KARL MALDEN DIES AT 97

Academy Award-Winning Actor, Karl Malden whose intelligent characterizations on stage, screen and television made him a star despite his plain looks, died Wednesday, June 25, 2009 at his Brentwood home by natural death. He was best known as a Commercial Pitchman for American Express.

Karl Malden whose real name is Mladen Sekulovich was born in Chicago on March 22, 1912, the son of an immigrant mother from the nation that later became Czechoslovakia and a Serbian father, who was a milkman. He spoke little English until his family moved from their Serbian enclave in Chicago to the steel-mill town of Gary, Ind., when he was 5.

His father staged Serbian plays at church and in Serbian organizations in Gary. As a teenager, Malden often appeared in them and in plays in high school. He also played high school basketball.

His movie career flourished in 1950's and '60's who played a variety of roles in more than 50 films, including the sympathetic priest in "On the Waterfront," the resentful husband in "Baby Doll," the Warden in "Birdman of Alcatraz," the pioneer patriarch in "How the West Was Won," a Madame Rose suitor in "Gypsy," the Card Dealer in "The Cincinnati Kid" and a General Omar Bradley in "Patton."

In a statement to The Times, Douglas called Malden a "mentor" whom he "admired and loved" deeply.