Walter Matthau Biography

Fast Facts

• Started reading Shakespeare when he was 7, and made his professional stage debut at the age of 11 in the 1931 musical comedy The Dishwasher
• Made his film debut in Burt Lancaster's 1955 western The Kentuckian
• Served in the U
• S
• Army Air Corps (under Lt
• Jimmy Stewart) from 1942 to 1945, receiving six battle stars and reaching the rank of staff sergeant
• Liked to provide false information to interviewers, a prank that resulted in many believing his birth name was Walter Matuschanskayasky (he even asked to be credited that way in the 1974 film Earthquake because he was unhappy with how his footage was edited)
• Final film was Diane Keaton's 2000 comedy-drama Hanging Up, which cast him as the ailing father of three feuding sisters played by Keaton, Lisa Kudrow and Meg Ryan
• When he became ill during filming, he was admitted to the same hospital his character was said to be in
• Struggled throughout his life with an addiction to gambling, which he once estimated had cost him a total of $5 million