‘The Misfits’ (1961)

This article can also be read at Immortal Marilyn.

The Last Misfit: Eli Wallach 1915-2014

Eli Herschel Wallach was born at Union Street, in Brooklyn’s Red Hook district, in December 1915. One of four children, he grew up above Bertha’s candy store, managed by his Polish immigrant parents – one of the few Jewish businesses in a predominantly Italian neighbourhood. Two months previously, Arthur Miller had been born in Harlem; while Elia Kazan, born in Istanbul in 1909, was living in New York with his Greek Orthodox family.

‘Even in my earliest memories, my wish was always the same: I wanted to be an actor,’ Wallach wrote in his 2005 memoir, The Good, the Bad and Me.  Continue reading →