Alan Arkin has died at 89.
I first saw him as a young sailor in The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming! A few years later I saw him in his second role—as a thief and home invader in Wait Until Dark. He was the bad guy; he stole the movie.
He also made an impression in The In-Laws with Peter Falk. Serpentine! Falk calls out to the poor dentist involved in who knows what, dodging bullets in a parking lot, as Falk’s CIA adventures?? engulf him.
And when Woody Guthrie died and tribute albums came out, I ran across Alan Arkin as a folk musician—leading The Babysitters with Weaver Lee Hayes, doing Guthrie children’s songs. Take me riding in the car, car…
But I will always remember Arkin as Yossarian. Could anyone else have played the Heller character? Somehow detached, completely involved, cynical, hopeful, doomed, triumphant.
(The title is the way the movie should have ended, instead of that long panning shot of the small boat.)