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Neil Simon notwithstanding, Walter Matthau employed Matthau Method Acting in defining the nuances of the three character portraits he puts on display in Plaza Suite: he developed his own miniature biographies for them. In a benign, Lower East Side growl that reaches the ear about midway between W.C. Fields and a gramophone winding down, Matthau says: "That first guy now, he had a Jewish father and an Italian mother, grew up poor and got rich in the garment business. The second guy is half Jewish and half German, grew up in Tenafly, N.J. The third guy, he was raised over on Tenth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen. Worked on the docks, eventually got a good job in the union and saved a lot of money for his daughter's wedding. He's Irish, German and Swedish."
Matthau will settle for the life he has made for himself. Twenty-five years ago he was a 50¢-a-night extra in Yiddish theater; at age 50, he now commands $500,000 a picture and 10% of the gross. There is little doubt among those who have worked with him that he is worth the price. Says Jack Lemmon, who has twice co-starred with Matthau and just finished directing him in a new film, Kotch: "He's the best actor I've ever worked with." The trade papers have declared him one of the ten top box office stars. "I'm Number 10," Matthau announces with a mixture of ego and irony. "Right under Barbra Streisand. Can you imagine being under Barbra Streisand? Get me a bag, I may throw up."
The Plutonium. He is about as likely a candidate for superstardom as the neighborhood delicatessen man. He walks with a combination of soft shoe and shamble, and his shifting, slouching posture makes him look like a question mark with an identity crisis. The clothes, though subdued and expensive, lose the contest to the walk and the slouch: he seems the part he played—Oscar, the dilapidated sportswriter in The Odd Couple. "Every actor looks all his life for a part that will combine his talents with his personality," Matthau says. "The Odd Couple was mine. That was the plutonium I needed. It all started happening after that."
It almost stopped not long afterward. Matthau went from Broadway to a role in Billy Wilder's The Fortune Cookie and from there into a massive heart attack at the age of 45. He was out of action for almost half a year, but returned to finish the picture. He won an Oscar for it: "They wanted to give me something for all my long years of achievement before I died."