Saturday Morning News

Walter Matthau Dead at 79

Aired July 1, 2000 - 9:14 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: That's right, Miles, this just in to CNN. We have confirmed that actor Walter Matthau has died. We're going to turn to Paul Vercammen, who's put together this story for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Walter Matthau used a razor-sharp comedic wit and a prickly onscreen personality to shine in Hollywood for more than five decades. He was born in 1920 to poor Jewish Russian immigrants in New York City.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE ODD COUPLE")

WALTER MATTHAU, ACTOR: Now, listen, if you don't relax, I'm going to break my fingers. Look at this, will you? The only man in the world with clenched hair.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: His major break, playing sportswriter Oscar Madison in "The Odd Couple," first on stage, then in the film opposite Jack Lemmon.

MATTHAU: When we're working, we seem to understand what we're thinking about.

JACK LEMMON, ACTOR: It was a very unusual relationship right off the bat, the very first day, because it clicked so totally and easily that there was -- there was just nothing to it, just voom!

VERCAMMEN: These good friends' other films include the 1990s box office smashes "Grumpy Old Men" and "Grumpier Old Men."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "GRUMPY OLD MEN")

MATTHAU: I got just as much right to be here as you do.

LEMMON: You got bad luck. I don't want you infecting my spot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: And in 1966, "The Fortune Cookie," with Matthau winning a best supporting actor Academy Award as a slimy attorney trying to win an insurance settlement. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE FORTUNE COOKIE")

LEMMON: Willie, I'm not going to stand still for one of your phony whiplash cases.

MATTHAU: Whiplash nothing. We're going for all the marbles.

LEMMON: I wouldn't even lift a finger.

MATTHAU: That's all you have to do, Harry, not lift a finger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMMON: He's just a marvelous, wonderful actor.

VERCAMMEN: Matthau also received Oscar nominations for "The Sunshine Boys" in 1975.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SUNSHINE BOYS")

MATTHAU: I'm crazy?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) believe it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: And an Oscar nomination for "Kotch" in 1971.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "KOTCH")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: How-de-do, I'm Joseph Patcher, Duncan's grandfather.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: Another dramatic role for Matthau, "The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE, TWO, THREE")

MATTHAU: Hey, tell me something, Pelham, if we were a couple of seconds late, you mean you would have knocked off an innocent party?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

I think doing comedy is more difficult than doing noncomedic or tragic or whatever you want to call it, because it's difficult to make all kinds of different audiences understand what you're doing and find -- moving you to laughter.

VERCAMMEN: Audiences couldn't help but chuckle when Matthau sang opposite Barbra Streisand in "Hello, Dolly."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "HELLO, DOLLY")

MATTHAU: (singing): Oh, yes, it takes a woman, a fragile woman, to bring you the free (ph) things in life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: Or portray the crotchety Little League in "The Bad News Bears."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE BAD NEWS BEARS")

MATTHAU: Now, get back to the stands before I shave off half your mustache and shove it up your left nostril.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: Matthau loved sports and betting and jokingly offered some tips.

MATTHAU: Get yourself a zipper on your pockets, and keep it closed. That's the main secret. The other secret is to use your common sense. I use mine, which is why I'm way behind.

VERCAMMEN: Matthau was often spotted at sporting and other events with Carol, his second wife, or son, Charlie, who directed him in "The Grass Harp."

In a town filled with the uptight and the overproduced, Matthau flourished with a slouch, a smirk, and that trademark stare.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: We have a little bit more of information here. At 4:42 this morning is when Walter Matthau passed away. He was at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. He was taken there by ambulance. Still don't know the cause of death.

Walter Matthau is dead at age 79.

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