Editing Rod Steiger (section)

==Acting style==
[[File:Rod Steiger the Big Knife.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Steiger during a dynamic scene in ''The Big Knife'']]
Steiger was one of Hollywood's most respected character actors. Hutchinson described him as "one of Hollywood's most charismatic and dynamic stars".{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|loc=Google Books Introduction}} Yet for Hutchinson, Steiger remained "out of sympathy with Hollywood" during his career, believing that accomplished actors often struggle to find challenging films as they got older.{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|p=76}} Steiger was an "effusive talent" according to Lucia Bozzola of ''The New York Times'',<ref name="NYT bio"/> and was particularly noted for his intense portrayal of offbeat, often volatile and crazed characters.<ref name="Guardian Obituary"/>{{sfn|Millner|1994|p=12}}<ref name="CBSNews"/> After ''On the Waterfront'' (1954), Steiger became somewhat typecast for playing tough characters and villains,{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|p=85}} and grew increasingly frustrated playing the "Mafia heavy or a near-psychopath" during the 1970s, roles that he could play menacingly, but provided little opportunity for him to showcase his talent.{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|p=131}} Gossip columnist [[Louella Parsons]] hailed him as "the Screen's No.1 Bad Man", while the newspaper ''[[London Evening News]]'' referred to him as "the man you would love to hate if you had the courage".{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|p=107}} A 1960 publication by Dean Jennings of ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'' referred to Steiger as an "angry, hot-tempered newcomer of prodigious acting talents, [who] works best only at emotional white heat", and remarked that he found it "stimulating to carry theatrical fantasy into his private life".<ref>{{cite web|title=The Case of the Angry Actor|first=Dean|last=Jennings|work=[[The Saturday Evening Post]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qQcfAQAAMAAJ|year=1960|pages=39, 98}}</ref> Pauline Kael found his performances so powerful that she believed he "often seems to take over a picture even when he isn't in the lead".{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|p=76}} The journal ''[[Hansom Books|Films and Filming]]'', surveying his career in 1971, noted that his talent "developed steadily through films good and bad", and that the secret of his success was that he stayed grounded, citing a 1956 interview where he said "I pity the player who can't keep his feet on the ground. It's too easy to trade on success and forget that no performer can stand still."<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Films and Filming|title=Rod Steiger's career and filmography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TvwTAQAAMAAJ|year=1971|publisher=Hansom Books|pages=28–31}}</ref>

A product of the Actors Studio, Steiger is closely associated with method acting, embodying the characters he played. Writer James F. Scott notes that during his career, he "many times put aside his own personality to think his way into an alien psyche".{{sfn|Scott|1975|p=247}} Steiger once said:

{{Blockquote|I don't like the term Method, but for the sake of argument method acting is a means to an end. It is something that helps you get involved in the part personally so that you can communicate with the audience. No matter what, the American actor of the fifties changed acting the world over. [[Montgomery Clift]] was perhaps the actor who started it, Brando caused the sensation and [James] Dean made it a cult.<ref name="ST interview"/>}}

Steiger was so devoted to his craft that during the 1970s he turned to many foreign productions, especially in Italy, to obtain the sort of roles he desired, but often clashed with directors over his method acting techniques.<ref name="NYT bio"/> In one of his last interviews, Steiger said: "What is the greatest thing an artist in any profession can give to a person?—that would be a constructive, warm memory. Because that gets into your brain and therefore into your life, so to speak. And that's it, when somebody says to me 'I'll never forget', that's worth more to me than five Academy Awards, I'm in that person's life".<ref name="MAB"/>
{{multiple image
| align             = left
| footer            = [[Robert De Niro]] modeled his performance in ''[[The Untouchables (film)|The Untouchables]]'' (1987) on Steiger's portrayal of Al Capone.
| total_width       = 400
| image1            = Rod_Steiger_Al_Capone_1.jpg
| image2            = Robert De Niro Cannes 2016 2.jpg
}}
Film writer Paul Simpson notes how closely Steiger prepared for his roles, and how he "effortlessly" recreated the mannerisms of figures such as Mussolini, in a "compelling take on an enigmatic figure".{{sfn|Simpson|2011|p=92}} Judith Crist of ''New York Magazine'', reviewing ''Duck, You Sucker!'', commented that Steiger was "totally without mannerisms, always with manner", and noted that his "silences are stunningly effective".<ref>{{cite web|title=Grounds For Complaint|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fMcDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA53|date=July 3, 1972|work=New York|page=53|first=Judith|last=Crist|issn=0028-7369}}</ref> Roger Ebert later echoed this statement, concurring that Steiger lacked mannerisms, writing, "When he gets a character worth playing with, he creates it new from the bottom up, out of whole cloth. I don't know how he does it. It's almost as if he gets inside the skin of the guy he's playing and starts being that person for a while".{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|p=48}} Steiger said: "I always tried to do things different. If I got a role which was similar to another I'd try to do it a little different."<ref name="MAB"/> His explosive screen performances were an influence on many later actors, including [[Robert De Niro]], who used Steiger's portrayal of Al Capone as a reference for his own performance in ''[[The Untouchables (film)|The Untouchables]]'' (1987).<ref name="NYT bio"/> [[Elvis Presley]] was highly impressed with Steiger's "powerful and wrenching performance" in ''The Pawnbroker''.{{sfn|Schilling|Crisafulli|2006|p=99}}

Despite Steiger's acclaim as an actor, he was frequently accused of overacting and won his share of critics, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s. His acting was so dynamic at times that critics found him excessive and overbearing,<ref name="Ebert79"/><ref name=Christiansen/> and even uncomfortable or laughable to watch.<ref name="James"/><ref name="Schwartz Neighbor"/> Steiger once clashed with Armenian director [[Rouben Mamoulian]], during a theatrical production of ''Oklahoma!'', as he was intolerant of Steiger's "unusual acting technique". Steiger ignored the director's concerns that he was mumbling his lines, and when he began chomping loudly on an apple during a scene with Gordon MacRae, Mamoulian exclaimed: "Get out of my theater. Get out of my life!", and fired him.{{sfn|Jones|2014|p=54}} Even Kazan found several of the Actors Studio's techniques disagreeable, preferring "more humor and verve and less self-indulgence, self-pity and self-awareness".{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|p=49}} Kazan felt that Steiger often displayed a competitive edge as an actor and tried to steal scenes from his co-stars. Steiger rejected these claims, insisting that he was merely "trying to take the medium of acting to as far as I can go, and that why I sometimes go over the edge".{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|p=85}}

Several co-stars found working with Steiger difficult; [[Warren Oates]], according to director Norman Jewison, viewed Steiger as "somebody who had a tendency to go over the top" during the making of ''In The Heat of the Night''.{{sfn|Compo|2009|p=146}} Writer Richard Dyer highlights the contrast in the film between the acting styles of Steiger and Poitier, with "Poitier's stillness and implied intensity" and "Steiger's busy, exteriorised method acting".{{sfn|Dyer|2013|p=99}} Humphrey Bogart, Steiger's co-star in ''The Harder They Fall'', referred to Steiger's method acting as the "scratch-your-ass-and-mumble school of acting".{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|p=104}} Director Robert Aldrich notes that Steiger had a habit of changing his lines, which often confused his co-stars. Aldrich stated: "Usually I lie awake at nights trying to think of ways to improve an actor's performance. With Steiger, the problem is to try and contain him".{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|p=83}} Steiger was particularly aggressive towards director Kenneth Annakin during the making of ''Across the Bridge'', insisting on rewriting most of the script and changing many of the lines to better fit Steiger's idea of the character. Annakin stated that he had "never known an actor to put so much thought and preparation into a performance" as Steiger.{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|pp=114–15}} Hutchinson revealed that Steiger often suffered from panic during filming and that fear of failure haunted him throughout his life, but fear also provided him with a source of strength in his acting.{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|pp=67–68}}