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After graduating in 1931, he spent three years working in a steel mill before deciding to enroll in the Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago.
At the school, he underwent strenuous training to rid himself of the remains of his Slavic accent. Malden also helped build scenery, took acting classes and appeared in plays.
The most important thing he learned, he later recalled, "was to enjoy working on a part."
After graduating from Goodman in 1937, he was too broke to pay $5 for his diploma. He worked briefly as a milkman in Gary, then headed for New York with $175 in savings.
In Manhattan, he met Harold Clurman and Elia Kazan of the Group Theater, a legendary repertory company, and debuted on Broadway in 1937 as a fight manager in a company production of Clifford Odet's "Golden Boy."
Kazan, who would play a prominent role in Malden's stage and film career, urged young Mladen Sekulovich to change his name. The actor devised his stage name by taking his maternal grandfather's first name and turning "Mladen" into "Malden."
He acted sporadically on radio and appeared in eight plays, but most ran for less than a month. There were long spells of unemployment, Malden recalled in his 1997 memoir, "When Do I Start?"
But there was an upside: In 1938, he married Mona Graham, an actress he had met when they were students at the Goodman School. They had two daughters, Carla and Mila, and remained together until Malden's death.
"I'm the happiest man in the world because of my family," Malden often said.
During World War II, he spent two years stateside in the Army Air Forces, mainly acting on Broadway in "Winged Victory," the Moss Hart show that raised millions for emergency relief. Malden also appeared in the 1944 film version.
Back in New York after the war, Malden's worries about restarting his stage career proved unfounded.
Kazan asked him to play a drunken sailor in Maxwell Anderson's "Truckline Cafe," which featured a young actor who mumbled during rehearsals: Marlon Brando.
In 1947, Malden broke through on stage playing the partner of a man (played by Ed Begley) who profits by making faulty parts for warplanes in the Arthur Miller drama "All My Sons," directed by Kazan.
Malden followed that up with an even greater stage success: his role as Blanche DuBois' awkward suitor in Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire," the Kazan-directed play that turned Brando into a Broadway star.
In his memoir, Malden said Brando "brought a reality to the stage that the theater had never witnessed before."
"Playing with Marlon consistently brought out the best in me," Malden wrote. "I guess, in the final analysis, it is impossible to beat genius, but it can be great fun to try to match it."
Malden played Mitch on stage for about two years, then reprised the role in the 1951 movie version, also directed by Kazan.
For his role as a tough waterfront priest in the 1954 Kazan film "On the Waterfront," Malden received a supporting actor Oscar nomination.
The character was based on Father John Corridan, whose church was near Hell's Kitchen on the Hudson River. Malden wore Corridan's hat and coat in the film and spent 11 days with the priest, who told him, "Just don't make me holier than thou; make me a human being."
A speech Corridan had delivered on the docks provided the core of the film in which Malden's waterfront priest encourages longshoremen to testify against union corruption.
At the school, he underwent strenuous training to rid himself of the remains of his Slavic accent. Malden also helped build scenery, took acting classes and appeared in plays.
The most important thing he learned, he later recalled, "was to enjoy working on a part."
After graduating from Goodman in 1937, he was too broke to pay $5 for his diploma. He worked briefly as a milkman in Gary, then headed for New York with $175 in savings.
In Manhattan, he met Harold Clurman and Elia Kazan of the Group Theater, a legendary repertory company, and debuted on Broadway in 1937 as a fight manager in a company production of Clifford Odet's "Golden Boy."
Kazan, who would play a prominent role in Malden's stage and film career, urged young Mladen Sekulovich to change his name. The actor devised his stage name by taking his maternal grandfather's first name and turning "Mladen" into "Malden."
He acted sporadically on radio and appeared in eight plays, but most ran for less than a month. There were long spells of unemployment, Malden recalled in his 1997 memoir, "When Do I Start?"
But there was an upside: In 1938, he married Mona Graham, an actress he had met when they were students at the Goodman School. They had two daughters, Carla and Mila, and remained together until Malden's death.
"I'm the happiest man in the world because of my family," Malden often said.
During World War II, he spent two years stateside in the Army Air Forces, mainly acting on Broadway in "Winged Victory," the Moss Hart show that raised millions for emergency relief. Malden also appeared in the 1944 film version.
Back in New York after the war, Malden's worries about restarting his stage career proved unfounded.
Kazan asked him to play a drunken sailor in Maxwell Anderson's "Truckline Cafe," which featured a young actor who mumbled during rehearsals: Marlon Brando.
In 1947, Malden broke through on stage playing the partner of a man (played by Ed Begley) who profits by making faulty parts for warplanes in the Arthur Miller drama "All My Sons," directed by Kazan.
Malden followed that up with an even greater stage success: his role as Blanche DuBois' awkward suitor in Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire," the Kazan-directed play that turned Brando into a Broadway star.
In his memoir, Malden said Brando "brought a reality to the stage that the theater had never witnessed before."
"Playing with Marlon consistently brought out the best in me," Malden wrote. "I guess, in the final analysis, it is impossible to beat genius, but it can be great fun to try to match it."
Malden played Mitch on stage for about two years, then reprised the role in the 1951 movie version, also directed by Kazan.
For his role as a tough waterfront priest in the 1954 Kazan film "On the Waterfront," Malden received a supporting actor Oscar nomination.
The character was based on Father John Corridan, whose church was near Hell's Kitchen on the Hudson River. Malden wore Corridan's hat and coat in the film and spent 11 days with the priest, who told him, "Just don't make me holier than thou; make me a human being."
A speech Corridan had delivered on the docks provided the core of the film in which Malden's waterfront priest encourages longshoremen to testify against union corruption.
