Jack Lemmon on Walter Matthau’s death — ‘one of the best damn actors we’ll ever see’
Walter Matthau, Oscar winner, Hollywood superstar and star of “The Bad News Bears,” died at age 79 on July 1, 2000, at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California. A hospital spokeswoman said the cause of death was a heart attack, according to The New York Times.
According to Variety, Matthau was brought to the hospital in “full cardiac arrest.”
According to The New York Times and Variety, Matthau’s friend and frequent co-star, Jack Lemmon, issued a statement saying: “I have lost someone I loved as a brother, as a closest friend and a remarkable human being. We have also lost one of the best damn actors we’ll ever see.”
Matthau won an Oscar, for Best Supporting Actor, for the 1966 film “The Fortune Cookie,” his first pairing with Jack Lemmon. Matthau received Best Actor Oscar nominations for “Kotch” (1971) and “The Sunshine Boys” (1975).
His most famous films are probably “The Bad News Bears” or “The Odd Couple.” He appeared in “A Face in the Crowd,” “Cactus Flower,” “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three,” “Earthquake” and “Grumpy Old Men.”
According to Variety, Matthau at his peak made $1.5 million a film but made “far more than that from his profit participation in ‘The Bad News Bears.’ ”
Variety reported that Matthau sued Paramount Pictures in 1979 for selling three “Bad News Bears” films to TV for a “roughly equal amount,” although the original — the only one he appeared in — had a far higher gross than the other two. Matthau alleged that the sale was recorded that way to minimize his profit participation. Variety said the case was “settled out of court.”
According to one Matthau obituary, Rabbi Jerry Cutler said Matthau didn’t hesitate to confront anti-Semitism and “once had it out with” Vanessa Redgrave, presumably after Redgrave’s controversial remarks at the 1978 Oscars.
(July 2026)
