Fear Strikes Out News

During the late 1950s and early 60s, Edd Byrnes was a bona fide TV star, receiving in excess of 15,000 fan letters a week.

During the late 1950s and early 60s, Edd Byrnes was a bona fide TV star, receiving in excess of 15,000 fan letters a week.

Published: Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 3:30 a.m. Last Modified: Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 12:01 a.m. Amid the apotheosis of Michael Jackson and the death of Farrah Fawcett, another Hollywood obituary was largely lost in the shuffle: Karl Malden, who died quietly July 1 at the age of 97.

In this 1956 photo released by Warner Bros., actor Karl Malden, left, and Carroll Baker are shown in a scene from "Baby Doll." Malden, a former steelworker who won an Oscar for his role as Mitch in the 1951 classic "A Streetcar Named Desire," died Wednesday, July 1, 2009.

If you didn't know already, Karl Malden's real name was Mladen Sekulovich. And whenever possible, he tried to work that name into his dialogue in various movies.

He was nobody's idea of an attractive man, but he didn't play a lot of heavies in his career.

Karl Malden , the acting great who worked the Waterfront with Marlon Brando and patrolled The Streets of San Francisco with Michael Douglas , died today at 97.

Karl Malden's film, television, Broadway credits include: Films: 'They Knew What They Wanted,' 1940.

Befitting his nice-guy status in real life, Karl Malden won an Oscar and was nominated for sympathetic roles in a pair of classics directed by Elia Kazan and headlined by Marlon Brando : A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront .

Karl Malden, the Academy Award-winning actor whose intelligent characterizations on stage and screen made him a star despite his plain looks, died Wednesday, his family said.