Rod Steiger had a long career as an actor starting with his Oscar nominated performance in the film On The Waterfront, but who went on to feature in musicals, westerns and drama's. He had a difficult childhood and joined the navy during world war 2 and after discharge took acting lessons at the Actor's Studio and took on the idea of method acting through his career. Much of his work in the early 1950's was on television, mostly live television. His first film role was in Teresa. He was Oscar nominated for his next film, On The Waterfront, a very successful film with Marlon Brando. This was followed by the musical Oklahoma! a very different type of role. His version of Al Capone took away the glamour from from the character. This was one of several historical characters that he played during his career. After making a few films in Europe he returned to Hollywood for the Pawnbroker which won him a Best Actor Oscar nomination. He said it was his best performance as he plays a holocaust survivor. He followed this with David Lean's epic version of Doctor Zhivago. In The Heat Of The Night is the film that he is probably best known for and the performance which won him a Best Actor Oscar. He played Napoleon Bonaparte in Waterloo. After this he worked in Europe for a number of years during which time his most notable film is in Sergio Leone's Fistful Of Dynamite. He played another historical character, Benito Mussolini, in The Lion of the Desert. In the 1980's he had health problems and appeared in various films though of no great note. The Specialist was the last of his good films.
