He has a hearing aid for a deaf left ear, a painful lump on his right kneecap diagnosed as Osgood-Schlatter's disease, a hiatal hernia and a limp—the result of a World War II shrapnel wound. He also has a history of alcoholism, and after his first marriage failed, he suffered a nervous breakdown.
Looking at Art Carney's mournful Popeye face is to encounter the resignation of an aging bullfighter contemplating his last fight. Only this time Art has won both ears and the tail. He was the surprise winner of an Oscar for his gentle, ruminative portrayal of a 72-year-old Odysseus adrift with his orange cat in Harry and Tonto.
Thurberesque Comedy. In true Hollywood fashion, Carney's award is belated justice. In 1965 it was Carney who made immortal the finicky Felix in Neil Simon's The Odd Couple on Broadway only to be elbowed out of the movie by more bankable Jack Lemmon. If anyone doubted the injustice, two nights after the Oscars, ABC aired a Jules Feiffer sketch of Carney giving a performance of Thurberesque comedy as a harried househusband, a timid man all but overcome by familial concupiscence.
Carney, 56, is as astonished as everyone else by the award. "It was the greatest moment of my life," he acknowledges. Harry was his first leading role in a feature movie—and of course he was nobody's first choice. It was written for another Irishman, James Cagney, who turned it down. Twentieth Century-Fox then suggested Laurence Olivier, even Frank Sinatra, before Director Paul Mazursky called on Art. Even Carney was not sure he wanted it. "I liked Josh Greenfeld's script, but face it, I felt insecure playing a 72-year-old man." But his wife Barbara thought he would be crazy not to take it. So did his agent Bill McCaffrey, who said: "Do it. You are old."
Art did not even have trouble with his costar. "Until the picture, I never liked cats. But Tonto is a helluva cat. He had two stand-ins—cats that looked exactly like him—in case he got sick or was hit by a car. But old Tonto was a real trouper, never used a stand-in once. In the last scene, where he's dying, I just looked at him lying there in his cage and I was really sad and shaken." Tonto amiably accepted Art's conversation, modeled on his uncle's chats with his dog. "I never thought it strange," explains Carney. "It was natural for someone living alone. My uncle would get up from his chair, walk into the next room, and share a thought with his dog."
Each Carney performance is full of such remembered observations. One of six sons of a newspaperman, Art grew up in a New York City suburb, perfecting a talent for mimicry. His first gig was imitating F.D.R. in comedy bits for the Horace Heidt band. "It was pure dynamite," he recalls. His skill won him a job in radio. "Acting on the radio gave me my first experience in a lot of different character parts. It was the only training I ever had." After war service and bit parts on television, Carney was picked to play Jackie Gleason's sidekick in All in the Family's predecessor, "The Honeymooners" skits on Gleason's comedy show.