Alan Arkin

(26 March 1934 – 29 June 2023)

Mike Nichols called him “the best actor in America.” He was often one of the few good things about the films he landed, but in his best ones (see below) he was a veritable virtuoso. He generally took ‘small’ roles and made them into brilliant little portraits. Watch him in the original version of The In-Laws, or Glengarry Glen Ross, and you see a man with a barely bottled hysteria.

His best: The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming (1966), Wait Until Dark (1967), The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968), Popi (1969) (see main image), Catch-22 (1970), The In-Laws (1979), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and Argo (2012).