Jack Lemmon
- Highest Rated: The Odd Couple (1968)
- Lowest Rated: Getting Away with Murder (1996)
- Birthday: Feb 8, 1925
- Birthplace: Newton, Massachusetts, USA
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A private school-educated everyman who could play outrageous comedy and wrenching tragedy, Jack Lemmon burst onto the movie scene as a 1950s Columbia contract player and remained a beloved star until his death in 2001. Whether through humor or pathos, he excelled at illuminating the struggles of average men against a callous world; as director Billy Wilder once noted, "There was a little bit of genius in everything he did." Born in 1925, the son of a Boston doughnut company executive, Lemmon was educated at Phillips Andover Academy and taught himself to play piano as a teen. A budding thespian by the time he entered Harvard, he was elected president of the famed Hasty Pudding Club. After his college career was briefly interrupted by a stint in the Navy at the end of World War II, Lemmon graduated from Harvard and headed to New York to pursue acting. By the early '50s, Lemmon had appeared in hundreds of live TV roles, including in the dramatic series Kraft Television Theater and Robert Montgomery Presents, as well as co-starring with first wife, Cynthia Stone, in two short-lived sitcoms. After Lemmon landed a major role in the 1953 Broadway revival of Room Service, a talent scout for Columbia Pictures convinced the actor to try Hollywood instead. Defying Columbia chief Harry Cohn's demand that he change his last name lest the critics take advantage of it in negative reviews, Lemmon quickly made a positive impression in his first film, the Judy Holliday comic hit It Should Happen to You (1954) and quickly became a reliably nimble comic presence at Columbia. A loan out to Warner Bros. for the smash Mister Roberts (1955), however, truly began to reveal his ability. Drawing on his Navy memories to play the wily Ensign Pulver, Lemmon held his own opposite heavyweights Henry Fonda and James Cagney and won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his fourth film. A free-agent star by the end of the 1950s, he began one of his two most auspicious creative collaborations when writer/director Billy Wilder tapped him to play one of the cross-dressing musicians in the gender-tweaking comic classic Some Like It Hot (1959). As enthusiastically female bull fiddler Daphne to Tony Curtis' preening Lothario sax player Josephine, Lemmon danced a sidesplitting tango with millionaire suitor Joe E. Brown and delivered a sublime speechless reaction to Brown's nonchalant acceptance of his manhood. Fresh off a Best Actor nomination for Hot, he then gave an image-defining performance in Wilder's multiple-Oscar winner The Apartment (1960). As ambitious New York office drone C.C. Baxter, who climbs the corporate ladder by loaning his small one-bedroom to his philandering bosses, Lemmon was both the likeable cynic and beleaguered romantic, perfectly embodying Wilder's sardonic view of a venal world. Lemmon's turn as the put-upon quotidian schnook pervaded the rest of his career. Determined to prove that he could play serious roles as well as comic, Lemmon campaigned to play Lee Remick's alcoholic husband in Blake Edwards' film adaptation of the teleplay Days of Wine and Roses (1962). Revealing the darker side of middle-class desperation, Lemmon earned still more critical kudos and another Oscar nomination. Despite this triumph, he returned to comedy, re-teaming with Wilder and The Apartment co-star Shirley MacLaine in Irma la Douce (1963). Though the love story between a Parisian prostitute and a cop-turned-lover in disguise was a lesser effort, Irma la Douce became a major hit for the trio. Continuing to display his skill at offsetting his characters' unseemly behavior with his innate, ordinary-guy affability, Lemmon's mid-'60s comic roles included a lascivious landlord in Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963) and a homicidal husband in How to Murder Your Wife (1965). Lemmon began his second legendary creative partnership when Wilder cast Walter Matthau opposite him in The Fortune Cookie (1966). The duo's popularity was cemented when they re-teamed for the hit film versi
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Highest Rated Movies
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The Odd Couple
100% -
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Cowboy
100% -
Filmography
Movies
Rating |
Title |
Credit |
Box
|
Year |
---|---|---|---|---|
Portrait d'un homme 'à 60% parfait': Billy Wilder (Portrait of a '60% Perfect Man': Billy Wilder) | Actor | — | 2012 | |
Il était une fois... Certains l'aiment chaud | Actor | — | 2009 | |
Ladies or Gentlemen | Actor | — | 2009 | |
Long Way Home | Actor | — | 2005 | |
Uta Hagen's Acting Class | Actor | — | 2004 | |
On Cukor | Actor | — | 2000 | |
43% | The Legend of Bagger Vance | Old Hardy Greaves | $30.4M | 2000 |
Forever Hollywood | Actor | — | 2000 | |
Frank Sinatra Memorial | Actor | — | 1999 | |
71% | Tuesdays With Morrie | Morrie Schwartz | — | 1999 |
Inherit the Wind | Henry Drummond | — | 1999 | |
27% | The Odd Couple II | Felix Ungar | — | 1998 |
The Long Way Home | Tom Gerrin | — | 1998 | |
Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's | Actor | — | 1997 | |
36% | Out to Sea | Herb | — | 1997 |
92% | 12 Angry Men | Juror #8 | — | 1997 |
95% | Hamlet | Marcellus | — | 1996 |
48% | My Fellow Americans | Russell P. Kramer | — | 1996 |
50% | The Grass Harp | Morris Ritz | — | 1996 |
A Weekend in the Country | Bud Executive Producer | — | 1996 | |
0% | Getting Away with Murder | Max Mueller | — | 1996 |
17% | Grumpier Old Men | John Gustafson | — | 1995 |
Jane Goodall: My Life With the Chimpanzees | Actor | — | 1995 | |
63% | Grumpy Old Men | John Gustafson | — | 1993 |
95% | Short Cuts | Paul Finnegan | — | 1993 |
James Cagney: En la Cima del Mundo | Actor | — | 1993 | |
A Life in the Theatre | Robert | — | 1993 | |
95% | Glengarry Glen Ross | Shelley Levine | — | 1992 |
98% | The Player | Himself | — | 1992 |
For Richer, for Poorer | Aram Katourian | — | 1992 | |
84% | JFK | Jack Martin | — | 1991 |
Remember Pearl Harbor | Actor | — | 1991 | |
Rita Hayworth: Dancing Into the Dream | Actor | — | 1990 | |
60% | Dad | Jake Tremont | — | 1989 |
The Murder of Mary Phagan | John Slaton | — | 1988 | |
Long Day's Journey into Night | James Tyrone | — | 1987 | |
46% | That's Life! | Harvey Fairchild | — | 1986 |
The AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards: Billy Wilder | Host | — | 1986 | |
Macaroni | Robert Traven | — | 1985 | |
Mass Appeal | Father Tim Farley | — | 1984 | |
97% | Missing | Ed Horman | — | 1982 |
63% | Buddy Buddy | Victor Clooney | — | 1981 |
Tribute | Scottie Templeton | — | 1980 | |
The AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards: Jimmy Stewart | Actor | — | 1980 | |
84% | The China Syndrome | Jack Godell | — | 1979 |
The AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards: Henry Fonda | Actor | — | 1978 | |
33% | Airport '77 | Capt. Don Gallagher | — | 1977 |
Alex & The Gypsy | Alexander Main | — | 1976 | |
57% | The Prisoner of Second Avenue | Mel Edison | — | 1975 |
70% | The Front Page | Hildy Johnson | — | 1974 |
83% | Save the Tiger | Harry Stoner | — | 1973 |
The War Between Men and Women | Peter Edward Wilson | — | 1972 | |
88% | Avanti! | Wendell Armbruster, Jr. | — | 1972 |
75% | Kotch | Director Stranger on Bus | — | 1971 |
60% | The Out-of-Towners | George Kellerman | — | 1970 |
The April Fools | Howard Brubaker | — | 1969 | |
100% | The Odd Couple | Felix Unger | — | 1968 |
Luv | Harry Berlin | — | 1967 | |
96% | The Fortune Cookie | Harry Hinkle | — | 1966 |
74% | The Great Race | Prof. Fate | — | 1965 |
64% | How to Murder Your Wife | Stanley Ford | — | 1965 |
Good Neighbor Sam | Sam Bissell | — | 1964 | |
Under the Yum Yum Tree | Hogan | — | 1963 | |
79% | Irma La Douce | Nestor Patou / Lord X | — | 1963 |
100% | Days of Wine and Roses | Joe Clay | — | 1962 |
The Notorious Landlady | William Gridley | — | 1962 | |
The Wackiest Ship in the Army | Lt. Rip Crandall | — | 1960 | |
Pepe | Himself | — | 1960 | |
Voyage en ballon, Le (Stowaway in the Sky) | Narrator | — | 1960 | |
94% | The Apartment | C.C. Baxter | — | 1960 |
It Happened to Jane | George Denham | — | 1959 | |
95% | Some Like It Hot | Jerry/Daphne | — | 1959 |
71% | Bell, Book and Candle | Nicky Holroyd | — | 1958 |
100% | Cowboy | Frank Harris | — | 1958 |
Operation Mad Ball | Pvt. Hogan | — | 1957 | |
Fire Down Below | Tony | — | 1957 | |
You Can't Run Away From It | Peter Warne | — | 1956 | |
92% | Mister Roberts | Ens. Frank Thurlowe Pulver | — | 1955 |
Three for the Show (The Pleasure Is All Mine) | Martin 'Marty' Stewart | — | 1955 | |
My Sister Eileen | Bob Baker | — | 1955 | |
Phffft! | Robert Tracey | — | 1954 | |
100% | It Should Happen to You | Pete Sheppard | — | 1954 |
Studio One Anthology | Actor | — | 1948 |
TV
Rating |
Title |
Credit |
Year |
---|---|---|---|
American Masters
2001
|
|
||
85% |
The Simpsons
1989
|
Voice |
|
45% |
The Academy Awards
1978
|
|
|
The Living Century
2003
|
Host |
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QUOTES FROM Jack Lemmon CHARACTERS
- Nun
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We're doing a collection for unwed mothers.
- Harry Hinkle
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I'm all for that! Here.
- Jerry/Daphne
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We've been playing with the wrong bands.
- Felix Unger
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I suppose you never have to pee.
- Oscar Madison
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I do it for a half hour in the morning and then I'm good for the day.
- Sweet Sue
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Didn't you girls say you went to a conservatory?
- Jerry/Daphne
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Yes. For a whole year.
- Sweet Sue
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I thought you said three years.
- Joe/Josephine
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We got time off, for good behavior.
- Felix Unger
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We had so much together. We had two beautiful kids, a beautiful home. Whoever had more beautiful kids or a more beautiful home, eh?
- Oscar Madison
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Nobody. Nobody.
- Felix Unger
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It's 12 years of marriage down the drain.
- Oscar Madison
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Drains can be fixed. That's why we have plumbers.
- Gwen Kellerman
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I don't wanna complain, but my ankles are buckling.
- George Kellerman
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Clench your toes when you walk.
- George Kellerman
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I was going to take you to dinner at one of the best restaurants in the world. Here you are eating peanut butter on white bread with nothing to drink. If you ever get your mouth open again, I wouldn't blame you if you never talk to me.
- Gwen Kellerman
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Why didn't we just stop and explain?
- George Kellerman
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Explain? What I'm doing in the bushes with a little boy? With my hands in his pockets? They'd give me 10-20 years.
- Sweet Sue
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Didn't you girls say you went to a conservatory?
- Jerry/Daphne
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Yes. For a whole year.
- Sweet Sue
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I thought you said three years.
- Jerry/Daphne
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We got time off for good behavior.
- Joe/Josephine
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We got time off for good behavior.
- Prof. Fate
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She's his Achilles heel, she's our ace in the hole - she must not be left behind!
- Prof. Fate
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Sh-sh-sh-sh-shut up!
- Prof. Fate
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I'd like to see the great Leslie try that!
- Prof. Fate
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I am professor Fate!
- Prof. Fate
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[shouts] Maaaax!
- Prof. Fate
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Maaaax!
- Prof. Fate
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The eternal struggle takes time, Max.
- Prof. Fate
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Push the button, Max!
- Max
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Rise and shine, Professor.
- Prof. Fate
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You rise! You shine!
- C.C. Baxter
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We never close at Buddy-boys!
- C.C. Baxter
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It's not the Picasso I'm calling about, it's the key to my apartment. You're supposed to leave it under the mat.
- Mr. Joe Dobisch
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But I did didn't I? I distinctly remember bending over and putting it there.
- C.C. Baxter
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Oh, I found the key alright. Only it's the wrong key!
- Mr. Joe Dobisch
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It is? Well how about that. No wonder I couldn't get into the executive washroom this morning.
- C.C. Baxter
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And I couldn't get into my apartment!
- Fran Kubelik
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What's the matter?
- C.C. Baxter
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Eh. The mirror.. it's broken.
- C.C. Baxter
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Eh. The mirror. It's broken.
- Fran Kubelik
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Yes, I know. I like it that way. Makes me look the way I feel.
- Fran Kubelik
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[Regarding Mrs. Dreyfuss, Baxters neighbor] She doesn't seem to like you very much.
- Fran Kubelik
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She doesn't seem to like you very much.
- C.C. Baxter
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Oh, I don't mind. As a matter of fact I'm flattered. That anybody'd think a girl like you would do a thing like this over a guy like me.
- Fran Kubelik
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Why can't I ever fall in love with somebody nice like you?
- C.C. Baxter
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Yeah, well... That's the way it crumbles, cookiewise.
- C.C. Baxter
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Yeah, well, that's the way it crumbles, cookiewise.
- Prof. Fate
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What's next?
- Max
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Car number five, the engine falls out!
- Prof. Fate
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Car number five! Ha ha ha ha! [beat] Er, Max... *we're* number five.
- Prof. Fate
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[repeated line] [shouts] Maaaax!
- Prof. Fate
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The eternal struggle takes time, Max.
- Prof. Fate
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Leslie escaped?
- Gen. Kuhster
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With a small friar.
- Prof. Fate
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Leslie escaped with a chicken?
- Prof. Fate
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[repeated line] Push the button, Max!
- Sig Poliakoff
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You got to be under twenty five.
- Jerry/Daphne
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We could pass for that.
- Sig Poliakoff
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You got to be blonde.
- Jerry/Daphne
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We could dye our hair.
- Sig Poliakoff
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And you got to be girls.
- Jerry/Daphne
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We could-
- Joe/Josephine
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No we couldn't!
- C.C. Baxter
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Ya know, I used to live like Robinson Crusoe; I mean, shipwrecked among 8 million people. And then one day I saw a footprint in the sand, and there you were.
- Jerry/Daphne
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I'll Say!
- Jerry/Daphne
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I'll say!
- Juror 8
-
Prejudice always obscures the truth.
- Terry Kozlenko
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"Forgive me for taking your time, Mr. Wilson, all I can say is no man with a normal sex drive could draw a woman like that."
- Terry Kozlenko
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Forgive me for taking your time, Mr. Wilson, all I can say is no man with a normal sex drive could draw a woman like that.
- Peter Wilson
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"Sore loser!!"
- Peter Wilson
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Sore loser!
- C.C. Baxter
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"I love you Miss Kubelik... Did you hear what i said Miss Kubelik? I absolutely adore you"
- C.C. Baxter
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[playing cards] I love you, Miss Kubelik. Did you hear what I said, Miss Kubelik? I absolutely adore you.
- Fran Kubelik
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"Shut up and deal"
- Fran Kubelik
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Shut up and deal.
- Joe/Josephine
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Daphne?!
- Jerry/Daphne
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I never did like the name Geraldine.
- Jerry/Daphne
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Look at that! Look how she moves. That?s just like Jell-O on springs. She must have some sort of built-in motor. I tell you, it's a whole different sex!
- Ens. Frank Thurlowe Pulver
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Captain, it is I, Ensign Pulver, and I just threw your stinking palm tree overboard. Now, what's all this crud about no movie tonight?
- C.C. Baxter
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I love you Miss Kubelik.
- Fran Kubelik
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(Continues counting cards)
- C.C. Baxter
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Did you hear what I said? I absolutely adore you.
- Fran Kubelik
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Shut up and deal.