Jack Lemmon

Season 4, Episode 409

Original Airdate: November 15, 1998

Jack Lemmon was born premature in an elevator on February 8, 1925 in Boston, Mass. He studied drama at Harvard University before moving to New York City to pursue an acting career. He initially supported himself at the Knickerbocker Music Hall by playing piano accompanying silent film comedies.

Taking any acting job available, including a part in an Army sex hygiene film, Lemmon worked in summer stock and starred in two pioneer TV sitcoms, That Wonderful Guy and Heaven for Betsy. Lemmon scored success in his first film, 1954's It Should Happen to You with Judy Holliday. In 1955, he starred in Mister Roberts, where his inspired comedic performance won him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In 1959, Lemmon began a three-decade association with legendary director Billy Wilder starring such classics as Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960), Irma La Douce (1963), The Fortune Cookie (1966), Avanti (1972) and Buddy Buddy (1981).

Lemmon won a second Oscar for his dramatic performance in Save the Tiger (1973), acting for virtually no fee after the production went bankrupt. His other significant dramatic roles include The Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The China Syndrome (1979), Tribute (1980), Missing (1982) and Glengarry Glen Ross (1992).

In 1986, Lemmon headlined a Broadway production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night with a young actor named Kevin Spacey playing one of his sons. In addition to his two Oscars, Lemmon also won numerous Emmy awards for his work in 12 Angry Men (1998), Inherit the Wind (1999) and Tuesdays with Morrie (2000).

Lemmon's close friend and favorite co-star was Walter Matthau. Their first appearance together was in The Fortune Cookie, and they teamed up again repeatedly in such films as The Odd Couple (1968), The Front Page (1974), Grumpy Old Men (1993), Grumpier Old Men (1995), Out to Sea (1997) and lastly in The Odd Couple II (1998).

Lemmon died in June 2001, almost exactly one year after his friend and co-star, Matthau.