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10 Facts About Karl Malden

Larrylambert
3 min readJan 27, 2025

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He managed to stay busy.

Creative Commons:classic film scans | Openverse

Karl Malden was not your typical Hollywood leading man. He had a blue-collar appearance that reflected his background. And he also appeared in some pretty good westerns, which, of course, is the true measure of an actor. He did make a pretty good western bad guy.

You might remember him as the bad guy from One-Eyed Jacks and Nevada Smith. Of course, he played a good guy in the TV cop series, The Streets of San Francisco. Once again, Karl is an actor I don’t know a lot about, so on to some facts about Karl Malden.

1: Karl was born Mladen George Sekulovich on March 22, 1912, in Chicago.

In addition to starring in westerns, Karl won an Acadamy Award for his portrayal of Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire. No doubt his familiarity with streetcars led to his getting a starring role in The Streets of San Francisco. Wait, being told that had nothing to do with that.

2: Karl played basketball in high school and had his nose broken twice by errant elbows.

Karl’s nose gave him a distinctive appearance, but that’s a tough way to get a nose job. I guess the second time Karl’s nose was broken was a follow-up.

3: Malden won an

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Larrylambert
Larrylambert

Written by Larrylambert

You probably don't know my name, but have likely seen my work. I've written for numerous syndicated cartoon strips and my gags have appeared in national pubs.

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