Ambassador Shamshur participates in solemn ceremony in remembrance of Jack Palance, an Oscar-winning American actor of Ukrainian descent

On May 22, 2007, the solemn ceremony in remembrance of Jack Palance, an Oscar-winning American actor of Ukrainian descent, took place in Hazleton, PA, where Palance was born and where he spent his childhood and youth.

Remembrance ceremony was held at the St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church. Church’s senior priest Rev. Gregory Maslak, accompanied by choir singing and organ music, conducted a memorial service.

In his remarks Ambassador Shamshur presented his condolences to the family of Jack Palance and marked the life and motion picture career of the actor whom both the US and Ukraine can be proud of. Being an American actor, Jack Palace cared for Ukraine and was proud of his Ukrainian origin, Ambassador said.

Jack Palance earned his second Oscar nomination playing cold-blooded gunfighter Jack Wilson in 1953's cinema classic Shane.

Born Volodymyr Palahnyuk (Ukrainian: Володимир Палагнюк) in the Lattimer Mines section of Hazle Township, Pennsylvania, Palance was of Ukrainian descent and the son of an anthracite coal miner. He also worked in coal mines during his youth before becoming a boxer.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Palance's boxing career ended and his military career began. Palance's rugged face, which took many beatings in the boxing ring, was disfigured when he bailed out of his burning B-24 Liberator while on a training flight over southern Arizona, where he was a student pilot. Plastic surgeons repaired the damage as best they could, but he was left with a distinctive, somewhat gaunt, look. After much reconstructive surgery, he was discharged in 1944.

Palance graduated from Stanford University in 1947 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama. During his university years, to make ends meet he also worked as a short order cook, waiter, lifeguard at Jones Beach State Park, and photographer's model.

Palance's acting break came as Marlon Brando's understudy in A Streetcar Named Desire, and he eventually replaced Brando on stage as Stanley Kowalski. In 1947, Palance made his Broadway debut, and this was followed three years later by his screen debut in the movie Panic in the Streets (1950). The very same year, he was featured in Halls of Montezuma about the U.S. Marines in World War II, where he was credited as "Walter (Jack) Palance". Palance was quickly recognized for his skill as a character actor, receiving an Oscar nomination for only his third film role, as Lester Blaine in Sudden Fear. The following year, Palance was again nominated for an Oscar, this time for his role as the evil gunfighter Jack Wilson in Shane.

In 1957, Palance won an Emmy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Mountain McClintock in the Playhouse 90 production of Rod Serling's Requiemfor a Heavyweight. While still busy making movies, in the 1980s Palance also co-hosted (with his daughter Holly Palance) the television series Ripley's Believe It or Not!.

Four decades after his film debut, Palance won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1992 for his performance as cowboy Curly Washburn in the 1991 comedy City Slickers. Stepping onstage to accept the award, the intimidatingly fit 6' 4" (1.93 m) actor looked down at 5' 7" (1.70 m) Oscar host Billy Crystal (who was also his co-star in the movie), and joked — mimicking one of his lines from the film — "Billy Crystal... I crap bigger than him." He then dropped to the floor and demonstrated his ability, at age 73, to perform one-handed push-ups.

Palance has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6608 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1992, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.