Jack was married twice and had three children.
Here's information about his marriages and thoughts about love.
Vladimir Ivanovich Palahniuk aka Walter Jack Palance: February 18, 1919 in Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania (outside Hazleton).
Some resources list Jack's birthdates as 1918 and 1920. Jack's family is the source for the 1919 date.
Variations of Jack's name: Walter Jack Palahnuik, Voladimir, Volodymyr Palanyuk, Palaniuk, Palanuik
Jack Palance: November 10, 2006 at home in Montecito, California.
Jack died at age 87 from natural causes. His family was with him when he died.
A December 16, 2006 memorial service has been scheduled.
Jack was married twice:
- Virginia Baker: Born c.1922. Some sources state that Virginia and Jack met when they were students at Stanford University. Others note the couple met when they were both understudies on a national tour of A Streetcar Named Desire
.
- Virginia and Jack married on April 21, 1949 in New York City. The couple had three children.
- Virginia separated from Jack on August 21, 1957 and filed for separate maintenance accusing Jack "of committing adultery and drinking to excess" and that "Palance beat his wife ... on numerous occasions during the past three years."
Source: Hammond Times, 8/25/1957.
- Jack and Virginia apparently reconciled, as she and the children lived in a home outside of Paris in early 1958 while she and Jack worked on the movie The Extra Edge. They also lived in Lausanne, Switzerland while he made movies in Europe.
Source: Albuquerque Journal, 1/10/1958.
Virginia and Jack separated again on September 10, 1966. Newspaper archives show their divorce as being finalized in June 1968.
Source: Fresno Bee Republican, 6/6/1968.
Virginia has worked as an actress, producer, model, cook, and activist with Greenpeace.
- Elaine Rochelle Rogers: Jack and Elaine met in 1978 and married on May 6, 1987.
Although some articles about Jack have Elaine as his wife, others (A&E, New York Times), and an interview in the April 30, 1995 Los Angeles Times mention Elaine as Jack's former wife.
Jack has three children and three grandchildren:
- Brooke Gabrielle Palance: Born on February 9, 1952. Her mother is Virginia Baker. An actress, Brooke married actor Michael Wilding Jr. They have one child, Tarquin Wilding.
- Holly Kathleen Palance: Born on August 5, 1950 in Los Angeles, California. Her mother is Virginia Baker. An actress, she was married to director Roger Spottiswoode. Holly and Roger have two children, Lily Spottiswoode and Spencer Spottiswoode. Roger and Holly divorced in 1997.
- Cody John Palance: Born December 1955. His mother is Virginia Baker. An actor and singer, Cody also worked full time on Jack's ranch.
Cody died from a melanoma at the age of 43 in Tijuana, Mexico on July 15, 1998.
Jack Palance: Jack was an academy award winning actor, director, and author. Using the name Jack Brazzo, in the early 1940s Jack was a professional heavyweight boxer. He was wounded serving in the U.S. Army Air Force as a bomber pilot in World War II.
He reportedly worked a variety of jobs during his early years including work as a coal miner, waiter, cook, model, radio repairman, reporter, lifeguard, cattle rancher, hot dog seller, and soda jerk.
In his later years he painted landscape art and wrote poetry. Jack also loved music.
Residences:
- Montecito, California.
- Holly-Brooke bean farm in Drums which is in northeastern Pennsylvania near Hazleton. The farm house dated back to the 1850s.
Much of the farm's collectibles, books, clocks, art works, vintage cars, saddles and more were auctioned off on October 12-14, 2006.
Auction Site -- The Jack Palance Collection - Large cattle and horse ranch in Tehachapi mountains in California. The ranch is named Land of Big Acorn because it has thousands of oak trees.
Quotes:
Interview showing Jack's humor -- Press Agent in 1956 interview: "Jack's a mystery man in Hollywood. He and his wife, Virginia Baker, eat in dark spots. They live quietly, no scandal. He won't permit photographers to photograph his children or the interior of his home."Mr. Palance: "With good reason. The place is a shambles."
Source: Winnipeg Free Press, 9/11/1956.
Jack about Virginia: "I admire and respect her very much. She was really a great up-and-coming actress when we got married and she retired to care for me and eventually raise our family ... an exciting person, one whom I respect more than any other woman in the world for what she has done for our children ... Unfortunately, the long separations that my career imposed were too heavy a burden for our marriage."
Source: The Gleaner, July 16, 1970.
Jack about his book's subject matter: "It's a story in blank verse about a man, a woman, and a forest. It's a love story. What other kind of stories are there to tell?"
Source: Calgary Sun, interview with Louis B. Hobson, 7/4/1997.
Jack about love on "Reflections," a Radio America interview show: "Everybody has this vision of a love story that was meant for you. I think it would be marvelous if everyone had a love experience that is something that you build your life around. That doesn't happen too often, and that's terribly unfortunate because there is nothing more important, obviously, than love. The world is filled with all kinds of love no matter what it is. You sit and talk into a microphone, and perhaps you love the job you're doing. But it's all love. It's all that . . . feeling that comes out of one heart, one being."
Source: Phil McCombs. The Washington Post, Apr 25, 1997. pg. G.05.
