On March 26, 1934 Alan Wolf Arkin was born in New York City,
New York.
He has, to date, married three times. His first marriage
was to Barbara Dana in 1964 with whom he had one child. He
remarried in 1955 to Jeremy Yaffe. They had two children during
their decade of marriage. Recently Alan has remarried to his
current wife, Suzanne Arkin. Alan Arkin is the father of Adam
Arkin, Matthew Arkin and Anthony Arkin.
The beginning of his career consisted of baby steps. In fact,
Arkin performed many cameos in hi youth including his cameo
as a mild-mannered police chief in 1933's "So I Married
an Axe Murderer", which he performed without billing.
Eventually Arkin would join the St. Louis Missouri Theatre,
The Compass Theatre, where he would attain his acting skills.
He would move on to perform with the Chicago group Second
City. In 1961 an experienced Alan Arkin had made a career
for himself back home in New York with the Second City troupe.
After some credible success Arkin would join the Broadway
stage, appearing in productions of "Enter Laughing"
and "Luv". His performance in 1963's "Enter
Laughing" won Alan a Tony for Best Supporting or Featured
Actor (Dramatic).
Alan began his silver screen career in 1966. To date, Alan
Arkin is one of only five actors to receive an Academy Award
nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance
in 1966's "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are
Coming" in which he starred as an abandoned Russian sailor.
The following year Alan starred in what was perhaps his darkest
role; as the viciously intelligent psychopath Harry Roat who
terrifies a defenseless blind women (Audrey Hepburn) in 1967's
"Wait Until Dark". In 1968 Arkin would surprise
audiences with his role in "Inspector Clouseau"
after Peter Sellers declined to reprise the role a third time.
Two of Alan Arkin's silver screen roles were later adapted
into a TV Series starring Hector Elizondo. The movies from
which the characters were reprised were 1969's "Popi"
and 1974's "Freebie and the Bean".
Originally cast to play Saul Bloom in Steven Soderbergh's
remake of "Ocean's Eleven", Arkin decided to drop
out of production. He was replaced by Carl Reiner.
In 1973 Alan Arkin was nominated for the Tony Award for Best
Director (Dramatic) for "The Sunshine Boys".
Alan Arkin's many outstanding credits include:
