Innate around New York City to a Jewish family, Arkin is one of only 5 actors to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance (for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming) in 1966. 2 years late, he was over again nominated, for The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. Inside the piece he wrote for the 2nd City book, Arkin wanted to exist as an actor since he was 5. However the demands & pressures attack trying to produce acting a career were jolly high, & Arkin struggled to produce it. It was within the performance in St. Louis that Arkin caught a casting director's eye, who later met with the actor to tell him about a comedy troupe he was assembling in Chicago and if he wanted a job, it was open. Arkin experienced courteously agreed prior to running back to Up to date York City by owning a impression that he wasn't attend lose retired in the career by moving to Chicago. However when an additional season as a struggling actor at 29 years old, Arkin known as back a director & asked whenever a offer was however open. Using the offer however negotiable, he packed his bags & headed for the midwestern united states thinking it was a mistake. However Arkaround late said that it turned dead set become a better tool in his life since it reversal once he joined what was The Second City comedy troupe.

Arkaround is equally comfortable within comedy & spectacular roles, in such diverse films when Inspector Clouseau, Catch-22, Freebie and The Bean, Hearts of the West, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (where he played Sigmund Freud), Edward Scissorhands, The Rocketeer, the 1979 The In-Laws, Glengarry Glen Ross, So I Married an Axe Murderer and Jerky Boys: The Movie.

His boy is actor Adam Arkin.