Walter Matthau
Walter Matthau (born Walter John Matthow; October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American actor, comedian and film director.
He is best known for his film roles in A Face in the Crowd (1957), King Creole (1958) and as a coach of a hapless little league team in the baseball comedy The Bad News Bears (1976). He also starred in 10 films alongside Jack Lemmon, including The Odd Couple (1968), The Front Page (1974) and Grumpy Old Men (1993). Matthau won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the Billy Wilder film The Fortune Cookie (1966). Matthau is also known for his performances in Stanley Donen's romance Charade (1963), Gene Kelly's musical Hello, Dolly! (1969), Elaine May's screwball comedy A New Leaf (1971) and Herbert Ross' ensemble comedy California Suite (1978). He also starred in Plaza Suite, Kotch (both 1971), Charley Varrick (1973), The Sunshine Boys (1975), and Hopscotch (1980).
On Broadway, Matthau originated the role of Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple by playwright Neil Simon, for which he received a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1965, his second after A Shot in the Dark in 1962. Matthau also received two British Academy Film Awards and a Golden Globe Award. In 1963, he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his performance in The DuPont Show of the Week. In 1982, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 2.6107 |
| Birthday | 1920-10-01 |
| Place of Birth | New York City, New York, USA |
| Also Known As | Walter John Matthau, |
1974
The Front Page
7.305/389
Ruthless Chicago newspaper editor Walter Burns resorts to dubious motives in order to get top reporter Hildy Johnson to cover one more big crime story...
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The Front Page
1964
Fail Safe
7.84/484
Because of a technical defect an American bomber team mistakenly orders the destruction of Moscow. The President of the United States has but little t...
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Fail Safe
1991
JFK
7.592/2463
Follows the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy led by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison.
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JFK
1966
The Fortune Cookie
7.173/355
TV cameraman Harry Hinkle is injured while filming a football game. Seeing big dollar signs, his unscrupulous ambulance-chasing lawyer brother-in-law...
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The Fortune Cookie
2000
Hanging Up
5.3/186
Three sisters - Georgia, Eve, and Maddy - do what they do best with life, love, and lunacy on the telephone lines that bind - when their curmudgeonly...
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Hanging Up
1963
Charade
7.7/1575
After Regina Lampert falls for the dashing Peter Joshua on a skiing holiday in the French Alps, she discovers upon her return to Paris that her husban...
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Charade
1974
Earthquake
6.14/375
Various interconnected people struggle to survive when an earthquake of unimaginable magnitude hits Los Angeles, California.
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Earthquake
1967
A Guide for the Married Man
5.942/43
A man gives his friend a series of lessons on how to cheat on one's wife without being caught.
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A Guide for the Married Man
1957
A Face in the Crowd
7.616/277
The rise of a raucous hayseed named Lonesome Rhodes from itinerant Ozark guitar picker to local media rabble-rouser to TV superstar and political king...
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A Face in the Crowd
1968
The Odd Couple
7.417/661
In New York, Felix, a neurotic news writer who just broke up with his wife, is urged by his chaotic friend Oscar, a sports journalist, to move in with...
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The Odd Couple
1993
Grumpy Old Men
6.684/767
For decades, next-door neighbors and former friends John and Max have feuded, trading insults and wicked pranks. When an attractive widow moves in nea...
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Grumpy Old Men
2015
Last of the Independents: Don Siegel and the Making of 'Charley Varrick'
5/1
Don Siegel’s classic crime thriller "Charley Varrick," made in 1972 in the wake of the immensely successful "Dirty Harry," stars Walter Matthau in wh...
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Last of the Independents: Don Siegel and the Making of 'Charley Varrick'
1994
I.Q.
6/503
Albert Einstein helps a young man who's in love with Einstein's niece to catch her attention by pretending temporarily to be a great physicist.
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I.Q.
1976
The Bad News Bears
6.906/347
An aging, down-on-his-luck ex-minor leaguer coaches a team of misfits in an ultra-competitive California little league.
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The Bad News Bears
1986
Pirates
6.3/308
The adventures of pirate Captain Red and his first mate Frog.
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Pirates
1974
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
7.5/639
In New York, armed men hijack a subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers while the authorities question about the method of their escape.
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The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
1988
The Couch Trip
5.479/118
The escaped mental patient and delinquent John W. Burns Jr. replaces Dr. Maitlin on a radio show, saying he's the psychiatrist Lawrence Baird.
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The Couch Trip
1980
Hopscotch
7.025/182
When CIA operative Miles Kendig deliberately lets KGB agent Yaskov get away, his boss threatens to retire him. Kendig beats him to it, however, destro...
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Hopscotch
1993
Dennis the Menace
5.88/1624
Mr. Wilson's ever-present annoyance comes in the form of one mischievous kid named Dennis. But he'll need Dennis's tricks to uncover a collection of g...
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Dennis the Menace
1998
The Odd Couple II
6.295/156
Brucey, the son of Oscar, calls his father to invite him to his wedding to Felix's daughter next Sunday in California. Oscar and Felix meet again at L...
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The Odd Couple II
1956
Bigger Than Life
7.2/186
A friendly, successful suburban teacher and father grows dangerously addicted to cortisone, resulting in his transformation into a household despot.
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Bigger Than Life
1978
California Suite
5.856/125
The misadventures of four groups of guests at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
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California Suite
1973
Charley Varrick
7.363/293
Charley Varrick robs a bank in a small town with his friends, but instead of obtaining a small amount of money, they discover they stole a very large...
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Charley Varrick
1969
Cactus Flower
7.204/248
A dentist pretends to be married to avoid commitment, but when he falls for his girlfriend and proposes, he must recruit his lovelorn nurse to pose as...
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Cactus Flower
1983
The Survivors
5.684/117
Having both lost their jobs, two strangers become unlikely friends after a run in with a would be robber, who is actually a hitman with a grudge again...
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The Survivors
1982
I Love Liberty
0/0
An all-star variety special saluting America.
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I Love Liberty
1981
Buddy Buddy
6.113/115
During a high-profile Mafia testimony case in Riverside County, a hired killer checks into a hotel room near the courthouse, while his depressed neigh...
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Buddy Buddy
1982
I Ought to Be in Pictures
6.923/13
Grandmother has nothing to say when Libby tells her that she is off to LA to look up Dad, a Hollywood screenwriter. Grandmother has been in a New York...
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I Ought to Be in Pictures
1969
Hello, Dolly!
7/398
Dolly Levi is a strong-willed matchmaker who travels to Yonkers, New York in order to see the miserly "well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire" Horace...
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Hello, Dolly!
1973
The Laughing Policeman
6.2/76
When a gunman opens fire on a crowded city bus in San Francisco, Detective Dave Evans is killed, along with the man he'd been following in relation to...
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The Laughing Policeman
1978
House Calls
6.432/22
Charley is a surgeon who's recently lost his wife; he embarks on a tragicomic romantic quest with one woman after another until he meets up with Ann,...
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House Calls
1971
Plaza Suite
6.2/55
Film version of the Neil Simon play has three separate acts set in the same hotel suite in New York's Plaza Hotel with Walter Matthau in a triple role...
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Plaza Suite
1971
A New Leaf
7.3/207
After running out of funds, Henry Graham, a carefree playboy, plots to marry and murder wealthy botanist Henrietta Lowell.
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A New Leaf
1964
Ensign Pulver
6.5/20
1945, on an old cargo ship somewhere deep in the Pacific ocean: Captain Morton strives to become commander, so he demands the maximum quality of work...
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Ensign Pulver
1962
Lonely are the Brave
7.386/171
A fiercely independent cowboy arranges to have himself locked up in jail in order to then escape with an old friend who has been sentenced to the peni...
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Lonely are the Brave
1996
I'm Not Rappaport
5.706/34
Old Nat Moyer is a talker, a philosopher, and a troublemaker with a fanciful imagination. His companion is Midge Carter, who is half-blind, but still...
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I'm Not Rappaport
1988
The Little Devil
6.721/437
Father Maurice, a priest living in a residential college for priests in Rome, is called out one day to "exorcise" the devil from someone. The devil tu...
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The Little Devil
1995
Grumpier Old Men
6.466/436
A family wedding reignites the ancient feud between next-door neighbors and fishing buddies John and Max. Meanwhile, a sultry Italian divorcée opens a...
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Grumpier Old Men
1958
Ride a Crooked Trail
6.5/26
After robbing a bank Murphy assumes the identity of his pursuer, a famous US Marshal, when he stumbles into a town and is confronted by the local judg...
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Ride a Crooked Trail
1975
The Sunshine Boys
6.892/111
Lewis and Clark, aka The Sunshine Boys, were famous comedians during the vaudeville era, but off-stage they couldn't stand each other and haven't spok...
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The Sunshine Boys
1968
Candy
5.1/85
A high school girl encounters a variety of kookie characters and humorous sexual situations while searching for the meaning of life.
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Candy
1955
The Kentuckian
5.8/56
A frontiersman and his son fight to build a new home in Texas.
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The Kentuckian
1980
Little Miss Marker
6.6/51
Sorrowful Jones is a cheap bookie in the 1930s. When a gambler leaves his daughter as a marker for a bet, he gets stuck with her. His life changes a g...
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Little Miss Marker
1996
The Grass Harp
5.9/34
Based on the novel by Truman Capote, this often-witty coming-of-age drama looks at a young man growing up with an unusual family in the Deep South in...
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The Grass Harp
1997
Out to Sea
5.821/123
Care-free Charlie cons his widower brother-in-law Herb into an expenses-paid luxury cruise in search of rich, lonely ladies. The catch is that they ar...
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Out to Sea
1958
King Creole
6.4/113
Delinquent Danny Fisher flunks out of high school, quits his job as a nightclub busboy, and one night gets the chance to perform. Success is imminent...
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King Creole
1959
Gangster Story
4.917/12
Gangster and cop killer Jack Martin is on the run from the law, and hides out in a small town. Low on funds, he engineers a clever bank robbery that y...
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Gangster Story
1965
Mirage
7.064/118
After a blackout in his office building, accountant David Stillwell emerges outside to find out a man he did not know either jumped or was pushed out...
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Mirage
1958
Voice in the Mirror
6.4/5
Jim Burton, chronic alcoholic, is cared for by Ellen, his incredibly patient, sexy, hard-working wife. A doctor's warning that Jim could become mental...
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Voice in the Mirror
1957
Slaughter on 10th Avenue
5.778/9
A rookie assistant DA is assigned to investigate the murder of a longshoreman, killed for exposing gangster involvement on the piers, and meets up wit...
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Slaughter on 10th Avenue
1994
Incident in a Small Town
7.125/8
Lily and her son John live alone in a small town as her husband has been killed fighting the war in France. Or at least that is what she told John, bu...
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Incident in a Small Town
1978
Casey's Shadow
6.462/13
Young Casey comes from a family of racehorse trainers, and his best friend, a foal called Casey's Shadow, may just be a champion.
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Casey's Shadow
1981
First Monday in October
6.155/29
For the first time in history a woman is appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where she becomes a friendly rival to a liberal associate.
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First Monday in October
1971
Kotch
6.6/34
When retired salesman Joseph Kotcher begins to feel pressure to move out of the house he shares with the family of his son, he opts to embark on a roa...
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Kotch
1955
The Indian Fighter
6.347/85
A scout leading a wagon train through hostile Indian country gets involved with a Sioux chief's daughter.
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The Indian Fighter
1960
Strangers When We Meet
6.422/45
A suburban architect loves his wife but is bored with his marriage and with his work, so he takes up with the neglected, married beauty who lives down...
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Strangers When We Meet
1962
Who's Got the Action?
5.154/13
A lawyer begins to win after his wife secretly becomes his bookie to save their money.
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Who's Got the Action?
1985
Movers & Shakers
3.867/15
Studio head Joe Mulholland promises his dying producer and mentor, Saul Gritz, to adapt a popular sex manual into a film, despite his better judgment....
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Movers & Shakers
1972
Pete 'n' Tillie
5.8/22
A fun-loving bachelor woos and weds a secretary, but the bonds of this marriage aren't strong enough to stop his philandering from continuing.
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Pete 'n' Tillie
1963
Island of Love
5.8/6
Con artist Steve Blair persuades Tony Dallas, a Manhattan gangster, to finance a movie about Adam and Eve by offering the female lead to Tony's stripp...
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Island of Love
1982
Hollywood: The Gift of Laughter
0/0
A retrospective look at 60 years of great moments in film comedy, from the 1920s to 1982.
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Hollywood: The Gift of Laughter
2020
'Fail-Safe' and the Cold War
0/0
Film critic J. Hoberman discusses the best-selling 1962 novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler on which "Fail-Safe" is based, along with the perva...
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'Fail-Safe' and the Cold War
1990
The Incident
6.5/14
Small town lawyer, Harmon Cobb, defends a Nazi prisoner of war against murder charges. Set during World War II, Cobb has to contend with the difficult...
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The Incident
1982
Portrait of a '60% Perfect Man': Billy Wilder
6.909/11
French film critic Michel Ciment interviews Billy Wilder about his life and filmmaking.
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Portrait of a '60% Perfect Man': Billy Wilder
1958
Onionhead
5.5/8
An irresponsible student enlists in the Coast Guard expecting to sit out World War II.
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Onionhead
1976
The Gentleman Tramp
7.1/5
A film about the life and work of the master comedy filmmaker, Charles Chaplin.
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The Gentleman Tramp
1995
The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
8/9
Based on the first centenary of the largest exporter of films in the world, that is Hollywood, is the story told by its protagonists, actors and write...
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The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
1978
The Stingiest Man in Town
5.556/18
An animated adaptation of A Christmas Carol from Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass -- the duo behind some of the most enduring Christmas specials ever...
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The Stingiest Man in Town
1987
A Beverly Hills Christmas
3.5/2
An evening of Christmas music from stars living in Beverly Hills, California.
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A Beverly Hills Christmas
1991
Mrs. Lambert Remembers Love
5.083/6
Longtime singles Lillian Lambert and Clifford Pepperman enjoy a romance late in their lives.
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Mrs. Lambert Remembers Love
1964
Goodbye Charlie
5.845/29
When a cavorting Hollywood writer is killed by the angry husband of a woman he was having an affair with, he comes back as a spirit in the form of a b...
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Goodbye Charlie
1978
Funny Business
8/1
A documentary hosted by Walter Matthau, which discussed and showed examples from cinematic comedy classics. Long portions of the documentary were devo...
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Funny Business
1972
Awake and Sing!
10/1
The Bergers, a blue-collar Jewish family living in an overstuffed tenement and undone by the Depression, struggle through hard times and dream of a be...
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Awake and Sing!
1968
The Secret Life of an American Wife
6/2
A bored housewife poses as a call girl for a movie star sex-symbol, hoping she can prove to her husband, the star's agent, that she is still desirable...
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The Secret Life of an American Wife
1978
Actor
7/1
A musical play based on the early years of actor Paul Muni.
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Actor
1992
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
7.625/8
This short video features illustrations from the Dr Seuss story book with narration by Walter Matthau. A hermit known as the Grinch hates Christmas an...
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How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
1986
Kraft Salutes the George Burns 90th Birthday Special
9/2
An all-star cast celebrates George Burn's 90th birthday and showcases highlights in Burns' career.
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Kraft Salutes the George Burns 90th Birthday Special
1960
Two by Saroyan: 'Once Around the Block' and 'My Heart's in the Highlands'
0/0
Two plays by William Saroyan portraying writers stymied, inspired, frustrated, excited, listful, wistful, slothful, awed, unnerved, perhaps corrupted...
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Two by Saroyan: 'Once Around the Block' and 'My Heart's in the Highlands'
1998
Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy
6/1
A profile of writer-director Billy Wilder
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Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy
1998
The Marriage Fool
6.9/5
Recently widowed after 41 years of marriage, Frank Walsh meets the outgoing Florence, sparking joy back into his life again. However, there is clear d...
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The Marriage Fool
1992
Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore
6.125/8
In the second dramatic case for lawyer Harmon Cobb, he defends an incarcerated woman who is wrongly imprisoned and refused release from a mental insti...
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Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore
1954
Atomic Attack
7.5/2
A family living 50 miles away try to flee from the fallout of an atomic bomb that fell on New York City.
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Atomic Attack
1987
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
6.5/2
Documentary about James Stewart's long career as an actor and positive personal life.
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James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
1996
Jack Lemmon: America's Everyman
7.5/2
Jack Lemmon made over 60 films and received numerous awards, including eight Academy Award Nominations and two Oscars. Later in life, his achievement...
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Jack Lemmon: America's Everyman
1997
Walter Matthau: Diamond in the Rough
6.5/2
A profile of the life of actor Walter Matthau.
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Walter Matthau: Diamond in the Rough
1962
Big Deal in Laredo
0/0
A timid man with money problems gets into a big card game with some high-rollers.
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Big Deal in Laredo
1975
The Lion Roars Again
6.5/2
A chronicle of the 1975 International Press Conclave hosted by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer over two days in May 1975.
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The Lion Roars Again
1993
Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy
5.75/10
This spellbinding documentary re-examines the issues raised by Oliver Stone's JFK, and explores the late Jim Garrison's contention that there was a "s...
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Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy
1992
Laurel and Hardy: A Tribute to the Boys
7/4
Modern comedians share their thoughts about Laurel and Hardy. Also includes archival footage of contemporary comedians. Hosted by Dom DeLuise.
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Laurel and Hardy: A Tribute to the Boys
1998
Private Screenings: Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau
0/0
Robert Osborne hosts this TCM original featuring an exclusive interview with the original Odd Couple.
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Private Screenings: Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau
1968
Carol Channing and 101 Men
0/0
Carol Channing hosts musical variety special with guests Walter Matthau, George Burns, U.S. Air Force Academy Cadet Chorale, The Association, Eddy Arn...
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Carol Channing and 101 Men
1968
Jack Benny's Bag
0/0
Jack Benny's 1968 TV specials features topical references including a parody of The Graduate.
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Jack Benny's Bag
1989
Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre
0/0
A study of the Group Theatre, a company that changed the face of American drama. The Group was founded in 1931 by Cheryl Crawford, Harold Clurman and...
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Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre
1984
The Stars Salute the U.S. Olympic Team
0/0
Star studded show
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The Stars Salute the U.S. Olympic Team
2026
Elvis: A Life in Music
0/0
A retrospective on the life of the legendary entertainer Elvis Presley, featuring the most significant moments of his career.
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