Quote:
Originally Posted by NoWhErE
(Post 11288224)
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Things some may not have known about him:
"Few people know that veteran movie actor Jack Palance was a professional heavyweight boxer in the early 1940s. Fighting under the name Jack Brazzo, Palance a product of Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania, won his first 15 fights, 12 by knockout before losing a 4th round decision to future heavyweight contender Joe Baksi on Dec. 17, 1940. With the outbreak of World War II, Jack Palance's boxing career ended and his military career began. Wounded in combat, he received the purple heart, good conduct medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. After the war he began his long and famous motion picture career.
According to a website honoring movie celebrities that flew in B-24s, Palance burned his face severely while bailing out of a B-24 which was on fire during a training flight in Tucson in 1942 (that would probably have been the Davis-Monthan Army Air Corps base at that time) and after several surgeries was discharged in 1944. He is described as a "pilot in training".
Spoke six languages: Ukrainian, Russian, Italian, Spanish, French and English.
Once fell asleep in his square during a taping of "The Hollywood Squares" (1966).
His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is in front of the display window of Fredericks of Hollywood, a seller of intimate apparel.
While an understudy to Marlon Brando in the Broadway production of "A Streetcar Named Desire," Brando, who was into athletics, rigged up a punching bag in the theater's boiler room and invited Jack to work out with him. One night, Jack threw a hard punch that missed the bag and landed square on Brando's nose. The star had to be hospitalized and understudy Palance created his own big break by going on for Brando. Jack's reviews as Stanley Kowalski helped get him a 20th Century-Fox contract.
Was infamous in Hollywood for his Method-style acting, in a time when Marlon Brando was one of its few practitioners. Once, while filming a fight scene with Burt Lancaster, Palance actually punched the unsuspecting Lancaster in the face. Tough guy Lancaster responded by socking Palance in the gut, causing him to vomit.
One-handed pushups:
Despite all of his film work, Palance will forever be remembered for turning an Oscar acceptance speech into an uproarious display of his physical agility. While accepting his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for City Slickers (1991) at the 64th Annual Academy Awards (1992) he stumbled through a half-hearted acceptance speech and then, at a loss for anything else to say, flopped down on the floor and began doing a series of one-handed push-ups. Afterwards when he was asked about the stunt he simply said, "I didn't know what the hell else to do". A year later when he provided the voice of Rothbart in the The Swan Princess (1994), his character is featured doing one-handed push-ups.
Personal Quotes:
"The only two things you can truly depend upon are gravity and greed."
"I'm amazed people read this crap about us - about me most of all."
"One of the most important reasons for living is to do something - live outside of yourself and put together an idea, an idea that you want to explore and then complete... Awaken your creative sensitivities!""
RIP Jack. :D
