--- name: "Walter Matthau" canonical: "https://film.one/person/walter-matthau" roles: ["Actor"] born: "1 October 1920" died: "1 July 2000" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 70 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-19T21:47:50.511393+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Walter Matthau Actor. Born 1 October 1920 in New York City, New York, USA. Died 1 July 2000. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 1 October 1920, New York City, New York, USA - **Died:** 1 July 2000 - **Active:** 1974–1991 - **Also known as:** Walter John Matthau - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar (1 won · 2 nominated) - **Average Fi1m score:** 70, as actor, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1970s 60 (1), 1990s 80 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Matthau, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q202172, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000527/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6837 ## Fi1m on Walter Matthau > Walter Matthau made stillness funny. While everyone round him shouted, he let his face sag and his voice drop, and the joke arrived a beat late and landed harder. A narrow persona, worked for decades, and at its best it needed nothing else. Put Walter Matthau on a telephone and leave him there. In *The Front Page* (1974) he runs a newspaper from a filthy Chicago press room while pretending to be somebody else, and he does it without once raising his voice, while every other man in the room is screaming. The face sags, the words come down the nose, the lie arrives late and lands harder for it. That is the whole act, and for thirty years of films it was enough. He was a stage actor first, in Yiddish theatre as a boy and then on Broadway from the late 1940s, and for a long while the parts were supporting ones and often villains. You can see the villain in *Charade* (1963), where he is helpful for a while and then is not, and the hangdog look turns out to hide things. Then came *The Fortune Cookie* (1966), a fast-talking lawyer called Whiplash Willie and the first of ten films with Jack Lemmon; then *The Odd Couple* (1968), the slovenly sportswriter he had already played on Broadway in 1965. After that the world knew what it wanted from him and mostly he gave it: the beer-swilling coach in *The Bad News Bears* (1976), one of two feuding neighbours in *Grumpy Old Men* (1993), rumpled, cantankerous, unbothered. The trick is that he was never trying to be funny. The other actors work; Matthau waits. The slow burn, the double take, the sardonic line thrown away as if he had somewhere better to be: they only work because he plays the man underneath as entirely serious. He said as much himself, that he was more serious doing comedy than drama, and that comedy needed an emotional foundation. Lemmon, who fizzed and fidgeted, was the ideal foil, and Billy Wilder, who directed him three times, had the sense to point the camera at Matthau and leave it. In *The Front Page* their rows have the rhythm of two men who have done this before and like each other, and we laughed harder at Matthau alone with that telephone than at anything else in a film we otherwise found coarse and slow. Neil Simon's lines, three films' worth, suited him for the same reason: they sound better said slowly by a man who does not care whether you laugh. The limit is the same as the gift. He was cast as the grumpy slob early and stayed there, and in the weaker films the persona does the work while the actor rests. *The Front Page* is middling Wilder and Matthau is still the reason to watch it. The dramas, *Fail Safe* (1964) and *The Taking of Pelham One Two Three* (1974), show the same weary face doing sterner work, and are worth seeking out for that. Start with *The Odd Couple*, then *The Fortune Cookie*, then find the telephone scene. Most of his films are better when he is on screen, and a good many are only tolerable then. ## Biography Walter Matthau was an American actor born Walter John Matthow on 1 October 1920 in New York City. He died on 1 July 2000 in Santa Monica, California. He began his career on the stage after serving in the US Army Air Corps during the Second World War and made his Broadway debut in the late 1940s. Matthau originated the role of Oscar Madison in Neil Simon's *The Odd Couple* on Broadway in 1965, winning a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. He received a second Tony Award for *A Shot in the Dark* in 1962. On screen he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for *The Fortune Cookie* (1966). He appeared in ten films with Jack Lemmon, including *The Odd Couple* (1968) and *The Front Page* (1974), in which he played Walter Burns. Other notable roles include those in *Charade* (1963), *Grumpy Old Men* (1993) and *Grumpier Old Men* (1995). He received further Academy Award nominations for *Kotch* (1971) and *The Sunshine Boys* (1975). *Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, britannica.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *JFK* (1991), Fi1m 80, as Senator Long — [page](https://film.one/film/jfk.md) - *The Front Page* (1974), Fi1m 60, as Walter Burns — [page](https://film.one/film/the-front-page.md) ## Complete filmography (88) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Hanging Up* (2000), as Lou Mozell - *The Marriage Fool* (1998), as Frank Walsh - *The Odd Couple II* (1998), as Oscar Madison - *Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy* (1998), as Narrator - *Out to Sea* (1997), as Charlie - *I'm Not Rappaport* (1996), as Nat Moyer - *The Grass Harp* (1996), as Judge Charlie Cool - *Grumpier Old Men* (1995), as Max Goldman - *I.Q.* (1994), as Albert Einstein - *Incident in a Small Town* (1994), as Harmon Cobb - *Grumpy Old Men* (1993), as Max Goldman - *Dennis the Menace* (1993), as Mr. Wilson - *How the Grinch Stole Christmas!* (1992), as Narrator (voice) - *Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore* (1992), as Harmon Cobb - *JFK* (1991), as Senator Long — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/jfk.md) - *Mrs. Lambert Remembers Love* (1991), as Clifford Pepperman - *The Incident* (1990), as Harmon Cobb - *The Little Devil* (1988), as Padre Maurizio - *The Couch Trip* (1988), as Donald Becker - *Pirates* (1986), as Captain Thomas Bartholomew Red - *Movers & Shakers* (1985), as Joe Mulholland - *The Survivors* (1983), as Sonny Paluso - *I Ought to Be in Pictures* (1982), as Herbert Tucker - *First Monday in October* (1981), as Dan Snow - *Buddy Buddy* (1981), as Trabucco - *Hopscotch* (1980), as Miles Kendig - *Little Miss Marker* (1980), as Sorrowful Jones · Executive Producer - *The Stingiest Man in Town* (1978), as Ebenezer Scrooge (voice) - *California Suite* (1978), as Marvin Michaels - *House Calls* (1978), as Dr. Charley Nichols - *Actor* (1978), as Boris Thomashevsky - *Casey's Shadow* (1978), as Lloyd Bourdelle - *The Bad News Bears* (1976), as Morris Buttermaker - *The Sunshine Boys* (1975), as Willy Clark - *Earthquake* (1974), as Drunk - *The Front Page* (1974), as Walter Burns — Fi1m 60, [page](https://film.one/film/the-front-page.md) - *The Taking of Pelham One Two Three* (1974), as Lieutenant Garber - *The Laughing Policeman* (1973), as Sgt. Jake Martin SFPD - *Charley Varrick* (1973), as Charley Varrick - *Pete 'n' Tillie* (1972), as Pete Seltzer - *Awake and Sing!* (1972), as Moe Axelrod - *Kotch* (1971), as Joseph P. Kotcher - *Plaza Suite* (1971), as Sam Nash / Jesse Kiplinger / Roy Hubley - *A New Leaf* (1971), as Henry Graham - *Cactus Flower* (1969), as Dr. Julian Winston - *Hello, Dolly!* (1969), as Horace Vandergelder - *Candy* (1968), as Gen. R.A. Smight - *The Secret Life of an American Wife* (1968), as The Movie Star - *The Odd Couple* (1968), as Oscar Madison - *A Guide for the Married Man* (1967), as Paul Manning - *The Fortune Cookie* (1966), as Willie Gingrich - *Mirage* (1965), as Ted Caselle - *Goodbye Charlie* (1964), as Leo Sartori - *Profiles in Courage* (1964), series, as Gov. John Slaton, Andrew Johnson - *Fail Safe* (1964), as Prof. Groeteschele - *Ensign Pulver* (1964), as Doc - *Charade* (1963), as Hamilton Bartholemew - *Island of Love* (1963), as Tony Dallas - *Who's Got the Action?* (1962), as Tony Gagouts - *Big Deal in Laredo* (1962), as Meredith - *Lonely are the Brave* (1962), as Sheriff Morey Johnson - *Target: The Corruptors!* (1961), series, Actor - *Dr. Kildare* (1961), series, as Franklin Gaer - *Tallahassee 7000* (1961), series, as Lex Rogers - *Two by Saroyan: 'Once Around the Block' and 'My Heart's in the Highlands'* (1960), as Ben Alexander / Philip Judah - *Route 66* (1960), series, Actor - *Strangers When We Meet* (1960), as Felix Anders - *Gangster Story* (1959), as Jack Martin · Director - *Ride a Crooked Trail* (1958), as Judge Kyle - *Onionhead* (1958), as 'Red' Wildoe - *Naked City* (1958), series, as Peter Kanopolis, Dr. Max Lewine - *Voice in the Mirror* (1958), as Dr. Karnes - *King Creole* (1958), as Maxie Fields - *Slaughter on 10th Avenue* (1957), as Al Dahlke - *A Face in the Crowd* (1957), as Mel Miller - *Bigger Than Life* (1956), as Wally Gibbs - *The Indian Fighter* (1955), as Wes Todd - *Alfred Hitchcock Presents* (1955), series, as Off. Pete Chandler, Moran, Harry Wade, Phil - *The Kentuckian* (1955), as Stan Bodine - *Climax!* (1954), series, as Charlie Mapes - *Atomic Attack* (1954), as Dr. Spinelli - *General Electric Theater* (1953), series, as Tom Dutton - *Lux Video Theatre* (1950), series, as Coastguardsman, Inspector, Craig - *Robert Montgomery Presents* (1950), series, as The Bartender - *Suspense* (1949), series, as Lawrence Stevens - *Studio One* (1948), series, as Jacobs, Olsen - *The Philco Television Playhouse* (1948), series, as Iago, Stuart Benson - *The Making of Pelham One Two Three*, Actor ## Gallery - ![Walter Matthau](https://film.one/media/person/396904/gallery-c815acf99557.jpg) Walter Matthau — Film screenshot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/Walter_Matthau_in_Charade_2.jpg/1280px-Walter_Matthau_in_Charade_2.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![A screenshot from the film Charade (1963)](https://film.one/media/person/396904/gallery-0b462d6af9f1.jpg) A screenshot from the film Charade (1963) — Directed and produced by Stanley Donen; cinematography by Charles Lang, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Charade_1963_Walter_Matthau.jpg/1280px-Charade_1963_Walter_Matthau.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Norman Jewison, Charlie Matthau and Walter Matthau at the CFC BBQ. (1990)](https://film.one/media/person/396904/gallery-060b20454561.jpg) Norman Jewison, Charlie Matthau and Walter Matthau at the CFC BBQ. (1990) — Canadian Film Centre from Toronto, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Charlie_Matthau_and_Walter_Matthau_at_the_CFC_BBQ_%2848198888076%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Walter Matthau, Shirley MacLaine and George Roy Hill in the 46th Academy Awards. The dress in the photo, created by Edith Head in 1963 and modified around 1966,](https://film.one/media/person/396904/gallery-89a231ca00d9.jpg) Walter Matthau, Shirley MacLaine and George Roy Hill in the 46th Academy Awards. The dress in the photo, created by Edith Head in 1963 and modified around 1966, — Sheedy and Long, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Matthau%2C_MacLaine_and_Roy_Hill.jpg/1280px-Matthau%2C_MacLaine_and_Roy_Hill.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Walter Matthau](https://film.one/media/person/396904/gallery-b5e9e83b3ceb.jpg) Walter Matthau — Image via TMDB - ![Walter Matthau](https://film.one/media/person/396904/gallery-2585024d806f.jpg) Walter Matthau — Image via TMDB - ![Walter Matthau](https://film.one/media/person/396904/gallery-43959e2f9224.jpg) Walter Matthau — Image via TMDB - ![Walter Matthau](https://film.one/media/person/396904/gallery-6400b2d02189.jpg) Walter Matthau — Image via TMDB - ![Walter Matthau](https://film.one/media/person/396904/gallery-9a99ae2ddd35.jpg) Walter Matthau — Image via TMDB - ![Walter Matthau](https://film.one/media/person/396904/gallery-af0122a5d81c.jpg) Walter Matthau — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 1 won, 2 nominated - 1976: Best Actor (nominated), for *The Sunshine Boys* - 1972: Best Actor (nominated), for *Kotch* - 1967: Best Supporting Actor (won), for *The Fortune Cookie* ### Other awards — 2 won, 1 nominated - Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play 1965: Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play (won) - Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play 1962: Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play (won) - Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play 1959: Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play (nominated) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/walter-matthau