Oscar Winner Karl Malden Dies

Wed., Jul. 1, 2009 12:05 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg

Karl Malden, Vivien Leigh, A Street Car Named Desire

Warner Bros. Pictures

Karl Malden, the acting great who worked the Waterfront with Marlon Brando and patroled The Streets of San Francisco with Michael Douglas, died today at 97.

Malden passed away from natural causes at his home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, daughter Mila Doerner told the Los Angeles Times.

While Gen Xers may know Malden best as the guy who warning us not to leave home without an American Express card in a series of 1980s TV commercials, he was one of the most respective stars in Tinseltown.

Known for his tough-guy persona and crooked nose, Malden rose through the Hollywood ranks with fellow Method man Brando, winning a Supporting Actor Oscar as best buddy Mitch to the latter's Stanley Kowalski in 1951's A Streetcar Named Desire.

Malden was nominated again in the same category three years later for playing a priest who persuaded Brando's Terry Malloy to testify against a mob-backed union boss in Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront.

Other notable movie credits include Baby Doll (1956), Fear Strikes Out (1957), Pollyanna (1960), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Gypsy (1962), How the West Was Won (1962), The Cincinnatti Kid (1965) and Patton, playing Gen. Omar Bradley opposite Oscar winner George C. Scott.

Malden showed Douglas the ropes as Lt. Mike Stone on the hit '70s TV crime series The Streets of San Francisco, earning four Emmy nominations. He eventually won an Emmy for his supporting role in the 1984 TV movie Fatal Vision.

In 2003, the Screen Actors Guild presented Malden with its Lifetime Achievement Award, while the U.S. House of Representatives even authorized a Los Angeles post office to be named in his honor.

No word yet on funeral arrangements.