Happy Birthday, Jack Palance (1919-2006)

Jack Palance was born Volodymir Ivanovich Palahniuk to Ukranian American parents in the Pennsylvania coal country. His father, a miner, died of black lung disease. He was a professional heavyweight boxer in the early 1940s. Fighting under the name Jack Brazzo

After decorated WWII service with the Army Air Force as a bomber pilot, he resumed college studies as a journalist at Stanford University and became a sportswriter for the San Francisco Chronicle. He also worked for a radio station before taking up acting.

Shane (1953)

Palance's stand out performance as sadistic gunslinger Jack Wilson in Shane (1953) made him Hollywood's top choice for nefarious villain roles.

In Sudden Fear (1952) he played rich-and-famous playwright Joan Crawford's struggling actor husband who plots to murder her for her money and run off with gorgeous Gloria Grahame. His intensity and menace runs away with the film.

His Film-Noir credits include House of Numbers (1957), I Died a Thousand Times (1955), The Big Knife (1955) , Second Chance (1953), Sudden Fear (1952), and Panic in the Streets (1950).

House of Numbers (1957)

House of Numbers (1957) with Barbara Lang


House of Numbers (1957) with Barbara Lang

House of Numbers (1957) with Barbara Lang and Harold J. Stone

Panic in the Streets (1950)


Panic in the Streets (1950)

Mépris, Le (1963) (aka Contempt) with Brigitte Bardot


with Constance Smith in Man in the Attic (1953)







Attack (1956)




The Big Knife (1955)


with Ida Lupino in The Big Knife (1955)


with Ida Lupino and Jean Hagen in The Big Knife (1955)


with Ida Lupino in The Big Knife (1955)


The Man Inside (1958)


with Anita Ekberg in The Man Inside (1958)



Dracula (1973) (TV)





I Died a Thousand Times (1955) with Shelley Winters


I Died a Thousand Times (1955) with Shelley Winters


Legione dei dannati, La (1969) (aka Battle of the Commandos) with Tom Hunter


City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994) with Billy Crystal

Known for his deep, rumbling, authoritative voice, his intense manner and his prominent eyebrows, Palance could be a remarkable scary character onscreen, but in reality he was a gentle person with a creative side. He was a exhibited painter and published poet.