Celebrating Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin was born on March 26, 1934, in Brooklyn, into a family of Ukrainian and German Jewish immigrants. He began acting at age 10—”Every film I saw, every play, every piece of music fed an unquenchable need to turn myself into something other than what I was,” he says—and he hasn’t stopped yet.
Arkin has been an actor, producer, and director, working on stage and screen for over seven decades. He made his film debut with the Cold War comedy in The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!, winning a Golden Globe right off the bat. Arkin has been nominated for several Academy Awards for Best Actor and won Best Supporting Actor in 2006 for his nimble comedic performance in Little Miss Sunshine.
We’ll pay tribute to this famously versatile actor through a sampling of his roles: as the terrifying killer in the unnerving thriller Wait Until Dark, a sincere but clueless dentist in the madcap classic The In-Laws, the paranoid salesman in the haunting Glengarry Glen Ross, and the outrageous, foulmouthed grandpa Edwin Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine—and we’ll also show his darkly comedic directorial debut, Little Murders. We’re thrilled that Arkin himself—who’s in the middle of production on his latest project—will take time away from his busy shooting schedule to join us by Skype for this celebration.
The In-Laws
“One of those rare comedy scripts that escalates steadily and hilariously, without faltering or even having to strain for an ending. As for Mr. Arkin and Mr. Falk, it is theirs, and not their children’s, match that has been made in heaven.” (Janet Maslin, New York Times)
This is certain to be a joyous evening: Re-experience this crazy, madcap classic on the big screen! On the eve of their children’s marriage, soon-to-be in-laws—mild-mannered dentist Sheldon Kornpett (played to hilarious perfection by Alan Arkin) and ex-secret agent Vince Ricardo (nimbly portrayed by Peter Falk)—embark on a series of misadventures involving the CIA, the Treasury Department, and Central American dictators. Through a series of events too absurd to even try to explain, the two men “serpentine” from suburban New Jersey to Honduras to save the world—or at least the upcoming wedding.
Tickets: $10 (members), $15 (nonmembers)
