There are few actors with the range of talent and versatility exhibited by this fine star of stage and screen. Born Jack Uhler Lemmon III in an elevator in Newton, Massachusetts, on February 8, 1925, his father was a successful businessman (president of a doughnut company). He described his flamboyant and authoritarian mother, as “Tallulah Bankhead on a road show.” As a young man he attended Phillip’s Academy and Harvard University where he was the president of The Hasty Pudding Club. He graduated with a degree in “War Service Sciences”. During World War II, he served in the Navy and after the war embarked on an acting career in radio and on Broadway.
His father did not approve of his son’s choice of careers, but told him to pursue his dream as long as he felt a passion for it. Jack followed his father’s advice and his dying words of “spread a little sunshine.” He went unnoticed in his very first bit part, which he landed in the 1949 film, “The Lady Takes A Sailor.” It wouldn’t be until 1954 when he appeared opposite Judy Holiday in “It Should Happen To You” that his great talent was appreciated and rewarded. He was very well liked among other actors, including one Ving Rhames, who upon winning an Oscar for Best Actor in a television movie in 1998 gave his award to Jack Lemmon to express his admiration for his expertise and talent.
Although he made many wonderful films before dying of cancer in June of 2001, Jack Lemmon is perhaps best remembered for the fact that he did drama as well as he did comedy. This fact is no more aptly illustrated than his outstanding performances in “The Odd Couple” with co-star and friend, Walter Matthau, “Some Like it Hot” opposite Tony Curtis and “The Days of Wine And Roses” with Lee Remick.
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