yyAlan Arkin, the star of the films "Kominsky Method" and "Little Miss Sunshine," has away at the age of 89.

At the age of 89, Oscar-winning actor Alan Arkin has away. His diverse career spanned seven decades.

Melody Korenbrot, Arkin's agent, confirmed his passing to USA TODAY on Friday and cited a statement his sons Adam, Matthew, and Anthony gave jointly to People on behalf of the family. "Both as an artist and a person, our father was a force of nature with a singularly gifted. He was cherished and will be sadly lost for being a devoted husband, father, grandpa, and great-grandfather.

For his part as Norman, the Hollywood agent of Michael Douglas' acting instructor character Sandy in the first two seasons of Netflix's award-winning series "The Kominsky Method," Arkin was most known to younger audiences.

Alan Arkin, the Oscar-winning actor best remembered for his appearances in "Little Miss Sunshine" and "The Kominsky Method," passed away on Friday, June 30, 2023, according to a statement from his agent. He was 89 years old. In this picture, Arkin is seen posing for a picture in front of his 2017 comedy "Going in Style," in which he plays one of the men who robs a bank.

But the actor's cinematic credentials show his astounding range, including parts that were never defined by his caustic Brooklyn-bred image but always inspired by it.

In response to a question from CBS News about his all-time favorite part, Arkin deadpanned, "The Kaiser roll has been a favorite." He said, more seriously, that he related to those "who don't know what they're talking about, but are happy to give you advice."

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In the movie "Little Miss Sunshine," for which Alan Arkin received one of his four Oscar nominations, from left to right are Greg Kinnear, Abigail Breslin, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, and Toni Collette.

Although he had a tense relationship with the success-related awards, Arkin was always eager to talk about the acting profession.

Arkin is still one of only a select few performers to receive a best actor nomination for their debut picture. (He was 32 at the time he played a Soviet submariner in the 1966 comedy "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming.") And Arkin is still one of the performers that won an Oscar at a young age. (He was 72 when he portrayed a vulgar grandfather in the independent success "Little Miss Sunshine" in 2006).

Even though Arkin would be nominated for an Academy Award four times—including a second time for best actor in 1968's "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter," in which he starred opposite Clint Eastwood's future love interest Sondra Locke, and a third time for best supporting actor in 2012's "Argo"—he was blunt about evaluating artistic accomplishments.

Just before the 2013 Oscars, Arkin told USA TODAY, "I think it's all nonsense." "Everything is up in the air. 20 of the best-picture winners during the previous 50 years, in my opinion, are horrible jokes.

Arkin was of the opinion that actors had an obligation to examine themselves in order to give a genuine performance that met not just the emotional needs of people watching in dimly lit theaters but also their own ego. He was insulted by the current Hollywood scorecard, which places stars in order of their movie office earnings.

"For the industry to treat us like horses, who's in first or second, is insanity," said Arkin in 2012 to a Screen Actors Guild Foundation audience. I desired to influence others.

Pictured here is Alan Arkin in "Little Miss Sunshine," for which he received the Oscar for best supporting actor.

The inquisitive son of a writer and painter father and a teacher mother, both of Jewish ancestry, Arkin grew up in an artsy Brooklyn environment. When Arkin was a little child, he would go to the Thalia theater in New York with his father, which was revered for showing international films with subtitles.

When Arkin's father relocated the family to Los Angeles in 1945 in order to take a teaching position, his urge to transform into different individuals only strengthened. Arkin addressed the audience at the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, "I had the opposite of a stage mother; she wanted me to be an accountant. But she would wait outside the acting classes where I trained my facial expressions.

But Arkin was also exposed to Hollywood's challenges at a young age. Despite subsequently succeeding in obtaining employment as a set designer, it was lost due to an eight-month strike. Sen. Joseph McCarthy's 1950s search for purported communists led to false accusations against Arkin's father, which prevented him from working in a studio in the future.

Arkin persisted in working for his ideal career. Early in his 20s, he found success, but not in acting. He was a member of the folk group The Tarriers, whose song "The Banana Boat Song," which was also recorded about the same time by a teenage Harry Belafonte, helped them ascend the charts in the late 1950s.

The last TV project in which Alan Arkin took part before his passing was "The Kominsky Method," which starred Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin.

Arkin frequently recalled a revelation he experienced while performing on stage at the Olympia Theater in Paris. "I asked myself, "Who am I?," as I stared down at myself. I stopped the next day and went without food for a few years, he told CBS News.

The actor had enough work on various New York venues to get a call from a Chicago improv company inviting him to join. He unwillingly went. It was the start of everything, according to Arkin.

The group was Second City, a now-famous improv troupe whose alumni include Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Bill Murray, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and John Belushi. With the help of Second City's performance in New York, Arkin's popularity in his native Los Angeles eventually increased.

Hot assignments came Arkin's way after "The Russians Are Coming" catapulted him onto the A-list. His roles included social criticism in "Catch-22," 1970; Sherlock Holmes puzzles in "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution," 1976; whimsical fables in "Edward Scissorhands," 1990; somber drama in "Glengarry Glen Ross," 1992; and dark humor in "Grosse Point Blank," 1997.

Following that, he experienced something of a career comeback with lauded star roles in "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Argo." Arkin, though, remained irritated with the way the entertainment industry fetishized its top performers throughout his voyage.

He stated to laughter at the actors' guild event, "I mean, you're making millions of dollars to just come on and say, 'Hello,' so it has to be a really big 'Hell-oooo.'" When you have enough money that your grandkids don't need to work, in addition to you being wealthy, "money changes people."

Actors, according to Arkin, have a duty to their audience rather than to themselves. Arkin claimed that he regularly found himself telling actors who were auditioning the same thing in his capacity as an infrequent director (particularly in 1971's "Little Murders" starring Elliot Gould).

On March 27, 2017, Michael Caine, Alan Arkin, and Morgan Freeman posed for a photograph in New York.

"When they do the lines, I comment, 'That was amazing. They would seem so relieved, so now do it again and lose the acting," he added. The performers would feel liberated to give a performance that wasn't a performance, one that was authentic to them.

That was undoubtedly what Arkin's finest performances communicated—this idea that viewers weren't seeing a Brooklyn-born obsessive actor, but rather a Puerto Rican widower attempting to support his children in "Popi," released in 1969, or an elderly bank robber in "Going In Style," released in 2017.

Selling is so prevalent in our culture, according to Arkin. Therefore, if you are genuine, you will be captivating.

His third wife, psychologist Suzanne Newlander, and his three sons—all actors—from his first two marriages survive him.