BEST ROD STEIGER MOVIES
“On the Waterfront” (1954) In an Oscarwinning drama loaded with great performances, Steiger made a big impression as the deal-making brother of rebellious dockworker Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando).
“The Big Knife” (1955) Director Robert Aldrich’s version of Clifford Odets’ play casts Steiger as a movie-studio chief who may have a big part in the future of a troubled actor (Jack Palance).
“Oklahoma!” (1955) Though Steiger wasn’t a singer, he had an important role in this Rodgers and Hammerstein musical as brutish Jud Fry.
“The Harder They Fall” (1956) Humphrey Bogart’s last film features him as an ex-sportswriter who goes to work for a boxing promoter (Steiger).
“Cry Terror!” (1958) Steiger is properly intense as the leader of a gang trying to extort a sizable ransom from a man (James Mason) whose family is held captive.
“Al Capone” (1959) Steiger made a big leap toward his own stardom with his appropriately showy portrayal of the legendary mobster.
“Convicts 4” (1962) This fact-inspired prison drama puts Steiger on the wrong side of the law yet again, though Ben Gazzara has the central role.
“The Longest Day” (1962) Steiger was just one of the many international “name” stars in producer Darryl F. Zanuck’s elaborate re-creation of D-Day.
“The Pawnbroker” (1964) Superb in the title role, Steiger plays a man whose deeply haunting past affects his minimalist behavior in the present in this Sidney Lumet-directed masterpiece. Turner Classic Movies shows it on Sunday, Sept. 25.
“Doctor Zhivago” (1965) An excellent Steiger plays Komarovsky, an influential Russian with a special and strong interest in heroine Lara (Julie Christie), in the David Lean-directed epic based on the Boris Pasternak novel.
“In the Heat of the Night” (1967) A bestactor Oscar came Steiger’s way for his searing performance as a bigoted small-town police chief forced to work with a Black metropolitan detective (Sidney Poitier) on a murder case.
“No Way to Treat a Lady” (1968) An unsettling and superb Steiger plays a serial killer who adopts a variety of identities in committing his crimes.
“The Illustrated Man” (1969) As the title suggests, Steiger spent a good amount of this Ray Bradbury-story adaptation wearing very little in the title role of a man whose body drawings tell stories.
“Duck, You Sucker!” (1971) Also known as “A Fistful of Dynamite,” this Western from director and co-writer Sergio Leone (“A Fistful of Dollars”) casts Steiger as an outlaw who becomes caught up in the Mexican Revolution.
“F.I.S.T.” (1978) Director Norman Jewison’s drama features Steiger as a senator investigating a labor-union leader (Sylvester Stallone). “The Amityville Horror” (1979) In one of his last prominent movie roles, Steiger plays a priest trying to rid a famously haunted house of its curse.
“The Chosen” (1981) In an adaptation of Chaim Potok’s bestseller, Steiger is typically solid as a man who has concerns about his son’s (Robby Benson) new friendship.