guy in real life. One of a kind.
No comments:
Post a Comment