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Walter Matthau, the gruff-voiced, droopy-faced master of deadpan comic acting, died early Saturday morning, July 1, after suffering a heart attack. He was pronounced dead at 1:42am, shortly after being taken to St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. Matthau was 79.

Born to impoverished Russian Jewish immigrants in New York, Matthau was bitten by the acting bug at an early age. His career began in earnest after his three-year stint in the Army Air Corps in World War II. An Oscar recipient and two-time Tony award winner, Matthau appeared in dozens of stage productions, hundreds of television shows, and more than 70 films.

"He was an extraordinary actor," said film critic Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times. "I think people forget that he was a really trained and very gifted actor, to which he added this natural sense of humor. He was one of those people that almost anything he said was funny."

Matthau is best known for his work with his friend Jack Lemmon, opposite whom he appeared as the incurable slob Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple (1968). In 1966, Matthau won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his part in The Fortune Cookie, in which he played Lemmon's brother-in-law.

"I have lost someone I loved as a brother, as a closest friend and a remarkable human being," Lemmon said Saturday. "We have also lost one of the best damn actors we'll ever see." Matthau and Lemmon worked together in 10 films, including 1971's Kotch, Lemmon's only attempt at directing. Matthau also made a stab at directing, with The Gangster Story in 1960, in which he appeared. He later said it was "the worst film ever made."

Matthau often remarked that The Odd Couple was the launching pad for his career. "It all started happening after that," he said several years after the film had become a huge hit. 1998's The Odd Couple II features Matthau and Lemmon as their earlier characters, who meet 30 years later to attend their children's wedding.

The curmudgeonly actor had some serious health problems over the years, including a heart attack in 1966. He underwent heart bypass surgery 10 years later. He had a colon tumor removed in 1995, and was twice hospitalized for pneumonia, once in 1993 after working in freezing weather on Grumpy Old Men and again for two months last year.

Matthau was married twice, first in 1948 to Grace Johnson, with whom he had two children, David and Jenny. Matthau divorced her in 1958. The following year he married actress Carol Marcus, whom he met when they were both in a Broadway production of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?. Their son Charles is a film director, who directed his father in several TV movies and in the 1996 feature film The Grass Harp, also starring Lemmon. Matthau's most recent screen appearance was as the father of Diane Keaton, Lisa Kudrow, and Meg Ryan in this year's Hanging Up.

As of Sunday, July 2, funeral arrangements were still pending. For more on Walter Matthau, click here.