Eli Wallach as the professional killer "Dancer" in The Lineup.

The rapacious bandit leader, Calvera, in John Sturges’ The Magnificent Seven. The cunning Tuco in Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The most memorable "Mr. Freeze" in the camp 1960s TV series Batman. These parts were all played to perfection by master thespian Eli Wallach.

Eli Wallach was born on December 7, 1915, in Brooklyn, New York. In 1930, at the age of 15, he appeared in his first public performance in an amateur production. His dreams of becoming an actor were born. Wallach went to the University of Texas in Austin (where he learned to ride horses, which came in handy early on in his movie career). He graduated with a BA degree and subsequently attended the City College of New York, planning to be a teacher. (Wallach has a brother and two sisters, all of whom became teachers.)

In 1946, he appeared in the Equity Library Theater’s production of This Property Is Condemned in New York and ended up marrying the leading lady, Anne Jackson. Eli Wallach was one of the earliest members of the Actor’s Studio in 1948 and began to appear on Broadway in a number of plays, including The Rose Tattoo (he won a Tony Award for this performance in 1951) and Camino Real. In the 1950s, he emerged as one of the American theater’s most respected "Method" actors and soon proved to be a versatile performer of considerable range.

Subsequent Broadway appearances include Major Barbara and with his wife, Anne Jackson, The Typists and the Tiger, Luv and Next. He auditioned for Joshua Logan for a role in South Pacific (an experience he recounts in his introduction to the book The Actor’s Audition by David Black, published by Vintage Books in 1990), but he lost out to Myron McCormick. Logan later cast Wallach as the sailor Stefanowski in Mister Roberts, with Henry Fonda. Wallach played this part for two years.

The actor made his film debut in 1956, in the role of the unscrupulous Sicilian seducer, Silva Vaccaro, in Elia Kazan’s Baby Doll, for Warner Bros. He received a British Academy Award for this performance. Wallach went on to appear in numerous films, where he frequently played ruthless villains and menacing heavies, most memorably in such films as The Magnificent Seven (1960), How The West Was Won (1962), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967). Wallach continued to work on the stage, as well, and he made frequent appearances on television. In 1966, he won an Emmy Award for his work in The Poppy Is Also A Flower.

Wallach and his wife have three children and three grandsons. One of their children, Peter, is a special effects director.

Mr. Wallach is currently appearing on stage in a two-man play called Visiting Mr. Green, at the off-Broadway Union Square Theater. A delightful and entertaining raconteur, he kindly took some time out to answer a few of my questions about his film career. (The following interview was conducted by telephone on March 11, 1998.)