Alan Arkin

Alan Wolf Arkin (March 26, 1934 – June 29, 2023) was an American actor, director, and screenwriter. He had been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor twice, for his performances in Norman Jewison’s The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966), with Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Brian Keith, Theodore Bikel, Jonathan Winters, John Phillip Law, Tessie O’Shea, and Paul Ford; and Robert Ellis Miller’s The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), with Sandra Locke, Laurinda Barrett, Stacy Keach Jr., Chuck McCann, Biff McGuire, Percy Rodriguez, and Cicely Tyson. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), with Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin; and received critical praise and a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance in Argo (2012), with Ben Affleck (who also directed), Bryan Cranston, and John Goodman.

Films in the 1960s include Vittorio De Sica‘s Women Times Seven (1967), with Shirley MacLaine, Peter Sellers, Michael Caine, Anita Ekberg, Vittorio Gassman, Rossano Brazzi, Philippe Noiret, Robert Morley, Lex Barker; Terence Young’s Wait Until Dark (1967), with Audrey Hepburn and Richard Crenna; Bud Yorkin’s Inspector Clouseau (1968), with Frank Finlay and Patrick Cargill; and Arthur Hiller’s Popi (1969), with Rita Moreno.

Films in the early 1970’s include Mike Nichols’ Catch-22 (1970), with Bob Balaban, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin, Olimpia Carlisi, Marcel Dalio, Art Garfunkel, Jack Gilford, Charles Grodin, Bob Newhart, Anthony Perkins, Austin Pendleton, Paula Prentiss, Martin Sheen, Jon Voight, and Orson Welles; Deadhead Miles (1972), with Paul Benedict, Hector Elizondo, Bruce Bennett, Charles Durning, with cameos by George Raft and Ida Lupino; The Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1972), with Sally Kellerman, Paula Prentiss, and Renée Taylor; and Richard Rush’s Freebie and the Bean (1974), with James Caan, Loretta Swit, Jack Kruschen, Christopher Morley, Mike Kellin, Alex Rocco, Linda Marsh, and Valerie Harper.

Films in the mid to late 1970s include Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins (1975), with Kellerman, Mackenzie Phillips, and Harry Dean Stanton; Hearts of the War (1975), with Jeff Bridges, Andy Griffith, Donald Pleasence, and Blythe Danner; Herbert Ross‘s The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), with Nicol Williamson, Robert Duvall, Georgia Brown, Samantha Eggar, Charles Gray, Jeremy Kemp, Joel Grey, Laurence Olivier, Vanessa Redgrave; The In-Laws (1979), with Peter Falk; and The Magician of Lublin (1979), with Louise Fletcher, Shelley Winters, and Valerie Perrine. He also directed the films Little Murders (1971), with Elliott Gould, Marcia Rodd, Vincent Gardenia, Elizabeth Wilson, Jon Korkes, John Randolph, Doris Roberts , Donald Sutherland, Lou Jacobi; and Fire Sale (1977), with Rob Reiner, Gardenia, Anjanette Comer, Kay Medford, Sid Caesar, and Byron Stewart.

Films in the 1980s include Marshall Brickman’s Simon (1980), with Madeline Kahn, Pendleton, Judy Graubart, William Finley, Wallace Shawn, Jayant, and Max Wright; Impromptu Channels (1981), with Mariette Hartley; Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (1981), with Carol Burnett, Jack Warden, Ruth Buzzi, Adam Arkin, Danny Aiello, Danny Glover, and Sid Haig; Larry Cohen’s Full Moon High (1981), with Adam Arkin, Roz Kelly, and Kenneth Mars; the animated fantasy The Last Unicorn (1982), with the voices of Bridges, Mia Farrow, Tammy Grimes, Robert Klein, Angela Lansbury, Christopher Lee, Keenan Wynn, Paul Frees, and René Auberjonois; and The Return of Captain Invincible (1983), with Lee, Kate Fitzpatrick, and Bill Hunter.

Films in the mid to late 1980s include Ted Kotcheff’s Joshua Then and Now (1985), with James Woods, Gabrielle Lazure, Michael Sarrazin, Linda Sorenson, Alan Scarfe, Ken Campbell, Alexander Knox, Kate Trotter, Robert Joy, Harvey Atkin, and Paul Hecht; Bad Medicine (1985), with Steve Guttenberg and Julie Hagerty; John Cassavetes‘s Big Trouble (1986), with Falk, Beverly D’Angelo, Charles Durning, and Valerie Curtin; and the TV movie Escape from Sobibor (1987), with Joanna Pacuła, Rutger Hauer, Hartmut Becker, and Jack Shepherd.

Films in the 1990s include Coupe de Ville (1990), with Patrick Dempsey, Arye Gross, Daniel Stern, Annabeth Gish, Rita Taggart, and Joseph Bologna; Tim Burton‘s Edward Scissorhands (1990), with Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker, and Vincent Price; Sydney Pollack’s Havana (1990), with Robert Redford, Lena Olin, and Raul Julia; Joe Johnston’s The Rocketeer (1991), Bill Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Timothy Dalton, Paul Sorvino, Terry O’Quinn, Jon Polito, and Tiny Ron Taylor; James Foley’s Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), with Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Pryce, and Alec Baldwin; Mike Binder’s Indian Summer (1993), with Matt Craven, Diane Lane, Bill Paxton, Elizabeth Perkins, Kevin Pollak, Sam Raimi, Vincent Spano, Julie Warner, and Kimberly Williams; So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), with Mike Myers, Nancy Travis, Anthony LaPaglia, Amanda Plummer, and Brenda Fricker; and North (1994), with Elijah Wood, Jon Lovitz, Jason Alexander, Dan Aykroyd, Kathy Bates, Faith Ford, Graham Greene, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Reba McEntire, John Ritter, Abe Vigoda, and Bruce Willis.

Films in the mid to late 1990s include Steal Big Steal Little (1995), with Andy García, Rachel Ticotin, Joe Pantoliano, Ally Walker, David Ogden Stiers, Kevin McCarthy, and Richard Bradford; Keith Gordon’s Mother Night (1996), with Nick Nolte, Sheryl Lee, Kirsten Dunst, and Frankie Faison; Grosse Point Blank (1997), with John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Joan Cusack, and Aykroyd; Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca (1997), with Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Loren Dean, Ernest Borgnine, and Gore Vidal; Tamara Jenkins’s The Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), with Natasha Lyonne, Marisa Tomei, David Krumholtz, Kevin Corrigan, Eli Marienthal, and Jessica Walter; and Jakob the Liar (1999), with Robin Williams, Hannah Taylor Gordon, Bob Balaban, Michael Jeter, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and Liev Schreiber.

Films in the early 2000s include America’s Sweethearts (2001), with Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal, John Cusack, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Hank Azaria, Stanley Tucci, Seth Green, and Christopher Walken; Jill Sprecher’s Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001), with Matthew McConaughey, John Turturro, Clea DuVall, and Amy Irving; Steven Soderbergh‘s Equilibrium (2004), with Robert Downey Jr. and Ele Keats; Chazz Palminteri’s Noel (2004), with Penélope Cruz, Susan Sarandon, Paul Walker, Daniel Sunjata, and Williams (uncredited); Richard Loncraine’s Firewall (2006), with Harrison Ford, Paul Bettany, Virginia Madsen, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Robert Patrick, and Robert Forster; The Novice (2006), with Jacob Pitts, Amy Acker, Frank Langella, Orson Bean, and William Lee Scott; The Santa Clause 3 (2006), with Tim Allen, Elizabeth Mitchell, Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson, Ann-Margret, Eric Lloyd, Spencer Breslin, Liliana Mumy, and Martin Short; and Raising Flagg (2006), with Lauren Holly and Glenne Headly.

Films in the mid to late 2000s include Rendition (2007), with Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard, and Omar Metwally; Sunshine Cleaning (2008), with Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Jason Spevack, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Clifton Collins Jr., Eric Christian Olsen, Kevin Chapman, and Steve Zahn; Get Smart (2008), with Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Terence Stamp, Terry Crews, David Koechner, and Caan; Marley & Me (2008), with Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, and Eric Dane; Rebecca Miller‘s The Private Lives of Pipa Lee (2009), with Robin Wright, Maria Bello, Monica Bellucci, Blake Lively, Julianne Moore, Keanu Reeves, Ryder, Tim Guinee, Robin Weigert, Ryan McDonald, Zoe Kazan, Binder, and Shirley Knight; and City Island (2009), with Garcia, Julianna Margulies, Steven Strait, Emily Mortimer, Ezra Miller, Dominik Garcia-Lorido.

Roles in the 2010s include Thin Ice (2011), with Kinnear and Billy Crudup; The Change-Up (2011), with Ryan Reynolds, Jason Bateman, Leslie Mann, and Olivia Wilde; Fisher Stevens’ Stand Up Guys (2012), with Al Pacino and Walken; The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013), with Carell, Steve Buscemi, Wilde, James Gandolfini, and Jim Carrey; Grudge Match (2013), with Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Kevin Hart, Kim Basinger, snd Jon Bernthal; Million Dollar Arm (2014), with Jon Hamm, Aasif Mandvi, Bill Paxton, Suraj Sharma, and Lake Bell.

Later films included Love the Coopers (2015), with Goodman, Ed Helms, Diane Keaton, Jake Lacy, Anthony Mackie, Amanda Seyfried, June Squibb, Tomei, Timothée Chalamet, and the voice of Steve Martin; Zach Braff’s Going in Style (2017), with Morgan Freeman, Caine, Joey King, Matt Dillon, Christopher Lloyd, Ann-Margret, John Ortiz, and Siobhan Fallon Hogan; Dumbo (2019), with Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, and Eva Green; Spenser Confidential (2020), with Mark Wahlberg, Winston Duke, Iliza Shlesinger, Bokeem Woodbine, Donald Cerrone, Marc Maron, and Post Malone; and a voice role in Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), with Carell, Pierre Coffin, Taraji P. Henson, Michelle Yeoh, RZA, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lucy Lawless, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, Russell Brand, and Julie Andrews. He also appeared in the first two (of three) seasons of the Netflix series The Kaminsky Method (2018-2021), with Michael Douglas, Sarah Baker, and Travis.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

Calypso Heat Wave (1957) – directed by Fred F. Sears – uncredited
That’s Me (1963) – directed by Walker Stuart – short – also co-writer
The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966) – directed by Norman Jewison
The Last Mohican (1966) – directed by Paul Leaf – short – also co-writer
The Love Song of Bobby Kempinski (1966) – directed by Stanley Prager – TV movie
Woman Times Seven (1967) – directed by Vittorio De Sica
Wait Until Dark (1967) – directed by Terence Young
Inspector Clouseau (1968) – directed by Bud Yorkin
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968) – directed by Robert Ellis Miller
Popi (1969) – directed by Arthur Hiller
The Monitors (1969) – directed by Jack Shea – cameo
People Soup (1969) – short – also director, writer
Catch-22 (1970) – directed by Mike Nichols
Little Murders (1971) – also director
Deadhead Miles (1972) – directed by Vernon Zimmerman
Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1972) – directed by Gene Saks
It Couldn’t Happen to a Nicer Guy (1974) – directed by Cy Howard – TV movie
Freebie and the Bean (1974) – directed by Richard Rush
Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins (1975) – directed by Dick Richards
Hearts of the West (1975) – directed by Howard Zieff
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976) – directed by Herbert Ross
Fire Sale (1977) – also director
The Other Side of Hell (1978) – directed by Ján Kadár – TV movie
The Defection of Simas Kudrika (1978) – directed by David Lowell Rich – TV movie
The In-Laws (1979) – directed by Arthur Hiller – also executive producer
The Magician of Lublin (1979) – directed by Menahem Golan
Simon (1980) – directed by Marshall Brickman
Improper Channels (1981) – directed by Eric Till – also co-writer
Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (1981) – directed by David Lowell Rich
Full Moon High (1981) – directed by Larry Cohen
Two Guys from Muck (1982) – directed by John Astin – TV movie
The Last Unicorn (1982) – by Arthur Rankin Jr. & Jules Bass
The Return of Captain Invincible (1983) – directed by Philippe Mora
A Matter of Principle (1984) – directed by Gwen Arner – TV movie
The Fourth Wise Man (1985) – directed by Michael Ray Rhodes – TV movie
Joshua Then and Now (1985) – directed by Ted Kotcheff
Bad Medicine (1985) – directed by Harvey Miller
A Deadly Business (1986) – directed by John Korty – TV movie
Big Trouble (1986) – directed by John Cassavetes
Escape from Sobibor (1987) – directed by Jack Gold – TV movie
Necessary Parties (1988) – directed by Gwen Arner – TV movie
Coupe de Villa (1990) – directed by Joe Roth
Edward Scissorhands (1990) – directed by Tim Burton
Havana (1990) – directed by Sydney Pollack
The Rocketeer (1991)* – directed by Joe Johnston
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) – directed by James Foley
Cooperstown (1993) – directed by Charles Haid – TV movie
Indian Summer (1993) – directed by Mike Binder
Taking the Heat (1993) – directed by Tom Mankiewicz – TV movie
So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993) – directed by Thomas Schlamme
Samuel Beckett Is Coming Soon (1993) – short – also director
North (1994) – directed by Rob Reiner
Doomsday Gun (1994) – directed by Robert Young – TV movie
The Jerky Boys (1995) – directed by John G. Brennan
Picture Windows (1995) – directed by Joe Dante, Norman Jewison, John Boorman, Jonathan Kaplan, Peter Bogdanovich, & Bob Rafelson – anthology miniseries
Steal Big Steal Little (1995) – directed by Andrew Davis
Heck’s Way Home (1996) – directed by Michael J.F. Scott – TV movie
Mother Night (1996) – directed by Keith Gordon
Grosse Point Blank (1997) – directed by George Armitage
Four Days in September (1997) – directed by Bruno Barreto
Gattaca (1997) – directed by Andrew Niccol
The Slums of Beverly Hills (1998) – directed by Tamara Jenkins
Jakob the Liar (1999) – directed by Peter Kassovitz
Blood Money (2000) – directed by Aaron Lipstadt – TV movie
Magicians (2000) – directed by James Merendino – straight to video
Varian’s War: The Forgotten Hero (2001) – directed by Lionel Chetwynd – TV movie
America’s Sweethearts (2001)* – directed by Joe Roth
Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001) – directed by Jill Sprecher
The Pentagon Papers (2003) – directed by Rod Holcomb – TV movie
And Starring Pacho Villa as Himself (2003) – directed by Bruce Beresford – TV movie
Eros (2004) – directed by Wong Kar-wai, Steven Soderbergh, & Michelangelo Antonioni – anthology
Noel (2004) – directed by Chazz Palminteri
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)* – directed by Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris
Firewall (2006) – directed by Richard Loncraine
The Novice (2006) – directed by Murray Robinson
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006) – directed by Michael Lembeck
Raising Flagg (2006) – directed by Neal Miller
Rendition (2007) – directed by Gavin Hood
Sunshine Cleaning (2008)* – directed by Christine Jeffs
Get Smart (2008)* – directed by Peter Segal
Marley & Me (2008) – directed by David Frankel
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009) – directed by Rebecca Miller
City Island (2009) – by Raymond De Felitta
Thin Ice (2011) – directed by Jill Sprecher
The Change-Up (2011) – directed by David Dobkin
The Muppets (2011)* – directed by James Bobin – cameo
Argo (2012) – directed by Ben Affleck
Stand Up Guys (2012) – directed by Fisher Stevens
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013) – directed by Don Scardino
Armed Response (2013) – directed by Adam & Evan Beamer
Grudge Match (2013) – directed by Peter Segal
Million Dollar Arm (2014) – directed by Craig Gillespie
Love the Coopers (2015) – directed by Jessie Nelson
Going in Style (2017) – directed by Zach Braff
Dumbo (2019) – directed by Tim Burton
Spenser Confidential (2020) – directed by Peter Berg
Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)* – directed by Kyle Balda, Brad Ableson, & Jonathan del Val
The Smack (202-) – directed by David M. Rosenthal – posthumous release

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