The Hollywood Collection - Jack Lemmon

JACK LEMMON America's Everyman

Raised is Boston as an only child, Jack Lemmon headed for New York to become an actor after graduating from Harvard University. A job playing piano to silent movies gave him the chance to study comics like Keaton and Chaplin. His first acting was on soap opera and live TV drama. His appearance in a Broadway revival of Room Service led to a co-starring role in his first movie. It Should Happen To You, in 1954. Lemmon's unmistakable intellect and boyish but average looks played against him becoming a romantic leading man. But his live TV and comedy training gave him the perfect timing, the precise emotional balance and the total believability that showed in films as diverse as Mister Roberts, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Days of Wine and Roses, and The Odd Couple. In his later films, Save the Tiger, The China Syndrome, and Glengarry Glenm Ross, Jack exposed some of the darker side of the American Way of Life. He made over 60 films and received numerous awards, including eight Academy Award nominations and two Oscars. Later in his career, he exposed the vulnerability and emotion of the later years as few had dared. He reveled in his ongoing screen partnerships with directors like Billy Wilder and stars like Walter Matthau. Hosted by Lemmon himself, this fascinating profile includes interviews with his son Chris, his life-long friend Billy Wilder, directors Garson Durning, Maureen Stapleton, and Kevin Spacey. Clips from Lemmon's major films and archival footage add to this portrait of one of the most illustrious and productive stars.