This is Fresh Air. I'm David B. and Cooley.

Alan Arkin, the Oscar-winning actor who appeared in such films as Wait Until Dark, Little

Miss Sunshine, and Argo, died last week at age 89.

One of his most famous starring roles was in the 1970 Mike Nichols movie version of Joseph

Heller's Catch 22. He played Yasserion, the World War II bombardier who wanted to stop

flying dangerous bomber missions. He cornered the company doctor on the airstrip as planes

took off loudly all around them and asked to be declared too crazy to fly. But the doctor,

played by Jack Gilford, explained why that wasn't so easy.

Alan Arkin played both comic and dramatic parts and came from a background that was equally

versatile. Before he began acting on stage, screen, and TV, he was a member of the folk

singing group The Terriers, who had a hit with the banana boat song in 1956, the same year

as Harry Belafonte. He was an early member of the Second City Comedy troupe in Chicago,

and won a Tony Award in 1961 for starring in the comedy Enter Laughing.

His movie debut was as one of the stars of the Russians are coming, the Russians are

coming, and his later films included him playing Sigmund Freud in the 7% solution and

playing opposite Peter Fock in the In-Lawse. On TV, he played a grieving husband in a recurring

role on St. Elsewhere, and at the end of his career was racking up Emmy nominations as

a supporting actor in the Netflix comedy series The Kaminsky Method. He won his Academy

Award for playing the foul-mouthed grandfather in the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine. The

family is crammed into a van for a road trip, and the grandfather, played by Arkin, starts

a conversation with the grandson seated silently next to him, while Arkin's son, played

by Greg Kanier, drives and objects.

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