Born to a Czech mother and a Serbian father in Chicago, on March 22, 1912, Karl Malden didn't learn how to communicate a single word of English until he was in kindergarten. Raised in Gary, IN, a medium-sized steel town, Malden--like many other young men in Gary--got a job in a steel factory when he finished school. He worked there for three years until 1934 when, fed up with the drudgery of manual labor, he took a Depression-era gamble and left to follow another goal. After a short time at Arkansas State Teacher's College, he attended the Goodman Theater Dramatic School and never looked back. Three years later he went to New York City to find fame. He rapidly became involved with the Group Theater, an awesome organization of actors/directors who were changing the face of Broadway. Malden's own unforgettable face was shortly in the media when he made his stage debut in 1937. His performance attracted the attention of fledgling director Elia Kazan. With Kazan directing, Karl blazed a trail across the Broadway boards in plays like "All My Sons" by Arthur Miller and "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams. He returned unscathed from duty in the armed services and then immersed himself in his work. Fortunately, his short "vacation" had not harmed his career. From the "Golden Era" of Broadway, he made a transition to the screen, starting with his first appearance in They Knew What They Wanted. Jobs came came and fast, and in 1951 he won the Oscar for his performance as Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire. He was showing himself to be a consummate performer, whether tackling roles that had to be delivered with great moral weight or those requiring none whatsoever, like that of Father Corrigan in On the Waterfront or the Southern lecher Archie Lee in Baby Doll. A later role came as Capt. Wessels, in John Ford's Cheyenne Autumn. The film, Ford's last, was shot in his beloved Monument Valley. Malden found his greatest fame, however, in the early 1970s on the small screen, as Det. Mike Stone in the hit series The Streets of San Francisco, co-starring with future movie star Michael Douglas. He came into millions of homes every week for five years. He also became the pitchman for American Express, a position he held for 21 years. The crowning glory of his career was in 1988 when he was elected President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a title he held for five years. Not one to rest on his laurels, Malden recently wrote his memoir entitled, "When Do I Start?: A Memoir."
Born Mladen Sekulovich, he always regretted that in order to become an actor, he had to change his name. Since he was proud of his heritage, when he starred in a movie or on TV, he insisted that a character carry his family name: In "On The Waterfront", Fred Gwynne's character was named "Sekulovich". According to his memoir "When Do I Start," he arranged a meeting between his "Meteor" (1979) co-star Sean Connery and his friend Marlon Brando at Connery's request. Brando drank heavily at the get-together with Connery to get back at Malden, as he had earlier admonished him about Brando's drinking as alcoholism ran through his family and had ruined the career of his sister Jocelyn Brando. Brando did not get drunk, despite the intake of alcohol. In 1971, he accepted the Oscar for "Best Director" on behalf of Franklin J. Schaffner, who wasn't present at the awards ceremony His sixty-seven year marriage to Mona Greenberg is the second longest in Hollywood history. Bob Hope and Dolores Hope's sixty-nine year marriage, from 1934 until his death in 2003, is the longest. Was a close friend of The Magnificent Seven star Brad Dexter. who was also of Serbian descent. President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1989 to 1992 Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1963 has two daughters, Mila and Carla. Carla co-authored his autobiography "When Do I Start"