Karl Malden

Karl Malden played everything from priests to generals, villains to song-and-dance men over the course of a career that began in the late 1940s. The 97-year-old Oscar winner died of natural causes Wednesday at his home in Brentwood, Calif., surrounded by family including wife Mona. The couple celebrated their 70th anniversary in December. As an actor, Malden brought an Everyman quality to the screen and stage — whether playing Marlon Brando's poker buddy in A Streetcar Named Desire, Carroll Baker's cuckolded husband in Baby Doll or Gen. Omar Bradley in Patton.

The son of a Serbian father and a Czech mother, Malden was born Mladen George Sekulovich on March 12, 1912, in Chicago and raised in Gary, Ind. He worked in the steel mills before enrolling in Arkansas State Teachers College. He attended Chicago's Goodman Theatre Dramatic School, then moved to New York, where he made his Broadway debut in Golden Boy in 1937. Malden joined the innovative Group Theater, where he attracted the attention of director Elia Kazan, with whom he launched a fruitful partnership. With Kazan directing, Malden starred in such plays as Arthur Miller's All My Sons and Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, and in 1951 helped Kazan bring Streetcar to the silver screen.

Malden's film debut, however, came in 1940's They Knew What They Wanted. During his stint in the Army Air Force during World War II, Malden appeared in Winged Victory, which led to a brief contract with 20th Century Fox. One of his most memorable roles is Streetcar's Mitch, which he originated in the 1947 play. Richard Watts Jr., writing in the New York Post, described Marlon Brando's acting in the play as "an excellent piece of work," and added, "even finer is Karl Malden, one of the ablest young actors extant." He won a supporting-actor Oscar for the film adaptation. Malden would reunite with Kazan and Brando in 1954's On the Waterfront, playing a priest to Brando's longshoreman. Malden again was nominated for a supporting-actor Oscar. In 1956, Kazan cast Malden against type as the lecherous Archie Lee in Baby Doll.