EXCHANGE Lifelong Learning presents Alan Arkin, The Man Behind the Scenes

Join the Boulder JCC’s Exchange Lifelong Learning Summer Lecture Series on Monday, July 22 for the final 90-minute lecture. Radio personality and Boulder International Film Festival’s esteemed interviewer, Ron Bostwick, will walk through Alan Arkin’s career and share personal stories of their friendship. 

Bostwick will take the lecture on a journey of Arkin’s prolific career, famous for his eccentric characters. From manic to insane, from insane to curmudgeonly, the audience always fell in love with his characters.

It is said that Arkin did not mind that he built his career playing a series of odd roles, and there were so many: Yossarian the airman who tries to become certified as insane from the 1970’s hit “Catch-22;” his Oscar-nominated performances as the befuddled Soviet submarine commander stranded in Nantucket in Norman Jewison’s 1966 Cold War comedy “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming;” and, for his poignant performance as the deaf and silent newcomer who befriends his landlady’s awkward teenage daughter in “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” from 1968, based on Carson McCullers’ novel.

Arkin finally won an Oscar at age 72 for his role as Grandpa Hoover in the indie hit “Little Miss Sunshine“ in 2006. He claimed to have the most in common with this character. Shortly before his passing, he was nominated for an Emmy and Golden Globe for his role in the Netflix comedy series “The Kominsky Method” as the agent to Michael Douglas’s acting coach

Arkin was a comedic performer who produced an extensive array of frustrated and excitable characters, but there was more to both the actor and the man. Bostwick will show film clips photos and memories from Alan Arkin’s career and their friendship. 

If you would like to attend, please register ahead of time on the Boulder JCC website, the class is $12, starting at 5:30 pm on Monday, July 22.