Ranked as "one of Hollywood's most charismatic and dynamic stars", [ 1 ] he is closely associated with the art of method acting , embodying the characters he played, which at times led to clashes with directors and co-stars. Steiger was born in Westhampton, New York , the son of a vaudevillian. He had a difficult childhood, running away from home to escape an alcoholic mother at the age of After serving in the South Pacific during World War II, he began his acting career with television roles in , and went on to garner critical acclaim for his portrayal of the main character in the teleplay " Marty " He made his stage debut in , in a production of Curse you, Jack Dalton!
Steiger made his film debut in Fred Zinnemann 's Teresa in , and subsequently appeared in films such as The Big Knife , Oklahoma! After his performance in The Pawnbroker in , in which he played an embittered Jewish Holocaust survivor working as a pawnbroker in New York City, he portrayed an opportunistic Russian politician in David Lean 's Doctor Zhivago In the Heat of the Night won five Academy Awards , including Best Picture and Best Actor for Steiger, who was lauded for his performance as a Mississippi police chief who learns to respect an African-American officer Poitier as they search for a killer.
The following year, he played a serial killer of many guises in No Way to Treat a Lady. During the s, Steiger increasingly turned to European productions in his search for more demanding roles. By the s, heart problems and depression took their toll on Steiger's career, and he found it difficult to find employment, agreeing to appear in low-budget B movies.
One of his final roles was as judge H. Steiger was married five times, and had a daughter, opera singer Anna Steiger , and a son, Michael Steiger. He died of pneumonia and kidney failure as a result of complications from surgery for a gallbladder tumor in , aged 77, in Los Angeles. His fifth wife was Joan Benedict Steiger. He never knew his father, a vaudevillian who had been part of a travelling song-and-dance team with Steiger's mother, [ 5 ] but was told that he was a handsome Latino-looking man, who was a talented musician and dancer.
Biographer Tom Hutchinson describes him as a "shadowy, fugitive figure", one who "haunted" Rod throughout his life and was an "invisible presence and unseen influence". Hutchinson described Steiger's mother as "plump, energetic and small, with long auburn hair". They moved through several towns, including Irvington and Bloomfield , before settling in Newark, New Jersey.
