Tuesday 4 July 2000
By eBroadcast Staff and agencies.

Walter Matthau, actor of both the stage and screen, died Saturday morning of a heart attack. The respected actor was 79 years old.

Although winning an Academy Award in 1966 for his performance in The Fortune Cookie, it was his role in The Odd Couple that established him as a star. In 1965 he appeared in New York as messy sportswriter Oscar Madison in Neil Simon's play, a character he repeated in the 1968 film opposite Jack Lemmon. The couple both reprised their roles thirty years later in the 1998 film The Odd Couple 2.

Matthau was last seen in the film Hanging Up opposite Diane Keaton, Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow.