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Walter Matthau

Walter John Matthau was born on October 1, 1920, and died on July 1, 2000 and was an American award-winning actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his many appearances with fellow Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon who was also his friend in real life.

Walter was born in New York to Jewish immegrant parents and took up acting at summer camp when he was a boy. During World War II Walter served in the U.S. Army Air Force in England as a aircraft radioman-gunner and reached the rank of staff sergeant. He was a stage actor for many years and in 1962, won a Tony for best actor.

Success came quite late for Walter and it wasnt until 1965 at the age of 44, Neil Simon cast him in the hit play The Odd Couple, this was later made into a film with Jack Lemmon. He won an Oscar for The Fortune Cookie, although filming had to be postponed for 5 months after he suffered a heart attack.

Walter was very busy man and made many films, stage roles and TV shows. He was married twice and had 3 children but also raised 2 step children. Walter would work with Jack Lemmon 10 times in many critically acclaimed films. Sadly Walter died of another hear attack and is buried in Westwood California, nearby is his friend Jack who died a year later.




What members say | Filmography | Watch online (2)

Walter Matthau - what members say


  • Kotch
  • Kotch review by A customer from sheffield england
    Rated - 4 stars kotch 1 April 2005
    ...Walter Matthau departs somewhat from type in this film. convincingly plays an elderly and independent old man sho becomes involved in helping a pregnant unmarried young woman...  
  • The Fortune Cookie
  • The Fortune Cookie review by from London
    Rated - 4 stars Terrific comedy 25 May 2004
    ...'The Fortune Cookie' is the first pairing of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. The fact that the great Billy Wilder is behind the camera makes this a must-see film. Sports c...  
  • Cactus Flower
  • Cactus Flower review by from Oxford
    Rated - 4 stars Watch it for a priceless performance from Ingrid 2 September 2006
    ...the 60s, I felt transported. There are three brilliant comedians in this film: Walter Matthau does exactly what he does best, and makes the hapless dentist character both ri...  

Walter Matthau - filmography


  • Hanging Up on DVD (2000)
    Starring: Meg Ryan,  Diane Keaton,  Lisa Kudrow
    Director: Diane Keaton
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Daddy's favorite daughter is over-extended in this Diane Keaton-directed comedy about loving, laughing, and learning to let go. Meg Ryan plays party-planner Eve, a streched-too-thin mother, wife, sister, and dutiful daughter. Eve's harried life has become even more complicated by her reliance on ..read more »
    Rate this: 2.5 stars out of 5 49% from 824 members
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  • Neil Simon's The Odd Couple 2 (1997)
    Starring: Jack Lemmon,  Walter Matthau,  Christine Baranski
    Director: Howard Deutch
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    In this sequel, decades have passed since uncompromising slob Oscar (Walter Matthau) and fussy neatnick Felix (Jack Lemmon) shared the trials and tribulations of apartment life together. After years of going their separate ways, the two are suddenly thrown together again, en route to the wedding of ..read more »
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 65% from 599 members
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  • Out To Sea on DVD (1997)
    Starring: Walter Matthau,  Jack Lemon,  Dyan Cannon
    Director: Martha Coolidge
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau are reunited in this hysterically funny high seas romantic adventure. Gambler and con artist Charlie (Walter Matthau) is desperate to meet single, rich ladies with large bank accounts. When he persuades his lonely widower brother-in-law, Herb (Jack Lemmon), into ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 63% from 136 members
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  • I.Q. (1995)
    Starring: Meg Ryan,  Tim Robbins,  Walter Matthau
    Director: Fred Schepisi
    Certificate: Certificate: U
    On a sunny afternoon in Princeton, New Jersey, of the 1950s, love strikes in the oddest way: Albert Einstein's niece Catherine (Meg Ryan), and her uptight fiance James (Stephen Fry), stop at a gas station for car repairs, and when dim-witted grease monkey Ed Walters (Tim Robbins) appears, he falls ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 56% from 2,391 members
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  • JFK (1991)
    Starring: Kevin Costner,  Sissy Spacek,  Tommy Lee Jones
    Director: Oliver Stone
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Oliver Stone's self-proclaimed 'countermyth', JFK mocks the doubtful veracity of the Warren Commission's findings on the Kennedy assassination and summarizes some of the myriad theories that have been proposed in its stead. Focusing on the investigation by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison ..read more »
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 69% from 14,030 members
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  • Pirates (1986)
    Starring: Walter Matthau,  Charlotte Lewis,  David Kelly
    Director: Roman Polanski
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    Captain Red runs a hardy pirate ship with the able assistance of Frog, a dashing young French sailor. One day Capt. Red is captured and taken aboard a Spanish galleon, but thanks to his quick thinking, he rises the crew to mutiny, takes over the ship, and kidnaps the daughter of the governor of ..read more »
    Rate this: 2.5 stars out of 5 53% from 99 members
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  • Buddy Buddy (1981)
    Starring: Jack Lemmon,  Walter Matthau
    Director: Billy Wilder
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    This black comedy stars the comic duo of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau as a pair of antagonists. Trabucco (Matthau) is a hitman who, having already dispatched two of the witnesses to an act of criminal fraud is about to ice the third, mobster Rudy Gambola (Fil Formicola) before he can testify. As ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 57% from 37 members
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  • Hopscotch on DVD (1980)
    Starring: Walter Matthau,  Glenda Jackson,  Sam Waterston
    Director: Ronald Neame
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Miles Kendig is a veteran CIA agent who finds himself reduced to a desk job after the arrival of new boss Myerson. Refusing to take it lying down he disappears and begins to write his memoirs, threatening to lift the lid on the world's top intelligence agencies. He soon has both the CIA and the KGB ..read more »
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 67% from 453 members
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  • Kotch on DVD (1980)
    Starring: Walter Matthau,  Deborah Winters,  Felicia Farr
    Director: Jack Lemmon
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    Jack Lemmon's debut as a director is helped by the fine performance of his longtime buddy Walter Matthau as Kotch, an elderly widower who is at odds with his family but doesn't give up on life. When his children announce their plans to take him to a retirement home, he hits the road and meets Erica ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 59% from 106 members
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  • Earthquake on DVD (1974)
    Starring: Charlton Heston,  Ava Gardner,  George Kennedy
    Director: Mark Robson
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    This essential 1970s disaster epic, with a script co-authored by Mario Puzo (THE GODFATHER), centers around a devastating earthquake in Los Angeles and the shocking aftermath it causes. The all-star cast is led by Charleton Heston as a construction engineer whose marital problems supply him with ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 57% from 711 members
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  • The Front Page (1974)
    Starring: Jack Lemmon,  Walter Matthau,  Susan Sarandon
    Director: Billy Wilder
    Certificate: Certificate: TBC
    In perhaps the most honest of the remakes, director Billy Wilder satisfies the 1970s craze for nostalgia in this third filming of the Hecht-MacArthur play about wild and woolly Chicago newspapermen in the 1920s. Sparks fly as Walter Matthau plays a ruthless managing editor who learns that his ace ..read more »
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 69% from 24 members
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  • Charley Varrick on DVD (1973)
    Starring: Walter Matthau,  Joe Don Baker,  Felicia Farr
    Director: Don Siegel
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Charley Varrick and his friends rob a small town bank. Expecting a small sum to divide amongst themselves, they are surprised to discover a very large amount of money. Quickly figuring out that the money belongs to the MOB, they must now come up with a plan to throw the MOB off their trail.
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 69% from 594 members
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  • Plaza Suite (1971)
    Starring: Walter Matthau,  Maureen Stapleton,  Barbara Harris
    Director: Arthur Hiller
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    Watch now: £2.49
    Based on Neil Simon's hit Broadway play, PLAZA SUITE is a collection of three comic episodes set in Suite 719 of New York City's famed Plaza Hotel, each starring comic legend Walter Matthau. In the first vignette, Matthau's wife (Maureen Stapleton) discovers--on their 23rd wedding anniversary--that ..read more »
    Rate this: 2.5 stars out of 5 51% from 16 members
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  • Cactus Flower on DVD (1969)
    Starring: Goldie Hawn,  Walter Matthau,  Ingrid Bergman
    Director: Gene Saks
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    Bachelor dentist Julian Winston (Walter Matthau) wants an excuse to keep from marrying his flighty younger girlfriend, Jill (Goldie Hawn), so he calls upon his stoic receptionist, Stephanie (Ingrid Bergman) to masquerade as his wife. Much to his surprise, Stephanie emerges from her shell during the ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 63% from 396 members
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  • Hello Dolly on DVD (1969)
    Starring: Barbra Streisand,  Walter Matthau,  Michael Crawford
    Director: Gene Kelly
    Certificate: Certificate: U
    In early-20th-century Yonkers, a wealthy local merchant (Horace Vandergelder, played by Walter Matthau) hires matchmaker Dolly Levi (Barbra Streisand) to find a mate for him--but instead she decides to win him over for herself. His life is further complicated by his young niece, Ermengarde, who is ..read more »
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 67% from 1,819 member
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  • The Odd Couple on DVD (1967)
    Starring: Jack Lemmon,  Walter Matthau,  John Fiedler
    Director: Gene Saks
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    After being thrown out of his home and marriage, fastidious Felix (Jack Lemmon) decides the only thing for him to do is to move in with his best friend, Oscar (Walter Matthau), a divorced man living alone in an Upper Eastside New York City apartment. Oscar is a total slob, with week-old sandwiches ..read more »
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 72% from 4,059 members
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  • A Guide for the Married Man (1967)
    Starring: Walter Matthau,  Inger Stevens,  Sue Ane Langdon
    Director: Gene Kelly
    Certificate: Certificate: TBC
    Robert Morse convinces his best friend Walter Matthau that he should fool around with other women in order to preserve his happy marriage. Morse illustrates his point with a series of vignettes acted out by a lot of famous celebrities. Among them are Jayne Mansfield, Lucille Ball, Art Carney, Jack ..read more »
    Rate this: 2 stars out of 5 41% from 6 members
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  • The Fortune Cookie on DVD (1966)
    Starring: Jack Lemmon,  Walter Matthau,  Ron Rich
    Director: Billy Wilder
    Certificate: Certificate: U
    Starring the legendary duo of Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, Wilder's characteristically cynical comedy again explores the corrupting influence of money. When TV-cameraman Harry Hinkle (Lemmon) is slightly injured while covering a football game, Willie Gingrich (Matthau), his ambulance-chasing ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 62% from 919 members
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  • Fail-Safe on DVD (1963)
    Starring: Dan O'Herlihy,  Walter Matthau,  Frank Overton
    Director: Sidney Lumet
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    Following closely on the heels of Stanley Kubrik's DR. STRANGELOVE (all too closely for Kubrick and company, who quickly filed a lawsuit alleging plagiarism), Sidney Lumet's FAIL-SAFE employs a similarly stylized and heightened dramatic structure in its nerve-crushing moral tale. Taking place over ..read more »
    Rate this: 4 stars out of 5 77% from 270 members
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  • Charade on DVD (1963)
    Starring: Cary Grant,  Audrey Hepburn,  Walter Matthau
    Director: Stanley Donen
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    Audrey Hepburn plays a Parisienne whose husband is murdered and who finds she is being followed by four men seeking the fortune her late spouse had hidden away. Cary Grant is the stranger who comes to her aid but his real motives aren't entirely clear--could he even be the killer? The 1963 film is ..read more »
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 71% from 2,699 members
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  • Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
    Starring: Kirk Douglas,  Gena Rowlands,  Walter Matthau
    Director: David Miller
    Certificate: Certificate: TBC
    Kirk Douglas, as cowboy Jack Burns, breaks jail to help an old friend and heads for the state border with the sheriff, played by Walter Matthau, in pursuit. Based on Edward Abbey's elegiac novel "The Brave Cowboy" and written by Dalton Trumbo, Burns's flight for freedom on his old horse, pursued by ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 60% from 14 members
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  • Strangers When We Meet (1960)
    Starring: Kirk Douglas,  Kim Novak,  Ernie Kovacs
    Director: Richard Quine
    Certificate: Certificate: TBC
    Architect Larry Coe has a wife and family, but becomes embroiled in an affair with beautiful Maggie Gault, a neighbor with her own family. The two lovers are forced to face the choice between love and loyalty.
    Rate this: 2.5 stars out of 5 36% from 3 members
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  • King Creole on DVD (1958)
    Starring: Elvis Presley,  Dean Jagger,  Walter Matthau
    Director: Michael Curtiz
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    Considered by many to be the best Elvis movie, KING CREOLE stars the young Mr. Presley as Danny Fisher, a singer with a knack for getting into trouble. After the cops nab him for stealing, Danny vows never to violate the law again. He manages to land a gig singing at a hip nightclub in the French ..read more »
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 70% from 762 members
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  • The Hollywood Collection - Walter Mattha... on DVD
    Starring: Walter Matthau
    Certificate: Certificate: Ex
    This documentary charts the career of Academy Award-winning actor and funnyman Walter Matthau; from his beginnings in the U.S. Army Air Forces, to his emergence in critically acclaimed television dramas, through to his legendary double act with Jack Lemmon.
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 66% from 6 members
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Walter Matthau - watch online


  • IQ to Watch Now (1994)
    Starring: Tim Robbins,  Meg Ryan,  Walter Matthau
    Director: Fred Schepisi
    Certificate: Certificate: U (TBC)
    Watch now: £2.49
    Run time: 95 minutes
    Legendary scientist Albert Einstein (played here by Walter Matthau) takes a break from theoretical physics to try to set up his intellectual niece with a handsome auto mechanic in this romantic comedy. The movie's central conceit is that Einstein's brilliance extends to matters of the heart, ..read more »
    Rate this: 3 stars out of 5 62% from 23 members
    Watch now (£2.49)
  • Plaza Suite to Watch Now (1971)
    Starring: Walter Matthau,  Maureen Stapleton,  Barbara Harris
    Director: Arthur Hiller
    Certificate: Certificate: PG (TBC)
    Watch now: £2.49
    Run time: 116 minutes
    Plaza Suite is a confection of three witty comedic episodes starring one of America's finest comic actors, Walter Matthau. The scene is Suite 719 of New York City's Plaza Hotel. In the first scene, Matthau's wife (Maureen Stapleton), discovers that he is fooling around with his secretary. In the ..read more »
    Rate this: 0.5 stars out of 5 10% from 1 member
    Watch now (£2.49)

Walter Matthau facts

5 most recent films

Hanging Up - 2.5 stars
The Grass Harp - 2.5 stars
Neil Simon's The Odd Couple 2 - 3.5 stars
Out To Sea - 3.0 stars
I'm Not Rappaport - 3.5 stars

5 highest-rated films

Fail-Safe - 4.0 stars
The Taking Of Pelham 123 - 3.5 stars
The Odd Couple - 3.5 stars
Charade - 3.5 stars
Bigger than Life - 3.5 stars

5 lowest-rated films

A Guide for the Married Man - 2.0 stars
House Calls - 2.5 stars
Plaza Suite - 2.5 stars
Strangers When We Meet - 2.5 stars
Mirage - 3.0 stars

Most frequent co-stars

Jack Lemmon - 11 times - show films
Sissy Spacek - 4 times - show films
Donald Sutherland - 3 times - show films
Kevin Costner - 3 times - show films
Michael Rooker - 3 times - show films

Most frequent directors

Michael Ritchie - 3 times - show films
Billy Wilder - 3 times - show films
Oliver Stone - 3 times - show films
Gene Saks - 2 times - show films
Fred Schepisi - 2 times - show films