Jack Warden Movies and Career Information

Jack Warden (September 18, 1920 — July 19, 2006) was an American character actor. Warden was born John H. Lebzelter in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Laura M. (née Costello) and John Warden Lebzelter, who was an engineer and technician. He was of Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he was expelled from high school for fighting and eventually fought as a professional boxer under the name Johnny Costello. He had 13 welterweight bouts but earned little money. Warden worked as a nightclub bouncer, tugboat deckhand and lifeguard before joining the United States Navy in 1938. He was stationed in China for three years with the Yangtze River Patrol. In 1941, he joined the United States Merchant Marine but, quickly tiring of the long convoy runs, he switched to the United States Army in 1942 where he served as a paratrooper in the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, with the elite 101st Airborne Division during World War II. In 1944, on the eve of the D-Day invasion (during which many of his friends died), Staff Sergeant (Lebzelter) Warden shattered his leg by landing on a fence during a night-time practice jump in England. After almost a year in the