Alan Arkin

US american actor, film director and musician. Older cousin of Steve Arkin. Born March 26, 1934 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. Died June 29, 2023 in San Marcos, California, USA. With two friends (Erik Darling and Bob Carey), Arkin formed the folk music group The Tarriers, in which he sang and played guitar. The band members co-composed the group's 1956 hit "The Banana Boat Song", a reworking, with some new lyrics, of a traditional, same-name Jamaican calypso folk song combined with another titled "Hill and Gully Rider". It reached #4 on the Billboard magazine chart the same year as Harry Belafonte's better-known hit version. From 1958 to 1968, Arkin performed and recorded with the children's folk group, The Baby Sitters. He won a Tony Award for his first lead role on Broadway, received an Academy Award nomination for his first feature film, and went on to have a long and diverse career as a character actor who specialized in comedy but was equally adept at drama.