Stardates: Born February 18, 1919, in Lattimer Mines, Pa.; died 2006.
Star Sign: Aquarius
Star Qualities: Hawklike face, intimidating eyes, steely commitment to his characters.
Star Definition: "He was a gifted man – not just an actor, he was an artist, he was a poet." – Singer/songwriter Jack Hannah
Galaxy Of Characters: Slade in Man in the Attic (1953), Charles Castle in The Big Knife (1955), Lt. Joe Costa in Attack! (1956), Chet Rollins in Monte Walsh (1970).

Jack Palance, the gruff, macho screen presence who won an Oscar® on his third nomination as the tough but tender trail boss in the Billy Crystal comedy City Slickers was born Volodymir Ivanovich Palahniuk on February 18, 1919 near Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania. The son of Ukrainian immigrants, he was brought up in coal mining territory, yet longed for something deeper. He attended the University of North Carolina on a football scholarship before World War II interrupted his studies. He served as a bomber pilot and was involved in a severe accident that caused severe facial burns. After he went through considerable facial reconstruction, he was discharged after the war and returned to school. He graduated with a degree in journalism from Stanford University and quickly landed a gig at the San Francisco Chronicle before turning to acting. Once in New York, he found that his dark voice, tall frame (6'3"), protruding chin and menacinglyeyes were an overwhelming presence that garnered the attention of casting directors. Soon enough he found some stage work and it culminated in being an understudy for Marlon Brando in the Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire.

Hollywood soon came calling. He made his film debut in Elia Kazan's Panic in the Streets as the fugitive who carries the bubonic plague. From there, he moved swiftly into two key roles - the morose actor who terrorizes his wife (Joan Crawford) in Sudden Fear (1952) and of course, the evil gunslinger in George Stevens' classic western Shane (1953). Both movies earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor. His vintage year for film was in 1955, where he continued his fine string of cinematic villainy in two noir flicks: I Died a Thousand Times and Kiss of Fire and then, played against type as a conflicted, angst-ridden movie star in The Big Knife, directed by Robert Aldrich. He would end up giving some of his finest performances in Aldrich films which also included Attack (1956) and Ten Seconds to Hell (1959). He proved his range as an actor the following year when he was cast as the downtrodden boxer Harlan 'Mountain' McClintock in Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight. Originally aired in 1956 on the acclaimed Playhouse 90, Requiem is still heralded as a landmark for quality drama on television and it earned Palance a deserved Emmy Award for his moving, brutal performance.

Although Palance had the physical features of a villain, he was a much more versatile actor than he was given credit for. Feeling his roles were getting redundant with films such as Second Chance (1953) and Man in the Attic (1953), Palance made the move to Italy where he made a series of competent but forgettable adventure pictures: Beyond All Limits (1959), The Battle of Austerlitz (1960), The Mongols (1961), Barabbas (1962), Night Train to Milan (1963), and the spaghetti Western The Mercenary (1968) to name just a few. American television came to his rescue, as he had his own series The Greatest Show on Earth (1963-64) on ABC; and was excellent in a Dan Curtis's teleadaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968).

He held one of his finest hours on the small screen again when he portrayed Count Dracula for Curtis (of Dark Shadows fame) in another telefilm Dracula (1973). Palance gave the title character a sense of wounded compassion and aristocratic grace and it was enough to command the attention of the critics and horror buffs; His performance is often heralded as the definitive Dracula. He was given another starring series of his own as tough police detective Bronk (1975-76), but despite good reviews, CBS pulled the plug on it after only one season, and we wouldn't see Palance again on television until he spent a few years as the host of ABC's Ripley's Believe It or Not (1982-86) with Palance closing the show with a prolonged "believe it or n-o-o-o-o-t" delivery.

Palance had a reversal of fortunes toward the end of his career. He made some fine cameos in some key movies: Bagdad Café (1987), Young Guns (1988), and of course, Jack Nicholson's crime boss in Batman (1989) before he tapped oil with his great seriocomic turn as Curly Washburn in City Slickers (1991). Winning the Oscar® was impressive enough, but he stunned a world audience on live television when he accepted the award doing one arm push ups that was a staggering achievement for a man in his '70s. Palance was back in the public eye with a vengeance and he closed out his career with some good material, notably the sequel City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994); the made for cable retelling of Dickens' Christmas classic Ebenezer (1998); and worked alongside Glenn Close and Christopher Walkin in Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End (1999). Palance is survived by his wife Elaine; daughters, Holly and Brooke; a brother, John; a sister, Anne Despiva; and three grandchildren.

by Michael T. Toole