Walter Matthau Net Worth

Walter Matthau's Quotes

• I think doing comedy is more difficult ... than doing noncomedic or tragic or whatever you want to call it. "Because it's difficult to make all kinds of different audiences understand what you're doing, and moving you to laughter.
• I never mind my wife having the last word. In fact, I'm delighted when she gets to it.
• Every actor looks all his life for a part that will combine his talents with his personality. The Odd Couple (1968) was mine. That was the plutonium I needed. It all started happening after that.
• I always had one ear offstage, listening for the call from the bookie.
• The first girl you go to bed with is always pretty.

Interesting Facts about Walter Matthau

1. Big break came when understudying the actor who played the Archbishop in "Anne Of The Thousand Days," starring Rex Harrison.
2. Brought to the St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California by ambulance from his home on the late evening of June 30, 2000 after suffering a heart attack and was pronounced dead shortly afterward at 1:42 a.m. on July 1.
3. Buried at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park. Marilyn Monroe, Truman Capote, Natalie Wood, Donna Reed, among other stars are buried at this cemetery.
4. People were never sure if he was joking or saying things seriously, either on-screen or off-screen.
5. He hated to be identified as a comedic actor.
6. He once claimed that his father was an Orthodox priest in Czarist Russia, who was removed after he claimed that the Pope was infallible.
7. Once claimed that his wife's name was Carol Wellington-Smythe Marcus, just to give it a more "aristocratic" sound.
8. When he inscribed himself formally to the U.S. Social Security in 1937, he included "Foghorn" as his middle name. He never changed it.
9. Studied in the dramatic workshop at New York's New School with Gene Saks, Rod Steiger, Harry Guardino and Tony Curtis.
10. Served in the US Army Air Force, 8th Air Force, 453rd Bombardment Group in England with James Stewart.
11. He once estimated his lifetime gambling losses at $5 million.
12. While making a TV series in Florida before his movie stardom, he lost $183,000 betting on spring-training baseball games.
13. After filming Grumpy Old Men (1993) in 1993 in freezing weather in Minnesota, he was hospitalized for double pneumonia.
14. Uncle of Juliette Gruber.
15. Reports are that he made up "Matuschanskayasky" as a joke and that his real "real" name is Matthow. The existence of Michelle Matthow would seem to confirm this...
16. According to son Charles Matthau, Walter's real name was Walter Matthow, but he changed it to Walter Matuschanskayasky to sound more exotic.
17. Was passionate about classical music and often sang pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on the set.
18. Father, with Grace Geraldine Johnson, of son David Matthau and daughter Jenny Matthau. Father, with Carol Grace, of son Charles Matthau.
19. Stepfather of Lucy Saroyan and Aram Saroyan.
20. Very tall as young man (6' 3"), Matthau had a very slouchy posture by the time he was an actor. This was in part due to back injuries sustained in combat during World War II. But, he probably exaggerated it because the slouch fitted his miserly characters.