Jack Lemmon Jack Lemmon John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor and musician. Lemmon was an eight-time Academy Award nominee, with two wins. He starred in over 60 films, such as "Some Like It Hot", "The Apartment", "Mister Roberts" (for which he won the 1955 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), "Days of Wine and Roses", "The Great Race", "Irma la Douce", "The Odd Couple" and its sequel "The Odd Couple II" (and other frequent collaborations with "Odd Couple" co-star Walter Matthau), "Save the Tiger" (for which he won the 1973 Academy Award
Avanti! adapting the Taylor play. Wilder was determined to create "a bittersweet love story, a little like "Brief Encounter", which I always admired," he later recalled. Early in the writing period, Wilder showed Jack Lemmon some of the completed script, and he agreed to play Wendell Armbruster, Jr. "Knowing pretty early on Jack was going to be in our film made it more comfortable writing his dialogue," said Diamond, who preferred to tailor a screenplay to a specific actor. Wilder was familiar with Juliet Mills from the television sitcom "Nanny and the Professor", and while he was unimpressed with the series