Jack Palance

Volodymyr Palahniuk (Ukrainian: Володимир Палагнюк; February 18, 1919 – November 10, 2006), known professionally as Jack Palance, was an American film actor. During half a century of film and television appearances he was nominated for three Academy Awards, all as Best Actor in a Supporting Role, winning in 1991 for his role in City Slickers. He was also best known as Gotham City crime boss Carl Grissom in Tim Burton's 1989 film Batman.

Palance was married to his first wife, Virginia Baker, from 1949 to 1968. They had three children: Holly (born in 1950), an actress, Brooke (born in 1952) and Cody (1955–1998).

Daughter Brooke married Michael Wilding, son of Michael Wilding Sr. (1912–1979) and Elizabeth Taylor; they have three children as well.

An actor himself, Cody Palance appeared alongside his father in the film Young Guns, and he died from malignant melanoma at age 42 on July 16, 1998. Palance had hosted The Cody Palance Memorial Golf Classic to raise awareness and funds for a cancer center in Los Angeles. Besides being an actor, Cody Palance was a musician who performed live with his band.

In May 1987, Palance married Elaine Rogers. On New Year's Day 2003, his first wife Virginia Baker (July 7, 1922 - January 1, 2003) was struck by a car and killed in Los Angeles.

Palance painted and sold landscape art, with a poem included on the back of each picture. He is also the author of The Forest of Love, a book of poems, published in 1996 by Summerhouse Press.

True to his roots, Palance acknowledged a life-long attachment to his Pennsylvania heritage and visited there when able. Shortly before his death, he had placed his Butler Township, Pennsylvania, Holly-Brooke farm up for sale and his personal art collection up for auction.

On November 10, 2006, Palance died of natural causes at age 87 at his daughter Holly's home in Montecito in Santa Barbara County. His remains were cremated, his ashes retained by family and friends. Jack Palance lived for a number of years around Tehachapi, near Bakersfield, in southern California.

Palance has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6608 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1992, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.