Washington - Karl Malden, 97, an Academy Award-winning actor who played the priest in the classic film On the Waterfront, died of natural causes Wednesday at his home in California, The Los Angeles Times reported. Malden appeared in more than 70 films and TV shows during his long career, and in 1952 won a best-supporting actor Oscar for his portrayal of Mitch in the film version of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire.
With his famously rough voice and bulbous nose, Malden knew he didn't have the looks to be a leading man. Instead, he became a dependable and respected supporting actor.
Malden would re-team with Streetcar director Elia Kazan for On the Waterfront in 1954 and Baby Doll in 1956. In the 1970s, he took the lead in the TV series Streets of San Francisco, a police drama that co-starred Michael Douglas.
Malden won an Emmy in 1985 for his role in the TV mini-series Fatal Vision, in which he played a man who realizes that his daughter was murdered by his son-in-law.
He appeared in a long-running series of American Express card commercials, in which he reminded viewers, "Don't leave home without it."
In 1989 he became president of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, serving for three years.
In 1999, Malden was instrumental in convincing the academy to give a lifetime achievement Oscar to his friend Kazan, who was unpopular in Hollywood for decades after revealing the names of colleagues who had once been Communist Party members to Congress in 1952.
Malden was born in 1912 in Chicago to a Czech mother and Serbian father and grew up in Gary, Indiana, also the birthplace of pop icon Michael Jackson, who died last week.
Malden worked in a steel mill and drove a milk truck in Gary before studying at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.
He married Mona Greenberg in 1938, and they remained together until his death. Malden is survived by his wife, two daughters, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
