No. 1 at No. 2 roles, actor Karl Malden dies at 97

Karl Malden, the Academy Award-winning character actor who for more than 60 years brought an intelligent intensity and a homespun authenticity to roles in theater, film and television, from "A Streetcar Named Desire" to "The Streets of San Francisco," died on Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 97.

His family announced his death to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which Mr. Malden served as president from 1989 to 1992. The announcement said family members were present when he died of natural causes in his home in the Brentwood neighborhood.

Mr. Malden was perhaps the ideal Everyman. He realized early on that he lacked the physical attributes of a leading man; he often joked about his blunt features, particularly his crooked, bulbous nose, which he had broken several times while playing basketball in school. But he was, he once said, determined "to be No. 1 in the No. 2 parts I was destined to get."

He wound up playing everything from a whiskey-swigging cowboy to a prison warden, from an Army drill sergeant to the combative priest opposite Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront."

On Broadway he appeared with Brando in a legendary production of Tennessee Williams' "Streetcar Named Desire," then repeated the role in a film version that brought him an Oscar for supporting actor.

On film he won memorable parts in a host of other major productions, including "Fear Strikes Out" and "Patton," in which he played Gen. Omar Bradley.

On television, too, Mr. Malden found wide popularity — as the gruff Lt. Mike Stone in "The Streets of San Francisco" and as a long-running pitchman for American Express travelers' checks in the 1970s. His signature line, "Don't leave home without them" — delivered as he peered intently from under the brim of his "San Francisco" fedora — became a national catch phrase.

He was born Mladen Sekulovich in Chicago on March 22, 1912, the son of a Serbian immigrant who worked in a steel mill and later delivered milk. As a young man, he helped his father deliver milk and spent three years working in a steel mill before studying acting in Chicago and leaving to pursue a career in New York.

Mr. Malden served in the Army in World War II, and became friends with Brando after heading back to work on the stage. Little more than a year later, they and Kazan collaborated on "Streetcar."