Jack Lemmon's Best

[Mack Ten]

I love China Syndrome, which I voted for, but also LOVE Missing...

[Damien]

I had a hard time choosing among his performances in The Apartment, Days Of WIne And Roses and Missing, but went with Wine and Roses because of a) the astonishing scene when he wakes up in a padded cell in a strait-jacket and b) because it's the film in which he most effectively undercuts his nice guy "everyman" persona -- the film is just a few steps off from being a Blake Edwards comedy about a Kennedy-era swinger -- and the result is devastating.

Lemmon was a mannered actor at times, and his indulgent work in the likes of Save The Tiger and The Prisoner Of Second Avenue is hard to sit through. But when he was on his game, he was wonderful. Good Neighbor Sam was a particular favorite of mine when I was 9 years old.

[criddic3]

This is an actor who was never bad on film. At least not in anything I ever saw him in.

I voted for Days of Wine and Roses, although nearly any of these could be argued for. And Mass Appeal is, I agree, a very good movie.

[Big Magilla]

Although The Apartment was his best film, his most accomplished performance was as the go-along parish priest who has his consciousness raised by a young semimarian in the criminally neglected Mass Appeal. He was also at the peak of his acting prowess in The China Syndrome and Glengarry Glen Ross and at his worst in maudlin stuff like Save the Tiger and Tribute.

The reason he won the Oscar for Save the Tiger was for his perseverance in getting the film shown. He toured college campuses with it before Paramount would give it a national release. That impressed voters more than the film or hsisperformance which does not measure up to the likes of Pacino in Serpico, Nicholson in The Last Detail or Robert Ryan in The Iceman Cometh.

He was also excellent in his final starring role in the made-for-TV film, Tuesdays with Morrie, for which he won his only Emmy, but I find it difficult to watch him in the film that foreshadows his own death from cancer not long after.

[Reza]

I voted for Some Like It Hot, although I like him in The Apartment almost as much. I think he was also great in dramatic films. The China Syndrome and Missing being two of my favorites.

[Aceisgreat]

Grouchy and ill-tempered. Totally luckless. The poor bastard. Bumbling. Uptight. The victim. Jack Lemmon had a fierce talent for playing characters who were all of the above, but still somehow considerably likable (and sometimes even downright lovable). An oddity, maybe, but then again, the actor was born in an elevator.

Harvard-educated and a Naval Reserve communications officer during World War II, he struck oil only a year after his film debut. Opposite Henry Fonda (who recreated the stage role he won a Tony for) and James Cagney (suitably over-the-top), Lemmon's portrayal of goofy Ensign Frank Pulver in the war drama/comedy "Mister Roberts" (which is indeed often hilarious) earned him the 1955 Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

Audiences in 1959 were treated with some pillow talk, an exciting chariot race, a villainous Katharine Hepburn, and the sight of two people dangling from Mount Rushmore. But perhaps most memorable of them all was Jack and co-star Tony Curtis donning makeup, heels, and women's clothing to hide from gangsters in Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot." As "Josephine," Curtis gets tips on how to romance top-billed Marilyn Monroe. And as "Daphne," Lemmon is vigorously pursued by a rich, old mama's boy (Joe E. Brown). Lemmon received his first Best Actor Oscar nomination (losing to Charlton Heston), he and Marilyn won Golden Globes, and poor Tony Curtis (who I always thought was the most impressive of the three leads) got zilch.
Jack reunited with Wilder the following year for "The Apartment," the Best Picture Oscar winner of 1960. In the role of C.C. "Bud" Baxter ("C" for Calvin, "C" for Clifford), an accountant who "lends" his residence to two-timing bosses and their bimbos ("la la lalala la"), Lemmon earned another Oscar nod (he lost to Burt Lancaster). A fragile elevator girl (Shirley MacLaine), a bottle of sleeping pills, the "big boss," a landlady, a doctor, and one angry brother-in-law further added to the magic.

Lemmon acknowledged he once had a major drinking problem. One has to wonder how much of his performance as drunkard Joe Clay in Blake Edwards' "Days Of Wine and Roses" (1962) is truly acting. Best Actor Oscar nomination number three would come his way (he lost to Gregory Peck) while a Best Actress nomination would be very well-earned by co-star Lee Remick.
1963's "Irma la Douce" was another pairing between Jack and Billy Wilder (with Shirley MacLaine tagging along in the title role). After 1965's "How To Murder Your Wife" and "The Great Race" (another get-together with Blake Edwards), he joined with Wilder yet again for "The Fortune Cookie" (1966). But more noteworthy is the birth of his film partnership with Walter Matthau who suffered a heart attack during the making of the film, but went on to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. The Matthau/Lemmon combination would continue over the years with "The Odd Couple" (1968), "Grumpy Old Men" (1993), "Grumpier Old Men" (1995), "The Glass Harp" (1995), "Out To Sea" (1997), and "The Odd Couple II" (1998). They'd also make appearances in different scenes in Oliver Stone's "JFK" (1991) and Jack would direct Walter to an Oscar nod in 1971's "Kotch."

For director Arthur Hill and screenwriter Neil Simon, Lemmon would co-star opposite fellow supporting Oscar winner Sandy Dennis in "The Out-of-Towners" (1970). A disappointing remake (to say the least), featuring Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn, and John Cleese (in drag!), would pop up nearly thirty years later.
Beating out Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert Redford, and that "other" Jack, Lemmon would win the Best Actor Oscar for 1973's "Save The Tiger." Three final Oscar nominations would follow: a Best Actor nod for 1979's "The China Syndrome" (Dustin Hoffman would finally win that year), a Best Actor nod for 1980's "Tribute" (he reunited with Lee Remick and co-wrote some of the music; he lost the award to the unstoppable force of Robert De Niro), and a Best Actor nod for 1982's "Missing" (Ben Kinsley won for "Gandhi").

Jack took a whack at James Tyrone in a 1987 televised version of "Long Day's Journey Into Night." In 1992, he teamed-up with an impressive cast, including Al Pacino, Alan Arkin, Alec Baldwin, and some brass balls, for the film adaptation of David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross." As a down-on-his-luck real estate salesman, Lemmon continued in his practice of portraying seemingly cursed characters.
In 1993 and 1996 respectively, he made appearances in Robert Altman's "Short Cuts" and Kenneth Branagh's colossal (and I do mean colossal) version of "Hamlet."

In the last years of his life, Jack would star in three made-for-television movies. In the first, 1997's "12 Angry Men," he took the role made famous by his "Mister Roberts" co-star Henry Fonda (Juror #8). For the second, 1999's "Inherit The Wind," he won a Golden Globe. And for the third, 1999's "Tuesdays With Morrie," he won his only Emmy after five nominations.

Jack Lemmon's last film was an uncredited role as narrator of Robert Redford's "The Legend of Bagger Vance" in 2000. He passed away in June of 2001, ironically, nearly one year to the day after the death of Walter Matthau.

I vote for "The Apartment."