A Grouch for All Seasons

Wednesday is Great American Grump Out day. For the jolly, it can be a downer. Or not. Sean “Big & Loud” Conklin, a retired circus clown who lives in L.A., welcomes it. “For me, it’s a day off,” he says cheerfully. And an excuse to watch the movies of Walter Matthau, at right. First among these is “The Odd Couple,” in which Matthau’s cranky Oscar roomed with Jack Lemmon’s finicky Felix. Later, Matthau was a grouchy lothario in “Grumpy Old Men” and “Grumpier Old Men,” also with Lemmon. Would craggy-faced Matthau have made a good clown? Probably not, Conklin says. “The amount of makeup you’d need to fill in those wrinkles is astronomical.”