Editing Jack Lemmon (section)

=== 1970–1989: Established actor ===
[[File:Chaplin oscar.JPG|thumb|right|[[Charlie Chaplin]] (right) receiving an [[Honorary Academy Award]] from Lemmon at the [[44th Academy Awards]] in 1972]]
The much-admired comedy ''[[Kotch]]'' (1971), the only film Lemmon directed,<ref name="Baxter" /> starred Matthau, who was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. ''[[The Out-of-Towners (1970 film)|The Out-of-Towners]]'' (1970) was another Neil Simon-scripted film in which Lemmon appeared. In 1972, at the [[44th Academy Awards]], Jack Lemmon presented the Honorary Academy Award to silent screen legend [[Charlie Chaplin]]. Lemmon starred with [[Juliet Mills]] in ''[[Avanti!]]'' (1972) and appeared with Matthau in ''The Front Page'' (1974). Both films were directed by Wilder. He felt Lemmon had a natural tendency toward overacting that had to be tempered; Wilder's biography ''Nobody's Perfect'' quotes the director as saying, "Lemmon, I would describe him as a ham, a fine ham, and with ham you have to trim a little fat." Wilder, though, also once said: "Happiness is working with Jack Lemmon".<ref name="LdnTimes2001" /> Lemmon in ''[[Save the Tiger]]'' (1973) plays Harry Stoner, a businessman in the garment trade who finds someone to commit arson by burning down his warehouse to avoid bankruptcy.<ref name="Harmetz" /><ref name="Baxter" /> The project was rejected by multiple studios, but [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] was prepared to make the film if it were<!-- subjunctive --> budgeted for only $1&nbsp;million. Lemmon was so keen to play the part that he worked for union scale, then $165 a week.<ref name="NYTAP2001" /> The role was demanding; like the character, Lemmon came close to breaking point: "I started to crack as the character did," he recalled. "I just kept getting deeper and deeper into the character's despair."<ref name="Krikorian" /> For this film, Lemmon won the Best Actor Oscar. Having won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for ''Mister Roberts'', he became the first actor to achieve that particular double, although [[Helen Hayes]] had achieved this feat three years earlier in the equivalent female categories.<ref name="Harmetz" />
[[File:Jack Lemmon 2002.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Lemmon at the [[John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts|Kennedy Center]]]]
Lemmon was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his role in ''[[The China Syndrome]]'' (1979), for which he was also awarded [[Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]] at the [[Cannes Film Festival]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Howard|first=Annie|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/cannes-winners-who-went-oscars-887120/item/conversation-cannes-winners-who-went-887522|title=Cannes Winners Who Went on to the Oscars|work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=May 9, 2016|access-date=April 5, 2019}}</ref> In ''[[Tribute (play)|Tribute]]'', a stage drama first performed in 1979, he played a press agent who has cancer while trying to mend his relationship with his son. The Broadway production ran for 212 performances, but it gained mixed reviews. Nevertheless, Lemmon was nominated for the [[Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play]].<ref name="Bernstein" /> For his role in the [[Tribute (1980 film)|1980 film version]], Lemmon gained another Oscar nomination.<ref>{{cite news|last=Ebert|first=Roger|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/interview-with-jack-lemmon|title=Interview with Jack Lemmon|website=Roger Ebert|date=March 8, 1981|access-date=April 5, 2019}}</ref> His final Oscar nomination was for ''[[Missing (1982 film)|Missing]]'' (1982), as a conservative father whose son has vanished in Chile during the period the country was under the rule of [[Augusto Pinochet]]; he won another Cannes award for his performance.<ref name="Bernstein" /> A contemporary failure was his last film with Billy Wilder, ''[[Buddy Buddy]]'' (1981). Lemmon's character attempts suicide in a hotel while a hitman (Matthau) is in the next suite.<ref>{{cite web|last=Axmaker|first=Sean|url=http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/489518%257C0/Buddy-Buddy.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802052926/http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/489518%257C0/Buddy-Buddy.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 2, 2020|title=''Buddy, Buddy''|work=TCM|access-date=April 5, 2019}}</ref> Another flop at the box office was his final film with Blake Edwards, another of his friends; in ''[[That's Life! (film)|That's Life!]]'' (1986), he appeared in the director's self-autobiographical part with Edwards's wife, [[Julie Andrews]]. A seductress role was played by Lemmon's wife, [[Felicia Farr]].<ref name="Baxter" /> His later career is said to have been affected by other bad choices, such as ''[[Mass Appeal (film)|Mass Appeal]]'' (1984), about a conservative Catholic priest, ''[[Macaroni (film)|Macaroni]]'' (1985), a tale about old Army friends with [[Marcello Mastroianni]], and ''That's Life''.<ref name="DTelobit" /> Lemmon received the [[AFI Life Achievement Award]] in 1988.

Lemmon was nominated for a Tony Award the second and last time for a revival of [[Eugene O'Neill]]'s [[Long Day's Journey into Night#1986 Broadway revival|''Long Day's Journey into Night'']] in 1986;<ref>{{cite web |title=Jack Lemmon Tony Awards Info |url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/tonyawardspersoninfo.php?nomname=Jack%20Lemmon |website=www.broadwayworld.com |access-date=February 18, 2019}}</ref> Lemmon had taken the lead role of James Tyrone in a production directed by [[Jonathan Miller]].<ref name="Richards" /> It had a London run in 1987, Lemmon's first theatre work in the city, and a television version followed. A return to London in 1989 for the antiwar play ''Veterans' Day'',<!-- both at the [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane]] --> with [[Michael Gambon]], was poorly received by critics, and following modest audiences, soon closed.<ref name="Baxter" /><ref name="LdnTimes2001" /> Lemmon also worked with [[Kevin Spacey]] in the films ''[[The Murder of Mary Phagan]]'' (1987), ''[[Dad (1989 film)|Dad]]'' (1989), and ''[[Glengarry Glen Ross (film)|Glengarry Glen Ross]]'' (1992), as well as the production of ''Long Day's Journey into Night''.