| Jack Lemmon Interview with son Chris Lemmon Coming in June Listen to the interview on www.iconsradio.com Hosted by John Mulholland, Meir Ribalow & Stephen Bogart John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was a two-time Academy Award and Cannes award-winning American actor and comedian. He starred in legendary classics such as Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Days of Wine and Roses, Irma La Douce, The Great Race, The Odd Couple, The Out-of-Towners, Glengarry Glen Ross, The China Syndrome, Short Cuts and JFK. Lemmon was born in an elevator at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, the son of Mildred Burgess LaRue (née Noel),[1] and John Uhler Lemmon, Jr., who was the president of a doughnut company.[2] Lemmon attended John Ward Elementary School in Newton. At twenty-two years old, Lemmon graduated from Harvard University. He was an active member of several Drama Clubs. Lemmon also revealed that he knew he wanted to be an actor from the age of eight. After attending Phillips Academy (Class of 43) and Harvard University (Class of 47), becoming president of the Hasty Pudding Club, Lemmon joined the Navy, received V-12 training and served as an ensign. On being discharged, he took up acting professionally, working on radio, television and Broadway. He studied acting under Uta Hagen. He also became infatuated with the piano and had learned to play by himself. He could also play the harmonica and the bass fiddle. Lemmon was one of the best-liked actors in Hollywood. He is remembered as making time for people, as the actor Kevin Spacey recalled in a tribute. When already regarded as a legend, he met the teenage Spacey backstage after a theater performance and spoke to him about pursuing an acting career.[citation needed] Spacey would later work with Lemmon in the critically acclaimed film Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), and on stage in a revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night. Lemmon's performance even inspired Gil Gunderson, a character on The Simpsons that is modeled on Lemmon's character in the film. When Lemmon won Best Actor for Save the Tiger, many people had expected Al Pacino to win for his performance in Serpico. Many years later, however, Pacino said that he was glad that Lemmon had won, because he (Pacino) was strung out on drugs that night and wouldn't have been able to have accepted the award. Lemmon and Pacino co-starred in Glengarry Glen Ross. Lemmon was married twice. His son, Chris Lemmon, (b. 1954), was his first child by his first wife, actress Cynthia Stone (b. February 26, 1926, Peoria, Illinois). He is also an actor. His second wife was the western actress Felicia Farr, with whom he had a daughter, Courtney, born in 1966. Jack Lemmon died of colon cancer and metastatic cancer of the bladder[3] on June 27, 2001. He had been fighting the disease, very privately, for two years before his death. Chris Lemmon, made several TV shows and movies. He also wrote a book about his father after his death, named "A Twist of Lemmon: A Tribute to My Father". He has three kids named Sydney Noel, Chris Jr. and Jonathon. He is interred at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, Westwood, Los Angeles, California, where he is buried next to Walter Matthau. In typical Jack Lemmon wit, his gravestone simply reads 'Jack Lemmon — in'. After Matthau's death in 2000, Lemmon appeared with friends and relatives of the actor on a Larry King Live show in tribute. A year later, many of the same people appeared on the show again to pay tribute to Lemmon. Join Steve Bogart, John Mulholland and Meir Ribalow in June for a heartwarming discussion on Jack Lemmon with son Chris Lemmon only on ICONs Radio Hour. (less) Tags: Jack Lemmon Walter Mathou Tony Curtis Mister Roberts Days of Wine and Roses Some Like it Hot |