Hollywood star Alan Arkin, who won an Oscar for playing a grumpy grandfather in the 2006 comedy Sunshine girlpassed away at the age of 89.

The news was announced by his sons Adam, Matthew and Anthony, who shared a joint statement on behalf of the family.

They say Everybody: “Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature who was both an artist and a man. A loving husband, father, grandfather and grandfather, he is loved and will be missed.”

He died at his home in Carlsbad, California, on Friday (June 30).

Arkin’s illustrious career began in 1957, with his first notable feature film coming to Norman Jewison’s 1966 Best Picture nomination. The Russians are coming, The Russians are coming.

For the film, he received the first of two Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, the second following in 1969 for The heart is a lonely hunter.

Talking about Arkin, director Jewison said: “Alan has never had a clear personality on screen because he just disappears in his characters. His voice is impeccable, and he can even change his appearance. He’s always been underrated, in part because he’s never served his own success.”

Arkin will have to wait nearly 40 years for his next nomination, for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Drama. Sunshine girl (2006). Arkin won the trophy, as well as a Bafta, and received his fourth Academy Award nomination in 2013 for Ben Affleck. Argo.

In the 1960s, Brooklyn-born Arkin, who first began studying acting at the age of 10, was a member of the comedy troupe Second City, and made his Broadway debut in the film. From the second city. He also received a Tony nomination for his role as David Kolowitz in Joseph Stein1963 comedy Enter smileand tormented Audrey Hepburn in the psychological thriller Wait Until It’s Dark (1967). He once said of his co-star: “She’s a great woman, so it’s hard to be mean to her.” In 1968, he took on the role of Inspector Clouseau in the third Pink Panther film, titled Inspector Clouseauwhen Peter Sellers dropped the role.

His famous credits in the 1970s include an adaptation of a novel by Joseph Heller. Catch-22 (1970), in which he played Captain John Yossarian, and the comedy Father-in-law (1979), in which he starred alongside Peter Falk. In 2012, Arkin admitted that his financial frustrations Catch-22 adversely affected his career, explain:”[It] It was a huge failure, and it affected everyone involved with it. I had a lot of hard years doing a lot of things, most of which I wasn’t very interested in.”

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This plateau was made easier at least by Arkin’s spiritual awakening, with his early years in Hollywood coinciding with his assimilation of eastern philosophy. “Some miracles have happened as a direct result of meditation,” he said. Guard in 2020. “It saved my life. I can’t throw it out. If I threw it away, suicide would be the only viable alternative.”

In 1987, Arkin was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role in the TV series Escape from Sobibor, which tells the story of a mass escape from a Nazi concentration camp. It led to a resurgence in his career and by the 1990s, he had become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after actors playing powerful characters and strict but compassionate fathers. In Tim Burton Edward Scissors (1990), he played the father of Winona Ryder’s Kim Boggs, who fell in love with Johnny Depp’s anthropomorphic character. Other credits from this time period include the Disney hit movie rocket launcher (1991), as well as a film adaptation of a play by David Mamet GlengarryGlenn Ross (1992) starring Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino and Kevin Spacey. In 1997, he appeared alongside John Cusack and Minnie Driver in the comedy film Gros Pointe is emptyand Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke in the sci-fi movie Gattaca. In 1998, he played Natasha Lyonne’s father in the teen independent comedy. Slums in Beverly Hills.

After winning the Oscar for Sunshine girl in 2007, which saw him become the sixth oldest person to receive the award for Best Supporting Actor, Arkin said, “More than anything, I’m deeply moved by the foot appreciation. The success our little film has received, which in these times of separation speaks so openly about the possibility of innocence, growth, and connection.

In the film, he plays Richard’s talkative father, played by Greg Kinnear, who drives his dysfunctional family on the road so that his daughter (Abigail Breslin) can enter a beauty pageant for her. for children.

Right after her portrayal of Hollywood spy Lester Siegel in Affleck’s Best Picture winner Argo, Arkin was more successful on TV. He voices JD Salinger in Netflix’s acclaimed adult animated series BoJack the Knightand received two Emmy nominations for her role in the comedy series Kominsky’s method.

His voice will be known to the younger generation playing Wild Knuckles in Despicable Me spin-off Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022). The movie reunites him with Sunshine girl‘s Steve Carell, whom he also worked with in 2008 become smart and 2013 Burt .’s Incredible Miracle Stone. “I love him,” Carell said in 2022. “I have some messages that I save in my phone and I can tell five of them are his. Just as a keepsake, because they’re so funny. He’s so funny. He is one of my favorite people, and I will work with him despite all the difficulties. He is one of my idols.”

During his lifetime, Arkin, who also wrote and performed as part of the folk group, was married three times: to Jeremy Yaffe (1955-1961), with whom he had two sons Adam and Matthew; Barbara Dana (1964-1994), who had a son Anthony; and most recently psychotherapist Suzanne Newlander, whom he married in 1996.

In 2007, Arkin talked about his career in an interview with Related press: “I used to think that my furniture had a lot of variety. But I realized that for the first 20 years or so, most of the characters I played were outsiders, foreign to their environment, foreign in one way or another.”

He continued: “As I became more and more comfortable with myself, that started to change. I received one of the nicest compliments I have ever received from someone a few days ago. They say they think my characters are often the heart, the moral center of a movie. I don’t particularly understand it, but I like it; it makes me happy.