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Overview

John Uhler “Jack” Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor and musician. Lemmon was an eight time Academy Award nominee, with two wins. He starred in over 60 films, such as Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts (for which he won the 1955 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple and its sequel 30 years later, The Odd Couple II, (and other frequent collaborations with Odd Couple co-star Walter Matthau), Save the Tiger (for which he won the 1973 Academy Award for Best Actor), The Out-of-Towners, The China Syndrome, Missing (for which he won Best Actor at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival), Glengarry Glen Ross, Tuesdays with Morrie, Grumpy Old Men, and Grumpier Old Men.

Early Life

Lemmon was born on February 8, 1925, in an elevator at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. He was the only child of Mildred Burgess LaRue (Noel; 1896 – 1967) and John Uhler Lemmon, Jr. (1893 – 1962), the president of a doughnut company. His paternal grandmother was from an Irish immigrant family. Lemmon attended John Ward Elementary School in Newton and the Rivers School in Weston, Massachusetts. During his acceptance of his lifetime achievement award, he stated that he knew he wanted to be an actor from the age of eight. Lemmon attended Phillips Academy (Class of 1943) and Harvard College (Class of 1947), where he lived in Eliot House and was an active member of several Drama Clubs and president of the Hasty Pudding Club as well as a member of the Delphic Club for Gentleman, a final club at Harvard.

At Harvard, Lemmon was a member of the V-12 Navy College Training Program and was commissioned by the United States Navy, serving briefly as an ensign on an aircraft carrier during World War II before returning to Harvard after completing his military service. After graduation with a degree in War Service Sciences in 1947, Lemmon took up acting professionally, working on radio, television and Broadway. He studied acting under coach Uta Hagen. He was enamored of the piano and learned to play it on his own. He could also play the harmonica, guitar, organ, and the double bass.

Career

Jack Lemmon, attending an awards ceremony in 1988

Lemmon’s film debut was a bit part as a plasterer/painter in the 1949 film The Lady Takes a Sailor, but he went unnoticed until his debut, opposite Judy Holliday, in the 1954 comedy It Should Happen to You. Lemmon worked with actresses such as Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, Betty Grable, Janet Leigh, Shirley MacLaine, Lee Remick, Romy Schneider, Doris Day, Kim Novak, Judy Holliday, Rita Hayworth, June Allyson, Virna Lisi, Ann-Margret and Sophia Loren. He was close friends with actors Tony Curtis, Ernie Kovacs, Walter Matthau and Kevin Spacey. He made two films with Curtis, and eleven with Matthau.

Early in Lemmon’s career he met comedian Ernie Kovacs while co-starring with him in Operation Mad Ball. Lemmon and Kovacs became close friends and appeared together in two subsequent films, Bell, Book and Candle and It Happened to Jane. In 1977, PBS broadcast a compilation series of Kovacs’ television work, and Lemmon served as the narrator of the series. Lemmon discussed his friendship with Kovacs in the documentary Ernie Kovacs: Television’s Original Genius.

He was a favorite of director Billy Wilder, starring in the films Some Like It Hot (for which he was awarded Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival), The Apartment, Irma la Douce, The Fortune Cookie, Avanti!, The Front Page, and Buddy Buddy. Wilder felt Lemmon had a natural tendency toward overacting that had to be tempered; the Wilder biography Nobody’s Perfect quotes the director as saying, “Lemmon, I would describe him as a ham, a fine ham, and with ham you have to trim a little fat”. The biography quotes Lemmon as saying, “I am particularly susceptible to the parts I play… If my character was having a nervous breakdown, I started to have one”.

He enjoyed a longtime working relationships with both Blake Edwards, starring in Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The Great Race (1965) and That’s Life! (1986), and Richard Quine, starring in My Sister Eileen, Operation Mad Ball., Bell, Book and Candle and It Happened to Jane and How to Murder Your Wife (1965). Quine also directed Lemmon’s screen test when the actor was signed by Columbia.

Singing and Piano Playing

Lemmon’s singing voice was first heard on two film soundtracks in 1955, Three for the Show with Betty Grable and My Sister Eileen. He also performed songs in the 1956 film You Can’t Run Away from It with Stubby Kaye and June Allyson. His first solo album A Twist of Lemmon was released in 1958 on Epic Records. While filming Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe in 1959, Lemmon released a second album, Some Like It Hot. Both featured Lemmon’s singing and piano solos.

The two Epic albums were later released as A Twist of Lemmon/Some Like It Hot, a single cd on Collector’s Choice Music, in 2001. Two singles, Daphne/Sleepy Lagoon (released in 1959) and I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles/I Cover the Waterfront (released in 1960) did not appear on either album. Epic released a third single in 1960, Lemmon’s piano solo of the theme to the film The Apartment, backed with his own composition Lemmon Blues. In 1963, Lemmon released a third album, this time on Capitol Records, entitled Jack Lemmon Plays Piano Selections from Irma La Douce.

Awards and Favorite Films

Lemmon was awarded the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1956 for Mister Roberts (1955) and the Best Actor Oscar for Save the Tiger (1973), becoming the first actor to achieve this rare double (the only other actors to achieve this are: Robert De Niro, Gene Hackman, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Spacey and Denzel Washington). He was also nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his role in the controversial film Missing in 1982, and for his roles in Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The China Syndrome (1979), and Tribute (1980). He won another Cannes award for his performance in Missing (which received the Palme d’Or). In 1986, the U.S. National Board of Review of Motion Pictures gave Lemmon a “Career Achievement” award; two years later, the American Film Institute gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Days of Wine and Roses (1962) was a favorite role. He portrayed Joe Clay, a young, fun-loving alcoholic businessman. In that film, Lemmon delivered the line, “My name is Joe Clay … I’m an alcoholic.” Three and a half decades later, he stated on the television program Inside the Actors Studio that he was a recovering alcoholic.

Lemmon’s production company JML produced Cool Hand Luke in 1967. Paul Newman was grateful to Lemmon for his support and offered him the role of the Sundance Kid, later played by Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but Lemmon turned it down. He did not like riding horses and he felt he’d already played too many aspects of the Sundance Kid’s character before.

Charlie Chaplin (right) receiving an Honorary Academy Award from Lemmon at the 44th Academy Awards in 1972

Lemmon appeared in many films partnered with actor Walter Matthau. Among their pairings was 1968’s The Odd Couple, as Felix Ungar (Lemmon) and Oscar Madison (Matthau). The first film they starred in together was The Fortune Cookie (for which Matthau won the 1966 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), The Front Page and Buddy Buddy. In 1971, Lemmon directed Matthau in the comedy Kotch. It was the only movie that Lemmon directed and Matthau was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for his performance.

Additionally, Lemmon and Matthau had small parts in Oliver Stone‘s 1991 film, JFK (the only film in which both appeared without sharing screen time). In 1993, the duo teamed again to star in Grumpy Old Men. The film was a surprise hit, earning the two actors a new generation of young fans. During the rest of the decade, they would star together in Grumpier Old Men, Out to Sea, and the widely panned The Odd Couple II. In 1996, Lemmon was awarded the Honorary Golden Bear award at the 46th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1997, Lemmon was a guest voice on The Simpsons episode “The Twisted World of Marge Simpson,” playing the character Frank Ormand, owner of the pretzel business that Marge Simpson franchised. The recurring character Old Gil Gunderson, voiced by Dan Castellaneta, is an ongoing parody of Lemmon’s character in Glengarry Glen Ross.

At the 1998 Golden Globe Awards, he was nominated for “Best Actor in a Made for TV Movie” for his role in Twelve Angry Men losing to Ving Rhames. After accepting the award, Rhames asked Lemmon to come on stage and, in a move that stunned the audience, gave his award to him. (The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which presents the Golden Globes, had a second award made and sent to Rhames.). He received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1988.

Lemmon won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his role as Morrie Schwartz in his final television role, Tuesdays with Morrie. His final film role was an uncredited one: the narrator in Robert Redford‘s film The Legend of Bagger Vance.

Actor Kevin Spacey recalled that Lemmon is remembered for always making time for other people. Already regarded as a legend, he met teenage Spacey backstage after a theater performance and spoke to him about pursuing an acting career. Spacey would later work with Lemmon in The Murder of Mary Phagan (1987), Dad (1989), the critically acclaimed film Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) and on stage in a revival of Long Day’s Journey into Night. Lemmon was Spacey’s mentor, and taught Spacey that people who do well in a business have an obligation to “send the elevator back down” to help lift people starting out on the ground floor.

Lemmon’s Star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Los Angeles, California, USA July 19, 2012

In his autobiography, My Life, Burt Reynolds recalls Lemmon as the quintessential gentleman who never spoke ill of anyone, even if they deserved it. This kindness backfired for Reynolds: prior to accepting the lead in W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), directed by John G. Avildsen, Reynolds asked Lemmon, whom Avildsen had directed in Save the Tiger (1973) for an opinion of Avildsen as a director. Lemmon told Reynolds that Avildsen was “okay”, and Reynolds accepted the role. After the film was released and his experiences in production proved unhappy, Reynolds complained to Lemmon and described Avildsen as an “asshole”, whereupon Lemmon replied, “I guess you could say that.”

Personal Life

Lemmon was married twice. His first wife was actress Cynthia Stone, with whom he had a son, Chris Lemmon (born 1954). His second wife was actress Felicia Farr, with whom he had a daughter, Courtney (born 1966). Farr had a daughter from a previous relationship (her marriage to Lee Farr) named Denise. Lemmon was a Catholic. He publicly announced his alcoholism during a 1998 interview on Inside the Actors Studio.

Jack Lemmon’s grave in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery

To golfers everywhere Lemmon was known as the “star” of the celebrity-packed third round telecast of the annual AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, held at Pebble Beach Golf Links each February. Lemmon’s packed gallery was there not only for his humor but also to root him on in his lifelong quest to “make the cut” to round 4, something he was not able to achieve. The amateur who helps his team most in the Pro-Am portion is annually awarded the Jack Lemmon Award.

Death

Lemmon died of metastatic cancer of the bladder on June 27, 2001. He had been fighting the disease, privately, for two years before his death. He was interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California, buried near his friend and co-star, Walter Matthau, who died almost exactly one year before Lemmon. His gravestone reads like a title screen from a film: “JACK LEMMON in”

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Director Notes
1949 The Lady Takes a Sailor Plasterer Michael Curtiz Uncredited
1953 It Should Happen to You Pete Sheppard George Cukor
1954 Phffft Robert Tracey Mark Robson
1955 Three for the Show Martin “Marty” Stewart H. C. Potter
1955 Mister Roberts Ensign Frank Thurlowe Pulver John Ford & Mervyn LeRoy Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1955 My Sister Eileen Robert “Bob” Baker Richard Quine
1955 Hollywood Bronc Busters Himself
1956 You Can’t Run Away from It Peter Warne Dick Powell
1957 Fire Down Below Tony Robert Parrish
1957 Operation Mad Ball Private Hogan Richard Quine Nominated Laurel Award for Top Male Comedy Performance
1958 Cowboy Frank Harris Delmer Daves
1958 Bell, Book and Candle Nicky Holroyd Richard Quine
1959 Some Like It Hot Jerry “Gerald” / “Daphne” Billy Wilder BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated Laurel Award for Top Male Comedy Performance
1959 It Happened to Jane George Denham Richard Quine
1960 The Apartment C. C. Baxter Billy Wilder BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Laurel Award for Top Male Comedy Performance
Nominated Academy Award for Best Actor
1960 Stowaway in the Sky Narrator Albert Lamorisse Voice
1960 Pepe Daphne George Sidney Cameo
1960 The Wackiest Ship in the Army Lt. Rip Crandall Richard Murphy
1962 The Notorious Landlady William “Bill” Gridley Richard Quine
1962 Days of Wine and Roses Joe Clay Blake Edwards Fotogramas de Plata Award for Best Foreign Performer
San Sebastin International Film Festival Award for Best Actor
Sant Jordi Award for Best Performance in a Foreign Film
Laurel Award for Top Male Comedy Performance
Nominated Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Drama
1963 Irma la Douce Nestor Patou / Lord X Billy Wilder Laurel Award for Top Male Comedy Performance
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1963 Under the Yum Yum Tree Hogan David Swift Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1964 Good Neighbor Sam Sam Bissel David Swift Nominated BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1965 How to Murder Your Wife Stanley Ford Richard Quine Laurel Award for Top Male Comedy Performance
Nominated BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1965 The Great Race Professor Fate / Prince Hapnick Blake Edwards Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated Laurel Award for Top Male Comedy Performance
1966 The Fortune Cookie Harry Hinkle Billy Wilder
1967 Luv Harry Berlin Clive Donner
1968 There Comes a Day
1968 The Odd Couple Felix Ungar Gene Saks Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated Laurel Award for Top Male Comedy Performance
1969 The April Fools Howard Brubaker Stuart Rosenberg Laurel Award for Top Male Comedy Performance
1970 The Out-of-Towners George Kellerman Arthur Hiller Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Uncredited
1971 Kotch Sleeping bus passenger Jack Lemmon Uncredited
1972 The War Between Men and Women Peter Edward Wilson Melville Shavelson
1972 Avanti! Wendell Armbruster, Jr. Billy Wilder Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1973 Save the Tiger Harry Stoner John G. Avildsen Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Drama
1974 La polizia ha le mani legate Narrator Luciano Ercoli Voice
1974 The Front Page Hildebrand “Hildy” Johnson Billy Wilder David di Donatello for Best Actor (shared with Walter Matthau)
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1975 Wednesday Jerry Murphy
1975 The Prisoner of Second Avenue Mel Edison Melvin Frank
1975 The Gentleman Tramp Narrator Voice
1976 Alex & the Gypsy Alexander Main John Korty
1977 Airport ’77 Captain Don Gallagher Jerry Jameson
1979 The China Syndrome Jack Godell James Bridges Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor
David di Donatello for Best Actor (tied with Dustin Hoffman)
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Drama
Nominated National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor
1980 Tribute Scottie Templeton Bob Clark Silver Bear for Best Actor
Genie Award for Best Performance by a Foreign Actor
Nominated Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Drama
Nominated Utah Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
1981 Buddy Buddy Victor Clooney Billy Wilder
1982 Missing Ed Horman Costa-Gavras Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor
Nominated Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actor
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Drama
1984 Mass Appeal Father Tim Farley Glenn Jordan
1985 Macaroni Robert Traven Ettore Scola
1986 That’s Life! Harvey Fairchild Blake Edwards Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1989 Dad Jake Tremont Gary David Goldberg Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Drama
1991 JFK Jack Martin Oliver Stone
1992 Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy Himself
1992 The Player Himself Robert Altman
1992 Glengarry Glen Ross Shelley Levene James Foley National Board of Review Award for Best Actor
Valladolid International Film Festival Award for Best Actor
Volpi Cup Award for Best Actor
1993 Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman In Carver County Himself
1993 Short Cuts Paul Finnigan Robert Altman Golden Globe Award for Best Ensemble Cast
Volpi Cup for Best Ensemble Cast
1993 Grumpy Old Men John Gustafson Donald Petrie
1995 The Grass Harp Dr. Morris Ritz Charles Matthau
1995 Grumpier Old Men John Gustafson Howard Deutch Nominated American Comedy Award for Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture
1996 Getting Away with Murder Max Mueller / Karl Luger Harvey Miller
1996 My Fellow Americans President Russell P. Kramer Peter Segal
1996 Hamlet Marcellus Kenneth Branagh
1997 Out to Sea Herb Sullivan Martha Coolidge
1997 Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen’s Himself
1998 Puppies for Sale Pet shop owner
1998 The Odd Couple II Felix Ungar Howard Deutch
2000 The Legend of Bagger Vance Narrator / Hardy Greaves Robert Redford Uncredited, (final film role)

Television

Year Title Role Notes
19491950 That Wonderful Guy Harold
1950 Toni Twin Time Host Episode dated May 31, 1950
1951 Ad-Libbers, TheThe Ad-Libbers Celebrity panelist 5 episodes
19511952 Frances Langford-Don Ameche Show, TheThe Frances Langford-Don Ameche Show Newlywed “The Couple Next Door” sketches
1952 Heaven for Betsy Pete Bell
1954 Road of Life, TheThe Road of Life Surgeon
1956 Day Lincoln Was Shot, TheThe Day Lincoln Was Shot John Wilkes Booth
1957 What’s My Line? Mystery Guest Season 9, Episode 10
19571958 Alcoa Theatre Henry Coyle
Steve Tyler
Wally Mall
Lieutenant Tony Crawford
Edward King
Episode: “Disappearance”
Episode: “Most Likely to Succeed”
Episode: “Loudmouth”
Episode: “The Days of November”
Episode: “Souvenir”
1972 S Wonderful, ‘S Marvelous, ‘S Gershwin Host Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special
1976 Entertainer, TheThe Entertainer Archie Rice Nominated Prime time Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
1987 Long Day’s Journey into Night James Tyrone, Sr. Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Miniseries or Television Film
1988 Murder of Mary Phagan, TheThe Murder of Mary Phagan Gov. John Slaton Nominated Prime time Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Miniseries or Television Film
1990 The Earth Day Special Coach Stewart
1992 For Richer, for Poorer Aram Katourian Nominated Cable ACE Award for Best Actor in a Movie or Miniseries
1993 A Life in the Theater Robert Nominated Cable ACE Award for Best Actor in a Movie or Miniseries
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Miniseries or Television Film
1994 Wild West Host
1996 Weekend in the Country, AA Weekend in the Country Bud Bailey
1997 Simpsons, TheThe Simpsons Frank Ormand Voice
Episode: “The Twisted World of Marge Simpson
1997 12 Angry Men Juror No. 8 Nominated Prime time Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Miniseries or Television Film
Nominated Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
1998 Long Way Home, The The Long Way Home Thomas Gerrin
1999 Inherit the Wind Henry Drummond Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Miniseries or Television Film
Nominated Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
1999 Tuesdays with Morrie Morrie Schwartz Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Miniseries or Television Film

Discography

  • A Twist of Lemmon (1958)
  • Some Like It Hot (1959)
  • Piano Selections from Irma La Douce (1963)
  • Piano and Vocals (1990)
  • Peter and the Wolf (1991)
  • Songs and music from Some Like It Hot (2001)