Eli Wallach

Eli Wallach was born in 1915 in a small town in the Catskills of New York. He was the son of a cantor and a seamstress, and showed an early interest in the arts. When Eli was just six years old, he started performing in small theaters in the area, and by the time he was eighteen he had won a scholarship to the New York Academy of Music. After two years of study, Eli decided to try his hand at acting, and he started working in small theaters across the country. In the late 1940s, Eli made his film debut in The Unsuspected and quickly became one of Hollywood's most popular actors. He starred in some of the most iconic films of the 1950s, including Baby Doll, The Defiant Ones, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Eli Wallach won a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer and a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in Baby Doll. He also starred in The Godfather Part III, Calvera in The Magnificent Seven, and Arthur Abbott in The Holiday. Eli Wallach passed away on June 24, 2014, at the age of 94.