‘The Little Miss Sunshine’ Oscar Winner Was 89

Veteran actor Alan Arkin, who reached a career zenith with his Academy Award-winning performance in dark comedy Little Miss Sunshine in 2007, died in California on Thursday, June 29. He was 89.

“Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature, both as an artist and a man. A loving husband, father, grand and great grandfather, he was adored and will be deeply missed,” said the family in a statement.

More recently was Arkin’s two-time Emmy nominated performance in the Netflix comedy The Kominsky Method opposite Michael Douglas from 2019-2021.

Born March 26, 1934 in Brooklyn New York, Alan Arkin’s career spanned eight decades, with additional accolades that included a Golden Globe Award (The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming in 1967), a Tony Award (Enter Laughing in 1963), two Screen Actor Awards, and a British Academy Award.

Equally adept at both comedy and drama, Arkin’s film resume included The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1969), Popi (1969), Freebie and the Bean (1974), Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins (1975), The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), The In-Laws (1979), Simon (1980), Glengarry Glen Ross (1990), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Mother Night (1996) and Argo (2000).

He received six Emmy Award nominations for his work in television, including noms for an episode of the anthology series ABC Stage 67 (1967), miniseries Escape From Sobibor (1987), an episode of the medical drama Chicago Hope (1997), and tv movie The Pentagon Papers (2003). He also headlined the medical drama Harry, which briefly aired in 1987.

Arkin was also a writer, a director, and an accomplished singer. In the mid-1950s, he formed the folk group The Tarriers, where he sang and played guitar. From 1958 to 1968, he performed and recorded with the children’s folk group The Baby Sitters. And his voice was featured in the 1985 album Contemporary Broadway Revisited.

Arkin is survived by his third wife Suzanne Newlander, whom he married in 1996, and three children: sons Adam Arkin and Matthew Arkin, whom he shared with first wife Jeremy Yaffe, and Anthony Dana Arkin, whom he shared with second wife Dana.