Jack Palance

Without a doubt, Jack Palance had one of the most charismatic faces in cinema. His father was Ukrainian and that background is clearly visible in his Asian features. It is not by chance that he played numerous exotic roles, such as barbarians, Mongols, and adventurers and despots of bygone eras. There are films like Attila, King of the Huns  and The Silver Chalice , both from 1954, or The Barbarians (1960) and The Mongols (1961), to name just a few significant ones. Palance came to embody evil guys like nobody else, who reveled in his power and his misdeeds. Unforgettable in this sense is the hitman with the black gloves, who faced Shane in George Stevens ‘ exemplary western. Deep Roots (1953).

Born in 1919 in Pennsylvania, the life of Vladimir Palaniuk -his real name- was not easy. He began to carve out a future as a boxer, supported by his prodigious physique (more than 1.90 in height) and in that fierce aspect that his Siberian features and prominent jaw gave him. He must not have been bad, because he won his first 15 fights, 12 of them by KO. He was a bomber pilot inthe second warMundial and due to serious burns on his face he had to undergo cosmetic surgery. In 1949 the actor married Virginia Baker, with whom he had three children, but the marriage would break up in 1966.

His film debut took place a year after their wedding and it could not have been more promising, as it came from the hand of the teacher Elia Kazan in Panic in the streets (1950), together with Richard Widmark . With the thriller Sudden Fear (1952), along with Joan Crawford , he achieved his first Oscar nomination as a supporting actor, and the following year he would repeat the honor with the aforementioned Deep Roots . Palance would go on to win the precious statuette, but many years later, thanks to his participation in the irregular comedy City Cowboys (1991).

Among the rest of his filmography, films such as Attack (1956), a war film by Robert Aldrich ; the biblical Barabbas (1962), starring Anthony Quinn ; Contempt (1963), directed by Jean-Luc Godard from a novel by Alberto Moravia ; The Professionals (1966), a western directed by Richard Brooks , with Lee Marvin , Burt Lancaster ,  and Claudia Cardinale ; Tim Burton ‘s Batman (1989 ) ; and the most recent Curly’s Treasure(1994), fun adventure with Billy Crystal .