Actor Alan Arkin has died. He was 89

Alan Arkin, the versatile actor who made a career of disappearing into characters with turns that could be comic, chilling or charming, has died. He was 89.

His sons, Adam, Matthew and Anthony, announced the news in a joint statement. “Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature, both as an artist and a man,” they said. “A loving husband, father, grand and great-grandfather, he was adored and will be deeply missed.”

He had heart trouble and died Thursday at his home in San Marcos, California.

Michael Douglas has led tributes to fellow actor Alan Arkin as an “wonderful actor” who “left an indelible mark on our industry”.

Arkin won an Oscar for his role in Little Miss Sunshine, and he received Academy Award nominations for the 1966 American comedy film The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming, a 1968 American film adaptation of the 1940 novel The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter and Argo, a 2012 film about the rescue of six U.S. diplomats during the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis.

Alan Wolf Arkin was born in Brooklyn on March 26, 1934, the oldest of three kids. His parents were teachers, and he said they were communists. His dad took him to see foreign films at the Thalia in New York, and he “learned how to read by watching the subtitles,” he told Osborne.

Arkin often noted that by age 5, he had already determined that he was going to be an actor.

In 1945, he and his family moved to Los Angeles, and Arkin studied at L.A. City College and Cal State L.A. He then won a drama scholarship to Bennington College in Vermont as one of the few male students at that school.

Arkin played guitar, piano, fife, and vibraphone, and from 1957-59 he performed and toured throughout Europe with the folk-singing group The Tarriers, who had a hit “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song),” later made more famous by Harry Belafonte. Arkin and the group sang it and another song in the 1957 film Calypso Heat Wave.

During his long career, Arkin worked with directors such as Tim Burton in the fantasy romance Edward Scissorhands, Ben Affleck in the historical drama Argo and Mike Nichols in the satirical black comedy Catch-22.

John Cusack, who starred alongside Arkin in romantic comedy films Grosse Pointe Blank in 1997 and America’s Sweethearts in 2001, wrote on Twitter: “RIP to a true deserving honest to god legendary talent.”

Also a theatre and film director, a voice actor, and musician, through his group The Tarriers, Arkin had two hits – Cindy Oh Cindy and The Banana Boat Song – in the UK singles chart.

He was then a founding member of the Second City improvisational troupe, and continued to record music, including several children’s albums, with his group The Babysitters.

Arkin directed the original 1972 Broadway version of Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys, which earned him a Tony nod and run for hundreds of performances.

His children also starred in his directional debut People Soup, which was Oscar-nominated in 1969 as a short.

Arkin also starred in and directed the dark comedy Little Murders about a woman introducing her boyfriend to her family who live in a crime-filled neighborhood.

In the Netflix animated series BoJack Horseman, which began in 2014, he appeared as the voice of American writer JD Salinger.