larso
Sergeant Major
- Joined
- May 2, 2008
- Messages
- 1,565
It is rare to come across an obituary with war service details like this.
"CHARLES Durning, a two-time Oscar nominee dubbed the king of the character actors for his skill in playing everything from a Nazi colonel to the pope, has died Monday at his home in New York City. He was 89. He died on Monday of natural causes in his home in the borough of Manhattan, his longtime agent and friend Judith Moss told The Associated Press.
Although he portrayed everyone from blustery public officials to comic foils to put-upon everymen, Durning may be best remembered by movie audiences for his Oscar-nominated, over-the-top role as a comically corrupt governor in the 1982 film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
Many critics marvelled that such a heavyset man could be so nimble in the film's show-stopping song-and-dance number, not realising that Durning had been a dance instructor early in his career. He had met his first wife, Carol, when both worked at a dance studio.
...The year after Best Little Whorehouse, Durning received another Oscar nomination, for his portrayal of a bumbling Nazi officer in the Mel Brooks classic To Be or Not to Be. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe as the harried police lieutenant in the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon.
He won a Golden Globe as best supporting TV actor in 1991 for his portrayal of John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald in the TV film The Kennedys of Massachusetts and a Tony in 1990 as Big Daddy in the Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Durning had begun his career on stage, getting his first big break when theatrical producer Joseph Papp hired him for the New York Shakespeare Festival.
He went on to work regularly, if fairly anonymously, through the 1960s until his breakout role as a small-town mayor in the Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning play That Championship Season in 1972.
He quickly made an impression on movie audiences the following year as the crooked cop stalking con men Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the Oscar-winning comedy The Sting.
Dozens of notable portrayals followed. He was the would-be suitor of Dustin Hoffman, posing as a female soap opera star in Tootsie; the infamous seller of frog legs in The Muppet Movie; and Chief Brandon in Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy. He played Santa Claus in four different movies made for television and was the pope in the TV film I Would Be Called John: Pope John XXIII.
"I never turned down anything and never argued with any producer or director," Durning told The Associated Press in 2008, when he was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Other films included The Front Page, The Hindenburg, Breakheart Pass, North Dallas Forty, Starting Over, Tough Guys, Home for the Holidays, Spy Hard and O Brother Where Art Thou?
Durning's rugged early life provided ample material on which to base his later portrayals. He was born into an Irish family of 10 children in 1923, in Highland Falls, New York, a town near West Point. His father was unable to work, having lost a leg and been gassed during World War I, so his mother supported the family by washing the uniforms of West Point cadets.
The younger Durning himself would barely survive World War II. He was among the first wave of US soldiers to land at Normandy during the D-Day invasion and the only member of his army unit to survive. He killed several Germans and was wounded in the leg. Later he was bayoneted by a young German soldier whom he killed with a rock. He was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and survived a massacre of prisoners.
In later years, he refused to discuss the military service for which he was awarded the Silver Star and three Purple Hearts.
Tragedy also stalked other members of his family. Durning was 12 when his father died, and five of his sisters were killed by smallpox or scarlet fever.
Durning and his first wife had three children before divorcing in 1972. In 1974, he married his high-school sweetheart, Mary Ann Amelio."
So the real deal....
"CHARLES Durning, a two-time Oscar nominee dubbed the king of the character actors for his skill in playing everything from a Nazi colonel to the pope, has died Monday at his home in New York City. He was 89. He died on Monday of natural causes in his home in the borough of Manhattan, his longtime agent and friend Judith Moss told The Associated Press.
Although he portrayed everyone from blustery public officials to comic foils to put-upon everymen, Durning may be best remembered by movie audiences for his Oscar-nominated, over-the-top role as a comically corrupt governor in the 1982 film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
Many critics marvelled that such a heavyset man could be so nimble in the film's show-stopping song-and-dance number, not realising that Durning had been a dance instructor early in his career. He had met his first wife, Carol, when both worked at a dance studio.
...The year after Best Little Whorehouse, Durning received another Oscar nomination, for his portrayal of a bumbling Nazi officer in the Mel Brooks classic To Be or Not to Be. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe as the harried police lieutenant in the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon.
He won a Golden Globe as best supporting TV actor in 1991 for his portrayal of John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald in the TV film The Kennedys of Massachusetts and a Tony in 1990 as Big Daddy in the Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Durning had begun his career on stage, getting his first big break when theatrical producer Joseph Papp hired him for the New York Shakespeare Festival.
He went on to work regularly, if fairly anonymously, through the 1960s until his breakout role as a small-town mayor in the Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning play That Championship Season in 1972.
He quickly made an impression on movie audiences the following year as the crooked cop stalking con men Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the Oscar-winning comedy The Sting.
Dozens of notable portrayals followed. He was the would-be suitor of Dustin Hoffman, posing as a female soap opera star in Tootsie; the infamous seller of frog legs in The Muppet Movie; and Chief Brandon in Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy. He played Santa Claus in four different movies made for television and was the pope in the TV film I Would Be Called John: Pope John XXIII.
"I never turned down anything and never argued with any producer or director," Durning told The Associated Press in 2008, when he was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Other films included The Front Page, The Hindenburg, Breakheart Pass, North Dallas Forty, Starting Over, Tough Guys, Home for the Holidays, Spy Hard and O Brother Where Art Thou?
Durning's rugged early life provided ample material on which to base his later portrayals. He was born into an Irish family of 10 children in 1923, in Highland Falls, New York, a town near West Point. His father was unable to work, having lost a leg and been gassed during World War I, so his mother supported the family by washing the uniforms of West Point cadets.
The younger Durning himself would barely survive World War II. He was among the first wave of US soldiers to land at Normandy during the D-Day invasion and the only member of his army unit to survive. He killed several Germans and was wounded in the leg. Later he was bayoneted by a young German soldier whom he killed with a rock. He was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and survived a massacre of prisoners.
In later years, he refused to discuss the military service for which he was awarded the Silver Star and three Purple Hearts.
Tragedy also stalked other members of his family. Durning was 12 when his father died, and five of his sisters were killed by smallpox or scarlet fever.
Durning and his first wife had three children before divorcing in 1972. In 1974, he married his high-school sweetheart, Mary Ann Amelio."
So the real deal....
