Eli’s Going: Wallach Dies At Age 98
The obituaries of Eli Wallach, who has died at the age of 98, emphasize his roles in such movies as “The Misfits” and “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” but for me he will always be associated with the work of Tennessee Williams. Wallach starred on Broadway in “The Rose Tattoo” (and I first met him at the opening of a Broadway revival of “The Rose Tattoo,” in the mid-1990s). On the bigscreen he had few turns as a leading man, but none was as strong as his first starring role in 1956’s “Baby Doll,†in which he played a leering cotton gin owner intent on seducing the virgin bride (Carroll Baker) of his business rival (Karl Malden). Wallach is survived by his wife of 66 years, Anne Jackson. He was real great.
