Most of Steiger's solo shots in the famous taxi scene in On the Waterfront (1954) were filmed after Marlon Brando left for the day. Brando's contract stipulated that he could finish filming earlier than the normal wrap time so he could keep his daily session with his psychiatrist. Steiger was deeply hurt and angered by Brando's rudeness and discourtesy toward a fellow actor, because in two-shots it was customary for the actor in close-up to be fed his lines by the other actor, or for the other actor to simply be present so the first actor could play off him. Steiger used his negative feelings to enhance his performance, and although he paid tribute to Brando as a great actor, he later personally hated him. Director Elia Kazan took Brando's place in the back of the taxi so that Steiger would have someone to express his feelings to.
He was offered the lead in Patton (1970) but turned the role down, saying, "I'm not going to glorify war." The role then went to George C. Scott, who won the Oscar. Steiger called this rejection the "dumbest career move" of his life.
He was not the first choice to play Sheriff Bill Gillespie in In the Heat of the Night (1967), the Best Picture Academy Award winner for which Steiger won the Best Actor Oscar. According to producer Walter Mirisch's memoir "I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History," the role was first offered to George C. Scott, who accepted. Scott backed out when he wanted his wife, Colleen Dewhurst, to direct him in a Broadway play. Ironically, Steiger later turned down the lead in Patton (1970) that went to Scott and won him the Best Actor Oscar.
After years of tirelessly raising his voice against the social stigma surrounding mental illness, which he had long suffered from, he received the Gift of Life Award.
In an interview with Turner Classic Movies, he told Robert Osborne that during World War II, while he was in the United States Navy, he sang when his turn came to stand watch on the ship. The ship's captain, who heard him one night, put an end to his impromptu performances.
He always said his favorite of all his films was The Pawnbroker (1964).
He served in the US Navy in the Pacific Ocean during World War II.
1976: He fell into a deep depression after undergoing triple heart bypass surgery.
He had an operatic voice; however, he did not have the ear to hold the same note, which made his singing voice almost useless.
Three years after reaching the peak of his profession, in early 1971 he campaigned hard for a role in The Godfather (1972), which began filming that year, having won the Best Actor Oscar for his role as Sheriff Bill Gillespie in In the Heat of the Night (1967). Surprisingly, the role Steiger wanted was not that of Don Vito Corleone (ultimately played by On the Waterfront (1954) star Marlon Brando) but that of Don's youngest son, Michael Corleone. Paramount executives found his desire to play the part odd because he was too old for the role, and they turned him down without even giving him a screen test.
He was outspoken about his struggle with depression and eager to eliminate the stigma attached to it.
The University of Virginia Oracle lists Kevin Bacon as the Center of the Hollywood Universe. He can be connected to any film actor in the style of the classic Kevin Bacon game in an average of 2,651 steps.
During World War II he served on the destroyer USS Taussig. In December 1944, on the day of the event known as Typhoon Cobra or Halsey's Typhoon, he was serving on that ship in the Philippine Sea. Three destroyers sank because of the storm. It formed the background of the novel and film "The Caine Mutiny" as well as the stage play "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial."
His daughter Anna Steiger is an opera singer.
He became the first person to win the Best Actor BAFTA award two years in a row and the Oscar in the second of those years (for The Pawnbroker (1964) and In the Heat of the Night (1967)). The second person to do so was Colin Firth for A Single Man (2009) and The King's Speech (2010).
I enjoyed playing historical figures.
He never knew his father.
Steiger's last televised appearance was on an episode of Jon Favreau's Dinner for Five (2001) that aired on April 29, 2002. Three days before his death on July 9, 2002, Steiger made his final appearance, recorded for a career retrospective for the SAG-AFTRA Foundation's Legacy Collection.
His paternal grandfather, Frederick Steiger, was German, and his paternal grandmother, Anna A. Libschick, was Austrian. Rod's maternal grandparents, Frank Driver and Amelia Fesler, were of German origin.
He appeared in four films selected by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: On the Waterfront (1954), Oklahoma! (1955), The Pawnbroker (1964) and In the Heat of the Night (1967).
After playing Jud Fry in Oklahoma! (1955), producer David O. Selznick wanted to sign him to a long-term contract and possibly cast him opposite Selznick's wife Jennifer Jones in a proposed remake of Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms." "But I told him that I must have the right to choose my own mistakes," Steiger told his biographer Tom Hutchinson. "His face fell - he couldn't believe anyone would refuse him. Neither could my agents!"
His third wife, Sherry Nelson, was a former ballerina before becoming Rod's secretary. Her marriage to him was her second marriage.
Steiger's "Chief Bill Gillespie" ("In the Heat of the Night") was exactly what he verbally requested in Joni Mitchell's 1985 album track "Tax Free" on "Dog Eat Dog." As Mitchell said, Mitchell hired Steiger to play a ranting "hawk-right militant" preacher, interspersed throughout the song with far-right condemnations ("Rock and roll music!" "Cast down these dope fiends and their noisy bands!" "Pot in their pockets!").
On August 15, 2019, he was honored with a film retrospective on Turner Classic Movies' Summer Under the Stars.
He won the role of Viktor Komarovsky in Doctor Zhivago (1965) only after two other actors turned it down. A month later, when Marlon Brando failed to answer director David Lean's written inquiry about whether he wanted to play Komarovsky, Lean offered the role to James Mason, who was a generation older than Brando, because he did not want an actor who would overshadow the character of Yuri Zhivago (especially in order to present Zhivago as the lover of Lara, played by the young Julie Christie, which the charismatic Brando could also have done). Mason initially accepted the role, but eventually dropped out and the part was given to Steiger.
He was honored to be chosen as one of AFI's 50 stars of the second half of the 20th century.
He had appeared in two Best Picture Oscar winners: On the Waterfront (1954) and In the Heat of the Night (1967). He also appeared in two more films nominated for Best Picture: The Longest Day (1962) and Doctor Zhivago (1965).
He had a daughter with Claire Bloom and a son with Paula Ellis.
On April 10, 1997, he was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
He initially attended drama classes to meet women.
He studied drama at HB Studio in Greenwich Village, New York City.
In a poll conducted by AFI, Steiger chose The Good Earth (1937) as his favorite film.
Steiger, who played Marty in the television production Marty (1953) that bore his own name, said he turned down the role in the 1955 film version because his Hill-Hecht-Lancaster Productions contract would have bound him for years. Harold Hecht and Burt Lancaster, for their part, said they did not want to cast Steiger because they thought the public would not choose an actor they had seen for free on television.
Member of Gun Control, Inc.
His mother, a former actress and singer, had to give up her career after an injury and struggled with alcoholism throughout his childhood and youth.
Shortly before his death, Steiger had surgery for a (possibly malignant) gallbladder tumor.
From his marriage to Claire Bloom, he had a daughter named Anna-Justine Steiger (born 1967), who studied voice and piano at the Guildhall School of Music.
He cited Harry Baur as one of his favorite actors, who had a great influence on his art and career.
He grew up in Newark, New Jersey.
He, Burt Lancaster and Robert Mitchum were among those considered for roles in the film Patton.
He spent 5 years in the Navy as a torpedoman on a destroyer.
He studied opera for 4 years but quit because he kept changing notes.
He shares his birthday with Doctor Zhivago co-star Julie Christie.
He starred in "Marty" on television, but Ernest Borgnine played the role in the 1955 film version.
After a 2-year relationship, he married Joan Benedict in Malibu on October 10, 2000.
After his famous performance as a crooked union official in "On the Waterfront," he played a crooked boxing racketeer in "The Harder They Fall."
Three days before his death on July 9, 2002, Steiger appeared on stage for the last time at a career retrospective held for the SAG-AFTRA Foundation's Legacy Collection.
Before his death in July 2002, he was about to begin work on the film Reeseville (2003), was offered the role of Marty Goldberg in Fighting Tommy Riley (2004), and had signed on to play Pedro in I Believe in America (2007).