Today on another encore edition of the Rarified Heir Podcast we are talking to Charlie Matthau, son of actor Walter Matthau. We spoke to Charlie about his amazing father & their special relationship but also his incredible mother, actor/author Carol Matthau. We quickly learn that she was (wait for it), the basis for Truman Capote’s Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. There is one small difference between the character and the person however and we discuss that too. We also discuss Carol’s first husband, author William Saroyan and Charlie’s grandfather Charles Marcus of Bendix Aviation – which are both bigger-than-life stories unto themselves.
Somehow we were able to parse all this out and discuss what it was like growing up the son of one of the most beloved actors of his generation. Be it comedy or drama, we get into Walter Matthau’s career on stage & film as well as the weird and wonderful curios of his career. An uncredited cameo in Earthquake? We discuss it. His viewing habits of the television version of The Odd Couple? We discuss that too.
Along the way we discuss the Malibu beach house Charlie inhabited when host Josh Mills & family along with Walter’s best pal Jack Lemmon took to Broad Beach road in the 1970s. Plus, we get to hear about Walter’s penchant for card tricks, Christmas’ spent at the Lemmon’s house as well as what it was like for Charlie to direct his father in a film, The Glass Harp. Along the way we discuss Gloria Vanderbilt and Oona O’Neill, Howard Hughes, the unsung film Mikey and Nicky his mom starred in and much more. This is the Rarified Heir Podcast and everyone has a story.
This was terrific! I went to school with Charlie and we were friends for a number of years — he came to my Bar Mitzvah — but unfortunately we eventually lost touch. Charlie made me laugh more than any other three people I’ve ever known. I got to know his parents a little as well, and his father was always nice to me (even if he wasn’t so nice to Barbra Streisand!). Please tell him I said hello and I wish him the best of everything always.