She Likes to Watch

Oscar winner Alan Arkin of “Little Miss Sunshine” is coming to San Luis Obispo

As show business legend has it, the directors of “Little Miss Sunshine” nearly rejected Alan Arkin for the role of the film’s foul-mouthed, heroin-snorting grandpa because he was “too virile.”

Too virile?!? Sounds like a veiled compliment to me.

In fact, Arkin, who celebrates his 76th birthday this spring, continues to enjoy a professional popularity that many in the film industry would envy. In the past five years, he’s appeared in 11 movies,  including such certifiable hits as “Get Smart” and “Marley & Me.”

Perhaps it’s the Oscar-winning actor’s wonderfully sarcastic screen persona or his superb cache of character roles. Whatever the reason, he’s a hot Hollywood property right now.

In March, the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival will honor Arkin with its highest individual prize — the King Vidor Career Achievement Award, which celebrates excellence in filmmaking.

Past recipients include Academy Award winners Morgan Freeman, Eva Marie Saint and Ernest Borgnine, Oscar nominees Norman Jewison, James Cromwell and Peter Fonda, and Golden Globe nominee Malcolm McDowell.

Best known for his roles in such films as “Wait Until Dark,” “Catch 22,” “The In-Laws” and “Glengarry Glen Ross,” Arkin has spent much of his film career as a sarcastic straight man in a world-gone-mad.

He’s spent the last few years developing a repertoire of good-natured grumps — surly, misanthropic dads and grandpas who refuse to play by society’s rules.

Just look at Murray Abromowitz, the poverty-stricken divorcee in the criminally underrated “Slums of Beverly Hills” or Joe Lokorkowski, the popcorn-peddling kook in “Sunshine Cleaning.” These are men accustomed to hard-scrabble lives and frequent disappointment, ordinary guys who meet each fresh affront with a sarcastic smirk and eyeballs rolled heavenward.

It’s as the heroin-snorting, porn-addicted grandfather in “Little Miss Sunshine,” however, that Arkin’s talent is truly evident.

In honor of Alan Arkin, here’s a clip of “Little Miss Sunshine.”

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If you’re interested, here are a couple interviews with Alan Arkin.

Learn what it’s like to Alan from “Little Miss Sunshine” directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and co-stars Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear in this clip.

You can also check out Arkin’s conversation with Jerry Bowen, host of CBS’s “Eye to Eye,” right here.