Overview (4)

Mini Bio (1)

Spouse (2)

Trade Mark (5)

Deep rumbly authoritative voice



Often played menacing, sinister villains



Machiavellian eyebrows



Intense acting manner



Towering height and muscular frame



Trivia (35)

Claimed on at least one occasion that he never watched any of his own movies.



According to a website honoring movie celebrities that flew in B-24s, Palance burned his face severely while bailing out of a B-24 which was on fire during a training flight in Tucson in 1942 (that would probably have been the Davis-Monthan Army Air Corps base at that time) and after several surgeries was discharged in 1944. He is described as a "pilot in training".



Attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill but did not graduate. Later received his Bachelor's degree in Drama from Stanford University in Stanford, California in 1949.



Palance, a boxer before he became an actor, was born Volodymyr Palahniuk of Ukrainian, Polish and Estonian descent. One of six children born to an anthracite coal miner who would die from black lung disease, and his wife (Ivan and Anna [née Gramiak] Palahniuk), Palance reportedly spoke six languages : Ukrainian, Russian, Italian, Spanish, French and English.





Once fell asleep in his square during a taping of The Hollywood Squares (Daytime) (1965).

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6608 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.



Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum (1992).



During his struggling days, he worked as a short order cook, waiter, soda jerk, lifeguard at Jones Beach, and a photographer's model.





While an understudy to Marlon Brando in the Broadway production of "A Streetcar Named Desire", Brando, who was into athletics, rigged up a punching bag in the theater's boiler room and invited Jack to work out with him. One night, Jack threw a hard punch that missed the bag and landed square on Brando's nose. The star had to be hospitalized and understudy Palance created his own big break by going on for Brando. Jack's reviews as Stanley Kowalski helped get him a 20th Century-Fox contract.



Was infamous in Hollywood for his Method-style acting, in a time when Marlon Brando was one of its few practitioners. Once, while filming a fight scene with Burt Lancaster , Palance actually punched the unsuspecting Lancaster in the face. Lancaster responded in kind, by socking Palance in the gut, causing him to vomit.



While accepting his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for City Slickers - Die Großstadt-Helden (1991) at the 64th Annual Academy Awards telecast (in 1992) he commented on the casting directors thinking they can make a younger guy look older, while they wouldn't know that an old guy did this at nights: he then flopped down on the floor and began doing a series of one-handed push-ups, stood up, spoke calmly further, even adding a slightly risqué joke. Afterwards, when asked about the stunt, he simply said, "I didn't know what the hell else to do." A year later, when he provided the voice of Rothbart in Die Schwanenprinzessin (1994), his character is featured doing one-handed push-ups.



An avid painter and poet, Palance studied acting with Michael Chekhov in Hollywood..

Was a vegetarian but maintained a 1000-acre cattle ranch in California's Tehachapi Mountains and a 500-acre farm in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. His ranch brand was an "H" with a "B" and a "C" woven around it, the initials of the first names of his children, Holly, Brooke and Cody.



Shortly before his death in 2006, he put his farmhouse near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and its contents up for sale. Thousands of items were auctioned off and more than $700,000 was raised.



On a nationally televised talk show, Palance addressed the oft repeated story about how he supposedly had such damage done to his face that plastic surgery gave him the face we all know. He said, "I know I'm no beauty, but these are the Estonian features I was born with.".





Was Stephen King 's choice of preference for the (similarly named, coincidentally or not) role of Jack Torrance in Shining (1980).

Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) (Actors Branch).





Received a special tribute as part of the Annual Memorial tribute at The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007).



Desperately wanted the role of Kid Sheleen in Cat Ballou - Hängen sollst du in Wyoming (1965), which he was never offered.



The comic book villain Phil Defer (Phil Wire in the English version) from Lucky Luke contre Phil Defer (1956) is based on Palance's famous evil gunslinger Jack Wilson from Mein großer Freund Shane (1953).

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Palance was a professional boxer in the heavyweight class, fighting under the name Jack Brazzo. He won his first 15 fights, then enlisted in the military when World War II broke out. After the war, he took up acting and never resumed his boxing career.



He pronounced his last name "PAL-unse" not "pah-LAHNSE" as some people believe.



His physical likeness reportedly inspired the appearance of DC Comics' supervillain Darkseid who regularly fought Superman.



He was a lifelong staunch Republican and conservative.





Richard Widmark , on working with the powerfully built and imposing former boxer [Palance] on the latter's film debut in Unter Geheimbefehl (1950), called Palance " . . . the toughest guy I ever met. He was the only actor I've ever been physically afraid of". In that film, a scene called for Palance to hit Widmark on the head with a gun. The actors rehearsed it with a rubber gun, but when the cameras rolled Palance substituted a real gun. The other actor, who wasn't expecting it, was knocked out for 20 minutes and later said of the incident, "Why did he switch? Who knows?" A 1986 interview recalled how Palance got into the mood of his character in the same film offscreen by beating on Zero Mostel , who played Palance's character's flunky. A black-and-blue Mostel had to go to the hospital after his first week on the film set where "[t]hey had to soak him in epsom pads.".

On February 12, 2019, he was honored with a sketch of the day caricature on the Greg Joens website.





Had a reputation for displaying a quick temper on set and would intimidate other actors on the set, according to eyewitnesses. Richard Widmark , on working with Palance on the latter's movie debut in Unter Geheimbefehl (1950), called Palance " . . . the toughest guy I ever met. He was the only actor I've ever been physically afraid of".

Personal Quotes (8)

The only two things you can truly depend upon are gravity and greed.



I'm amazed people read this crap about us--about me most of all.



One of the most important reasons for living is to do something--live outside of yourself and put together an idea, an idea that you want to explore and then complete. Awaken your creative sensitivities!



[on his aircraft accident in World War II when his bomber crashed and burned, in which he received severe head injuries and required major facial reconstruction] There are some moments you never get over. That was one of them.



[In 1994] I used to be 6' 4". Now that I'm old, I slouch. So I'm 6' 3".



Most of the stuff I do is garbage.



I go to see maybe seven films a year at the most, and since I only go to see the best, it follows that I very rarely see my own.

