Karl Malden; won Oscar, Emmy

LOS ANGELES - Karl Malden, 97, the Academy Award-winning actor whose intelligent characterizations on stage and screen made him a star despite his plain looks, died yesterday, his family said.

Mr. Malden died of natural causes surrounded by his family at his Brentwood home, they told the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He served as the academy's president from 1989 to 1992.

While he tackled a variety of characters over the years, he was often seen in working-class garb or military uniform. His authenticity in grittier roles came naturally: He was the son of a Czech mother and a Serbian father, and worked for a time in the steel mills of Gary, Ind., after dropping out of college.

Mr. Malden said he got his celebrated bulbous nose when he broke it a couple of times playing basketball or football, joking that he was "the only actor in Hollywood whose nose qualifies him for handicapped parking."

Mr. Malden won a supporting-actor Oscar in 1951 for his role as Blanche DuBois' naive suitor Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire - a role he also played on Broadway.

He was nominated again as best supporting actor in 1954 for his role as Father Corrigan, a fearless, friend-of-the-workingman priest in On the Waterfront. In both movies, he costarred with Marlon Brando.

Among Mr. Malden's more than 50 film credits were: Patton, in which he played Gen. Omar Bradley, Pollyanna, Fear Strikes Out, The Sting II, Bombers B-52, Cheyenne Autumn, and All Fall Down.

One of his most controversial films was Baby Doll in 1956, in which he played a dullard husband whose child bride is exploited by a businessman. It was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency for what was termed its "carnal suggestiveness."

Mr. Malden gained perhaps his greatest fame as Lt. Mike Stone in the 1970s television show The Streets of San Francisco, in which Michael Douglas played the veteran detective's junior partner.

The Streets of San Francisco earned Mr. Malden five Emmy nominations.

"Karl 'The Mentor' Malden was a great actor, father and husband. I admired and loved him deeply," Douglas, who was in Europe, said through his publicist.

Also during the 1970s, Mr. Malden gained a lucrative 21-year sideline and a place in pop culture with his "Don't leave home without it" ads for American Express.

He won an Emmy for his role as a murder victim's father out to bring his former son-in-law to justice in the 1985 miniseries Fatal Vision.

Mr. Malden acted sparingly in recent years, appearing in 2000 in a small role on TV's The West Wing.

Mr. Malden gained prominence on Broadway in the late 1930s, making his debut in Golden Boy, by Clifford Odets. He steadily gained more prominent roles, with time out for service in the Army in World War II.

He was born Mladen Sekulovich in Chicago on March 22, 1912. Mr. Malden regretted that in order to become an actor he had to change his name.

He insisted that Fred Gwynne's character in On the Waterfront be named Sekulovich to honor his heritage.

The family moved to Gary when he was small. He quit his steel job in 1934 to study acting at Chicago's Goodman Theatre "because I wasn't getting anywhere in the mills," he recalled.

"When I told my father, he said: 'Are you crazy? You want to give up a good job in the middle of the Depression?' Thank God for my mother. She said to give it a try."

Mr. Malden and his wife, Mona, a fellow acting student at the Goodman, had one of Hollywood's longest marriages. They celebrated their 70th anniversary in December.

Besides his wife, Mr. Malden is survived by daughters Mila and Cara, his sons-in-law, three granddaughters, and four great grandchildren.