Wow, Malden's gone at 97 and you just come away thinking, well, wow ... that's a life fully lived!

His performance as Archie in "Baby Doll" is one for the books. He channels it all: manic, desperate, dumb, sad, nasty, cruel, lost, beaten, scary, funny, triumphant, aching, bottled-up, and, ultimately, all too human. (Read more about "Baby Doll" at Tim Dirks' filmsite.)

And he was an actor that just, well, made you forgot you were watching a performance. He did that consistently, whereas some others just achieved that "transparency" some of the time. The rest of the time, you noticed THEM, not the character.

Think of his turn as Omar Bradley in "Patton" (1970), juxtaposed against both the character of General George S. Patton and actor George C. Scott. I only saw Bradley, not Malden, but I felt I was watching Scott more than I was watching "Ole Blood n' Guts."

As Carroll Baker's titular character drawls at the end of the film, "we got nothin' to do but wait for tomorrow and see if we're remembered or forgotten."

Out-of-timelings, I guarantee Karl will be remembered, by any one enraptured with just movies, regardless of age.

The NYT obit is here ...