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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
Walter Matthau - what members say
review by from London
Terrific comedy 25 May 2004
review by from Oxford
Watch it for a priceless performance from Ingrid 2 September 2006
review by scribble from Manchester
Excellent for a change of viewing 2 June 2004
Walter Matthau - filmography
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Hanging Up
on DVD
(2000)
Starring: Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, Lisa Kudrow
Director: Diane Keaton
Certificate: 
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 »
 
49%
from 1,006 member
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Neil Simon's The Odd Couple 2
(1997)
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Christine Baranski
Director: Howard Deutch
Certificate:
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 »
65%
from 645 members
Not currently released
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Out To Sea
on DVD
(1997)
Starring: Walter Matthau, Jack Lemon, Dyan Cannon
Director: Martha Coolidge
Certificate: 
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 »
63%
from 184 members
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I'm Not Rappaport
on DVD
(1996)
Starring: Ossie Davis, Walter Matthau, Craig T. Nelson
Director: Herb Gardner
Certificate:
Nat Moyer (Walter Matthau) and Midge Carter (Ossie Davis) are a comically mismatched duo of geriatric New Yorkers, who observe the idiosyncrasies of modern urban life while seated on a bench in Central Park. When Midge, who also serves as the manager of Nat's apartment building, becomes threatened ..read more »
70%
from 31 members
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I.Q.
(1995)
Starring: Meg Ryan, Tim Robbins, Walter Matthau
Director: Fred Schepisi
Certificate: 
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 »
57%
from 2,547 members
Not currently released
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Grumpy Old Men
(1993)
Starring: Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Ann-Margret
Director: Donald Petrie, Donald M. Petrie
Certificate:
Watch now: £2.49
Academy Award-winners Lemmon and Matthau portray lifelong feuding neighbours with nothing better to do than make each day a hilarious game of revenge. But then voluptuous Ariel (Ann-Margret) moves in across the street and their dormant hormones reignite in an all-out competition to win her favour.
73%
from 450 members
Currently unavailable
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JFK
(1991)
Starring: Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, John Candy
Director: Oliver Stone
Certificate:
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 »
69%
from 14,910 members
Not currently released
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The Couch Trip
on DVD
(1988)
Starring: Dan Aykroyd, Walter Matthau, Charles Grodin
Director: Michael Ritchie
Certificate:
Based on the novel by Ken Kolb, Michael Ritchie's comedy THE COUCH TRIP poses the theory that psychiatrists are even more screwed up than their clients. The story concerns Dr. George Maitlin (Charles Grodin), a stuffy, pretentious radio shrink who decides to take a sabbatical after his own mental ..read more »
62%
from 405 members
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Pirates
(1986)
Starring: Walter Matthau, Charlotte Lewis, David Kelly
Director: Roman Polanski
Certificate: 
Pirates follows the high seas adventures of the infamous British buccaneer pirate Red. Red and his first mate are shipwrecked and set adrift on a makeshift raft. On the verge of starvation, fate puts them in the path of a grand Spanish galleon, whose cargo includes the legendary Capatiec Hanoccac, ..read more »
54%
from 119 members
Currently unavailable
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The Survivors
on DVD
(1983)
Starring: Walter Matthau, Robin Williams, Jerry Reed
Director: Michael Ritchie
Certificate:
Michael Ritchie's comedy concerns an unlikely friendship that forms between two down-on-their-luck men who have just recently lost their jobs. Donald Quinelle (Robin Williams) was fired by his boss's parrot because his boss couldn't bear to confront Donald with the terrible news. Meanwhile, Sonny ..read more »
50%
from 322 members
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Buddy Buddy
(1981)
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau
Director: Billy Wilder
Certificate:
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 »
59%
from 45 members
Currently unavailable
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Hopscotch
on DVD
(1980)
Starring: Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Sam Waterston
Director: Ronald Neame
Certificate:
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 »
68%
from 585 members
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The Bad News Bears
(1976)
Starring: Walter Matthau, Tatum O'Neal, Vic Morrow
Director: Michael Ritchie
Certificate:
One of director Michael Ritchie's most universally recognised comedies, 'The Bad News Bears' is a film that continues to entertain audiences of all ages. The story concerns a hopeless Little League team that eventually scores big when it acquires a new coach, Morris Buttermaker, a grouchy, beer-..read more »
54%
from 88 members
Currently unavailable
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Earthquake
on DVD
(1974)
Starring: Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy
Director: Mark Robson
Certificate: 
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 »
58%
from 802 members
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The Taking Of Pelham 123
on DVD
(1974)
Starring: Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam
Director: Joseph Sargent
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
On a quiet midday in New York, along the Lexington Avenue subway line, the train designated Pelham One Two Three -- so named for its station of origin and time of departure -- makes its way down the East Side of Manhattan. One by one, three men board the train, and at 28th Street, a fourth man ..read more »
73%
from 3,037 members
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The Front Page
(1974)
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Susan Sarandon
Director: Billy Wilder
Certificate: 
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 »
71%
from 39 members
Currently unavailable
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The Taking Of Pelham 123 - Blu-ray
(1974)
Starring: Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam
Director: Joseph Sargent
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
On a quiet midday in New York, along the Lexington Avenue subway line, the train designated Pelham One Two Three -- so named for its station of origin and time of departure -- makes its way down the East Side of Manhattan. One by one, three men board the train, and at 28th Street, a fourth man ..read more »
65%
from 2 members
Not available for rental
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Charley Varrick
on DVD
(1973)
Starring: Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, Felicia Farr
Director: Don Siegel
Certificate:
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.
69%
from 827 members
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Kotch
on DVD
(1971)
Starring: Walter Matthau, Deborah Winters, Felicia Farr
Director: Jack Lemmon
Certificate:
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 »
58%
from 130 members
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Plaza Suite
(1971)
Starring: Walter Matthau, Maureen Stapleton, Barbara Harris
Director: Arthur Hiller
Certificate:
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 »
57%
from 21 members
Currently unavailable
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Hello Dolly
on DVD
(1969)
Starring: Barbra Streisand, Walter Matthau, Michael Crawford
Director: Gene Kelly
Certificate:
Twenty-seven-year-old Barbra Streisand seemed an inappropriate choice for middle-aged, match-making widow Dolly Levi, but her energy carries her right through the role and dominates the lackluster movie around her. The plot, drawn from Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker (itself based on a 19th-..read more »
68%
from 2,239 members
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Cactus Flower
on DVD
(1969)
Starring: Goldie Hawn, Walter Matthau, Ingrid Bergman
Director: Gene Saks
Certificate:
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 »
64%
from 490 members
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The Odd Couple
on DVD
(1967)
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, John Fiedler
Director: Gene Saks
Certificate:
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 »
73%
from 4,744 members
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A Guide for the Married Man
(1967)
Starring: Walter Matthau, Inger Stevens, Sue Ane Langdon
Director: Gene Kelly
Certificate:
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 »
52%
from 12 members
Currently unavailable
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The Fortune Cookie
on DVD
(1966)
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ron Rich
Director: Billy Wilder
Certificate:
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 »
62%
from 1,108 member
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Fail-Safe
on DVD
(1963)
Starring: Dan O'Herlihy, Walter Matthau, Frank Overton
Director: Sidney Lumet
Certificate:
Based on the novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, Fail-Safe is set for the most part at Strategic Air Command headquarters, where a misguided transmission sends a squadron of bombers hurtling towards Russia, fully prepared to drop their atomic weaponry on Moscow. Air Force commander Frank ..read more »
77%
from 437 members
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Charade
on DVD
(1963)
Starring: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau
Director: Stanley Donen
Certificate:
Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn star in this stylish comedy-thriller directed by Stanley Donen, very much in a Hitchcock vein. Grant plays Peter Joshua, who meets Reggie Lampert (Hepburn) in Paris and later offers to help her when she discovers that her husband has been murdered. After the funeral, ..read more »
72%
from 3,664 members
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Lonely Are the Brave
(1962)
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands, Walter Matthau
Director: David Miller
Certificate:
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 »
68%
from 29 members
Currently unavailable
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Strangers When We Meet
(1960)
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Kim Novak, Ernie Kovacs
Director: Richard Quine
Certificate:
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.
34%
from 5 members
Currently unavailable
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King Creole
on DVD
(1958)
Starring: Elvis Presley, Dean Jagger, Walter Matthau
Director: Michael Curtiz
Certificate:
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 »
70%
from 876 members
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Bigger than Life
on DVD
(1956)
Starring: James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau
Director: Nicholas Ray
Certificate:
Schoolteacher and family man Ed Avery, who's been suffering bouts of severe pain and even blackouts, is hospitalized with what's diagnosed as a rare inflammation of the arteries. Told by doctors that he probably has only months to live, Ed agrees to an experimental treatment: doses of the hormone ..read more »
70%
from 376 members
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The Indian Fighter
on DVD
(1955)
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Walter Matthau, Diana Douglas
Director: Andre De Toth
Certificate:
In Andre de Toth's rough and tumble Western, Kirk Douglas stars as Johnny Hawks, a cocky, brash cowboy notorious as the Indian fighter throughout the Oregon territories. Captain Trask (Walter Abel), commander of the local fort, calls in Hawks due to trouble with the neighboring Sioux tribe, lead by ..read more »
54%
from 176 members
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The Kentuckian
on DVD
(1955)
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Diana Lynn, Walter Matthau
Director: Burt Lancaster
Certificate:
A rugged frontiersman and his son travel to Texas in search of a place to begin a new life. They face numerous rough characters in their struggle to survive on the Texas prairie. Burt Lancaster directs and stars, with Walter Matthau making his film debut as a whip-wielding brute in this solid, ..read more »
60%
from 321 members
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The Hollywood Collection - Walter Mattha...
on DVD
Starring: Walter Matthau
Certificate: 
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.
66%
from 11 members
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Walter Matthau facts
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...'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.
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