Volodymyr Palahniuk was born to Ukrainian parents in rural Pennsylvania. In his youth, he worked alongside his father in Pennsylvania coal mines. In the late 1930s, Volodymyr became a professional boxer under the alias Jack Brazzo because no one could pronounce, much less remember, Volodymyr Palahniuk. Volodymyr won his first 15 bouts, 12 of which were knockouts, before he lost by a close decision to future heavyweight boxer Joe Baksi. Punches by his opponents usually left Volodymyr’s face bruised, swollen, and bloody. “Then, I thought, you must be nuts to get your head beat in for $200.” (Adjusted for inflation, $200 in the late 1930s would be about $4,400 in today’s money.) Thus ended Volodymyr’s professional boxing career.
There was a more important reason for Volodymyr’s career change. In 1942, the world was in the midst of World War II. Volodymyr wanted to do his part for his country and volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps. In the following year, 1943, Volodymyr was among a group of airmen on a mission in a B-24 Liberator bomber. During the flight, something went horribly wrong. The full details of the crash have never been released, but one of his outboard engines purportedly failed during an air battle. The engine failure was just one in a series of unfortunate events which led to a fiery airplane crash. Volodymyr sustained severe facial and head injuries and burns. Newspapers reported that Volodymyr’s injuries were so severe that he required facial reconstruction. For his service, Volodymyr was awarded the Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal and the World War II Victory Medal. After months in the hospital, Volodymyr was discharged from the military. Later in life, Volodymyr spoke vaguely about the crash. He mentioned the story about his airplane crash and repeated the rumor that his “face had to be put back together by way of plastic surgery. If it is a ‘bionic face,’” he quipped, “why didn’t they do a better job of it?” He also said of his airplane crash, “There are some moments you never get over. That was one of them.”
Following World War II, Volodymyr began studying journalism then drama at Stanford University under the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, more commonly called the G.I. Bill. Charles E. Miller, Volodymyr’s college roommate, remembered the wannabe actor “pacing back and forth past the fourth-floor windows as he rehearsed his lines for a play.” Volodymyr had a “face seemingly carved out of granite and a voice filled with equal parts gravel and menace.” In 1947, Volodymyr returned to the east coast and, due to his “distinctive looks and resonant voice,” got a part in The Big Two. In the following year, he acted in the Broadway production A Streetcar Named Desire, and eventually replaced Marlon Brando in the part of Stanley Kowalski. In 1950, he made his film debut in Panic in the Streets. Two years later, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of a villainous husband in Sudden Fear. Volodymyr’s menacing face and gravelly voice kept him working as film villains for the rest of his life. Four decades after his film debut, Volodymyr finally won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work as a villainous cowboy Curly Washburn in the Western Comedy City Slickers. As Volodymyr, then 73 years old, walked onstage to accept the Oscar, he suddenly dropped to the floor and performed several one-armed pushups. The audience roared with cheers and laughter.
As far as the story of his facial reconstruction following his airplane crash during World War II, Volodymyr would probably repeat the line he used to end every episode of the television show he hosted in the mid-1980s, “Believe it….or Not.” You and I know Volodymyr Palahniuk as Jack Palance.
Sources:
1. Brian Eule, “Requiem for a Heavy: Jack Palance was more than a good bad guy.” Standford Magazine, January/February 2007, accessed February 18, 2024, https://stanfordmag.org/
2. “Jack Palance.” www.tcm.com. Accessed February 18, 2024. https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/
3. “Jack Palance – Biography.” IMDb. Accessed February 18, 2024. https://www.imdb.com/name/
