Malden was born as Mladen Sekulovich in Gary, Indiana, the son of a Serbian father and a Czech mother. The Sekulovich family roots trace back to the city of Bileća in Herzegovina.
Malden moved to New York City and first appeared on Broadway in 1937, He did radio work before becoming a movie character actor in 1940.
He had parts in On the Waterfront, the movie version of A Streetcar Named Desire, Birdman of Alcatraz and Patton, and played wheelchair-bound senior citizen Leon Klinghoffer in the 1989 TV movie, The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro.
Karl Malden is a past president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
In October of 2003, Malden was named the 40th recipient of the Screen Actors Guild's Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment.