| # | Fact |
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| 1 | Appeared in four films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), How the West Was Won (1962) and Patton (1970). Of those, On the Waterfront (1954) and Patton (1970) are winners in the category. |
| 2 | Release of his autobiography, "When Do I Start?: A Memoir" by Karl with Carla Malden. [1997] |
| 3 | Is one of 8 actors who have received an Oscar nomination for their performance as a priest. The others, in chronological order, are: Spencer Tracy for San Francisco (1936) and Boys Town (1938); Charles Bickford for The Song of Bernadette (1943); Bing Crosby for Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945); Barry Fitzgerald for Going My Way (1944); Gregory Peck for The Keys of the Kingdom (1944); Jason Miller for The Exorcist (1973); and Philip Seymour Hoffman for Doubt (2008). Tracy, Crosby and Fitzgerald all won Oscars for their performances. |
| 4 | Acting mentor and friend of Michael Douglas. |
| 5 | Met Harry Morgan in the play of 'Golden Boy.' They would later be friends for over 70 years until Malden's death in 2009. |
| 6 | Father-in-law of Laurence Starkman. |
| 7 | Remained good friends with Michael Douglas, during and after The Streets of San Francisco (1972). |
| 8 | After a young Dick York who was coming into the hallway, out of the men's washroom, Malden was looking for him to play the role in Tea and Sympathy. He thought York was right for the role, which eventually paid off. |
| 9 | Best remembered on TV for his starring role as Lt. Mike Stone on The Streets of San Francisco (1972). |
| 10 | Was also good friends with the late Telly Savalas. |
| 11 | His wife graduated from Roosevelt High School in Emporia, Kansas, where she attended Kansas State Teachers College (now Emporia St. University). He and Mona visited the campus in 1959, and was impressed by the ESU Summer Theatre. He returned in the summer of 1964, to teach, working with the actors in the company. Prior to leaving, he gave his honorarium to established the Karl Malden Scholarship, which is still given today. |
| 12 | After his father's death, six years later, he traveled to his father's real-life hometown of Yugoslavia, there, he helped produce the film Twilight Time (1982), a private movie. |
| 13 | Graduated from Chicago Art Institute in 1937, and came back to Gary, Indiana, without work or money. |
| 14 | Before he was a successful actor, he worked in the steel mills. |
| 15 | Served as a noncommissioned officer in the 8th Air Force. |
| 16 | His father, Petar Sekulovich, worked in the steel mills and as a milkman, his mother, Minnie Sekulovich, was a seamstress. |
| 17 | Started acting when he was only 15. |
| 18 | The eldest of three sons born to Serbian immigrants Petar and Minnie Sekulovich, he was raised in the Serbian community of Gary, Indiana, where his father worked as a milkman. |
| 19 | In high school he played basketball and was president of his class. He broke his nose twice playing sports as a teenager. |
| 20 | Was offered a scholarship to attend Chicago's Goodman Theater, where he met his future wife, Mona Malden (nee Mona Greenberg), a fellow scholarship student. They wed in 1938 and remained married for over 70 years until Karl's death in 2009. |
| 21 | At the urging of Elia Kazan, he change his name from Mladen Sekulovich to Karl Malden, taking his maternal grandfather's given name for his first name, and switching a couple of letters of his own first name for his last name. Malden remained a strong friend of Kazan's after the famed director was chastised by the Hollywood community for naming names before the House of Un-American Activities Committee in 1952. He strongly supported Kazan's controversial "lifetime achievement" Oscar honor, claiming that politics should have no place when it comes to awarding artistic merit. |
| 22 | A pitchman for American Express commercials for decades, his slogan ("Don't leave home without them") became a national catchphrase. |
| 23 | Was a spokesperson for American Express Traveler's Checks, from 1968 to 1989. |
| 24 | Graduated from Emerson High School in Gary, Indiana, in 1931, with high grades. |
| 25 | The most controversial film he starred in was Baby Doll (1956), which he played a dullard husband whose child bride is exploited by a businessman. The film was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency for what was termed its "carnal suggestiveness." It was written by Tennessee Williams. |
| 26 | Long before Michael Douglas, worked with him, Malden's friendship with Douglas' father began in 1940, when a 23-year-old unfamiliar actor, Kirk Douglas, attended New York Summer Stock with him, prior to Kirk's summer vacation from college. This association led Kirk's son to having a co-starring role opposite Kirk's classmate in The Streets of San Francisco (1972), at the time Michael's father said to him that he was about to learn a lot from his father's classmate. |
| 27 | He had not saved enough money to pay for one semester of schooling at the Goodman Theatre, the dramatic arm of the Chicago Art Institute, despite his working in the steel mills for a few years. He made a deal with the director of the program, hence, he gambled what little money he had agreeing that if he impressed the staff during his first semester, he would be given a full scholarship. |
| 28 | While working at an acting workshop in New York, he brought Eva Marie Saint, whom he knew. |
| 29 | He quit working in the steel mills at 22 to study acting at the Goodman Theatre because he wasn't getting anywhere in the mills. |
| 30 | He always practised meticulous preparation, studying a script carefully long before he stepped into the role. |
| 31 | On December 12, 2008, just six days before his 70th wedding anniversary, Malden was inducted into the Wall of Legends, at St. Sava Church in San Gabriel, California, where Milan Opacich paid tribute to a wonderful man who was a great benefactor of a Serbian Ortodox church. |
| 32 | His family moved to Gary, Indiana, when he was 5. |
| 33 | As a teenager, he joined the Karageorge Choir. |
| 34 | His father, Petar Sekulovich, produced Serbian plays at his church. |
| 35 | After he graduated from high school at the top of his class, he briefly left Gary, Indiana, to move to Arkansas, where he'd hoped to get a college athletics scholarship. The college turned him down due to his refusal to play football, other than basketball, hence, he returned to his hometown of Gary, Indiana. |
| 36 | On November 11, 2004, his ex-The Streets of San Francisco (1972), co-star, Michael Douglas, presented him with the Monte Cristo Award of the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut, for the Lifetime Achievement Award. Among the recipients besides Malden were Jason Robards, Zoe Caldwell, Edward Albee, August Wilson and Brian Dennehy. |
| 37 | On November 12, 2005, the Los Angeles Barrington Station renamed the building, after him, in Los Angeles, California, in honor of his proud achievements. This was followed by a passage of a bill founded by U.S. Congressman, Henry Waxman. |
| 38 | Was best friends with: Norman Lloyd, Harry Morgan, Lee J. Cobb, Angela Lansbury, Telly Savalas, Jane Wyman, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Robert Wagner, Shelley Winters, Eva Marie Saint, Marlon Brando, Elia Kazan, Vivien Leigh, Eli Wallach, Kirk Douglas, Natalie Wood, Montgomery Clift, Arthur Kennedy, Richard Widmark and Carroll Baker. |
| 39 | In 2001, he received an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, from Valparaiso University. |
| 40 | Of Serbian and Czechoslovakian descent. |
| 41 | Raised in the same city as Michael Jackson. |
| 42 | Received both of his Oscar-nominations for movies also starring Marlon Brando. |
| 43 | Has two daughters, Mila Malden and Carla Malden. Carla co-authored his autobiography "When Do I Start". |
| 44 | Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1963 |
| 45 | President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1989 to 1992 |
| 46 | Was a close friend of The Magnificent Seven (1960) star Brad Dexter. who was also of Serbian descent. |
| 47 | The Maldens married in 1938 and stayed married until his death in 2009, making theirs the third longest marriage in Hollywood history surpassing the 69 years of Bob Hope and Dolores Hope (1934 until his death in 2003) and just behind Art Linkletter and Lois Foerster (married 1935-2010) with 74 years, and Norman Lloyd and Peggy Lloyd, who hold the record with 75 years. |
| 48 | In 1971, he accepted the Oscar for "Best Director" on behalf of Franklin J. Schaffner, who wasn't present at the awards ceremony |
| 49 | Born Mladen Sekulovich, he always regretted that in order to become an actor, he had to change his name. Since he was proud of his heritage, when he starred in a movie or on TV, he insisted that a character carry his family name: In On the Waterfront (1954), Fred Gwynne's character was named "Sekulovich". |
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