Jack Lemmon

Born: 8 February 1925 Birthplace: Newton, Massachusetts Death: 27 June 2001 (complications from cancer) Best Known As: Felix Ungar in the movie The Odd Couple Name at birth: John Uhler Lemmon III A two-time Oscar winner, Lemmon often played struggling underdogs like the neurotic Felix Unger in the 1968 movie The Odd Couple. Lemmon attended Harvard and turned to acting after serving in the Navy. Lemmon appeared in dozens of high-profile films over 50 years, including comedies like Some Like It Hot (1959, with Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis) and dramas like The Days of Wine and Roses (1962), Missing (1982), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) and even Airport '77 (1977). Lemmon won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as the scheming Ensign Pulver in Mister Roberts (1955, his best-known role until Felix Unger) and then won Best Actor in 1973 for the drama Save the Tiger. In The Odd Couple he teamed up with Walter Matthau, and the two men collaborated many times more, including on the nostalgic 1990s comedies Grumpy Old Men (1993) and Out to Sea (1997). Lemmon produced the 1967 Paul Newman film Cool Hand Luke... He played many times in the annual pro-am golf tournament at Pebble Beach, often paired with pro Peter Jacobsen; Lemmon's futility in trying to make the tournament cut became a good-natured running gag... On the Odd Couple TV series, Felix and Oscar were played by Tony Randall and Jack Klugman; in the original Broadway show they were played by Matthau and Art Carney... In 1998 actor Ving Rhames gave his Golden Globe to Lemmon, in what became a famous awards-ceremony moment.