Walter John Matthau (October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears. He won an Academy Award for his performance in the Billy Wilder film The Fortune Cookie.
Matthau was born in New York City's Lower East Side on October 1, 1920, the son o...
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Walter John Matthau (October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears. He won an Academy Award for his performance in the Billy Wilder film The Fortune Cookie.
Matthau was born in New York City's Lower East Side on October 1, 1920, the son of Jewish immigrants Rose (née Berolsky), who was born in Lithuania and worked in a sweatshop, and Milton (Melos) Matthau, an electrician and peddler who was from Russia. His original surname is often shown as Matuschanskayasky, but this is not true (see Matuschanskayasky below for a detailed discussion). As a young boy, Walter attended a Jewish non-profit sleepaway camp, Tranquility Camp, where he first began acting in the shows the camp would stage on Saturday nights.
During World War II, Matthau served in the U.S. Army Air Forces with the...
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