Karl Malden, Actor Who Played the Uncommon Everyman, Dies at 97

Karl Malden, the Academy Award-winning character actor who for more than 60 years brought an intelligent intensity and a homespun authenticity to roles in theater, film and television, from "A Streetcar Named Desire" to "The Streets of San Francisco," died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 97.

His family announced his death to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which Mr. Malden served as president from 1989 to 1992. The announcement said family members were present when he died of natural causes in his home in the Brentwood section.

Mr. Malden was perhaps the ideal Everyman. He realized early on that he lacked the physical attributes of a leading man; he often joked about his blunt features, particularly his crooked, bulbous nose, which he had broken several times while playing basketball in school. But he was, he once said, determined "to be No. 1 in the No. 2 parts I was destined to get."

He wound up playing everything from a whiskey-swigging cowboy to a prison warden, from an Army drill sergeant to the combative priest opposite Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront."

On Broadway he appeared with Mr. Brando in a legendary production of Tennessee Williams's "Streetcar Named Desire," then repeated the role in a film version that brought him an Oscar. On film he won memorable parts in a host of other major productions, including "Ruby Gentry," "Fear Strikes Out" and "Patton," in which he played Gen. Omar Bradley.

On television, too, he found wide popularity — as the gruff Lt. Mike Stone in "The Streets of San Francisco" ...