A True Star and Veteran

Jack Palance died yesterday at the age of 87. Most people these days know him as “Curly” from City Slickers, but he starred in many, many other movies. For me, it was his voice…that craggy voice, the rugged looks, I thought he was a very handsome man. He was much more then “a pretty face.” And was much more then just an actor. He was a husband, father, a boxer, a veteran of the Army Air Force, a painter and a poet.

His early years were not easy. Born Vladimir Palahnuik on Feb. 18, 1919, in a tiny Pennsylvania coal town called Lattimer Mines, he followed his Ukrainian immigrant father into the mines at a young age. He also tried his hand at professional boxing, compiling a record of 15 consecutive victories with 12 knockouts before losing to a future heavyweight contender.

He won a football scholarship to the University of North Carolina but left after two years. Big-time college football, he thought, was becoming too commercial.

He joined the Army Air Forces in 1942 but was discharged a year later after he was in a plane crash in which he suffered severe head injuries and burns on his face, which required plastic surgery.

He used the G.I. Bill to study journalism at Stanford University, leaving a credit short of graduation in 1947. He made his Broadway debut that year, appearing in a comedy called “The Big Two.” He had only one line, spoken in Russian, which his parents spoke at home.

Washington Post