Husky, volatile New York stage actor who turned in some memorable tough-guy performances in the 1950s, notably as Marlon Brando's brother in ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) and as the title character of AL CAPONE (1959). Steiger was outstanding as concentration camp survivor Sol Nazerman in Sidney Lumet's THE PAWNBROKER (1965) and as the redneck Southern sheriff in Norman Jewison's IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967). Born April 1, 1925 in Long Island, New York, Steiger's career -- and, for that matter, life -- was by no means conventional. Raised by an alcoholic mother, Steiger fled home at 15, and, at age 16, enlisted in the Navy. (He lied about his age to recruiters -- perhaps his first winning performance.) "I tell young actors today to join the merchant marines for a year, and I tell young women to volunteer in a hospital emergency ward if they can," Steiger once said. "You get to see different people, cultures, dress, it's a marvelous education for an actor." After serving on a torpedo ship in the South Pacific during World War II, Steiger returned to New York, where he took opera lessons and enrolled in acting class. The opera thing didn't pan out. But the acting thing did. At Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg's famed Actors Studio, Steiger was at Ground Zero for the movement that was the Method. Steiger, Brando, Marilyn Monroe and Karl Malden were among the first to learn to build their performances from the inside out. Any actor who's ever asked, "What's my motivation?" has the Method to thank. Kazan, already an established film director, helped bring this new smoldering style to Hollywood, turning star pupils Brando and Steiger loose on Waterfront. Brando's famous "I coulda been a contender!" Waterfront rant, delivered to Steiger, reportedly was improvised between the two actors. If the story's not true, it's at least true to the spirit of the Method, which prizes spontaneity. After Waterfront, Steiger's film career took off -- he was "poor" Jud Fry in OKLAHOMA!, a fight fixer in THE HARDER THEY FALL (Humphrey Bogart's final film), a Russian in DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, and Al Capone in AL CAPONE. Based-on-a-true-story stories, such as Al Capone, were a recurring motif in Steiger's career. "They say I've done more biographies than anyone," said the man who played everybody from Benito Mussolini (twice), in LAST DAYS OF MUSSOLINI and THE LION OF THE DESERT, to W.C. Fields (W.C. FIELD AND ME), to Napoleon (WATERLOO), to Pontius Pilate (the TV miniseries "Jesus of Nazareth"). Steiger's 1967 Oscar was more of a capper, than a jumping off point, for his film career. While he continued to work, he worked less and less as a Hollywood star, retreating to European productions for a time in the 1970s. His publicist, Lori DeWaal, said Steiger succumbed to pneumonia and kidney failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital. Starting as far back as the 1970s, the actor battled a variety of ailments, including a bout of clinical depression that sidelined his career for almost a decade. Steiger said his bout of depression left him unable to work. He subsequently bounced back and was honored for helping destigmatize the disorder. Recent movie credits included: 1999's END OF DAYS with Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1999's CRAZY IN ALABAMA with Melanie Griffith and 1996's MARS ATTACKS! for director Tim Burton. In a 2000 TV interview, Steiger summed up his career this way: "I'm 60 percent virgin and 40 percent whore. I've not sold out that much, and I've made my own mistakes." He married five times, including a 1959-69 union to British actress Claire Bloom. All but his last marriage, to Joan Benedict in 2000, ended in divorce. Other survivors include two children: daughter Anna, with Bloom; and son Michael, born in 1993 to his fourth wife, Paula Ellis.  Nominated for Supporting Actor 1954: ON THE WATERFRONT  Nominated for Actor 1965: THE PAWNBROKER  Actor 1967: IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT 3 nominations, 1 Award