The actor Eli Wallach has died at age 98. He was a star of the New York stage and of NYC-based TV series and live television dramas of the 1950s. Wallach was a great movie character actor who had the gift of packing maximum entertainment value into any role. Movie fans will probably best remember him for two bandito bad guys – Cavela in The Magnificent Seven and Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Wallach had 167 screen credits – he was in Polanski’s The Ghost Writer just four years ago. I hope we don’t overlook his feature film debut in 1956, Elia Kazan’s
comedy of seduction Baby Doll. Wallach plays a cotton gin owner who knows – and is trying to prove – that his gin has been burnt down by his rival (Karl Malden). Getting even involves the seduction of Malden’s dim, oversexed and luscious young wife (Carroll Baker). In this scene, watch Wallach pour on the charm while his eyes reveal predatory horniness. I love it when Baker exclaims, “Mr. Vacaro – this conversation is certainly taking a personal turn!”.