Hal Holbrook
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| Hal Holbrook | |||||||||||||||
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 At the Hollywood Life Magazine Breakthrough Awards, 2007 |
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| Born | Harold Rowe Holbrook, Jr.[1] 17 February 1925 Cleveland, Ohio, USA |
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| Other name(s) | Harold Holbrook | ||||||||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Dixie Carter (1984-present) Carol Eve Rossen (1966-1979) Ruby Holbrook (1945-1965) |
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Harold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. (born February 17, 1925) is an American actor.[2] Best known for his appearances in several TV series such as Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo, He is also well known for his role in the recent film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Academy Award.[3] He is married to actress Dixie Carter.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Holbrook was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Aileen (née Davenport), a vaudeville dancer, and Harold Rowe Holbrook, Sr.[4] He was raised in South Weymouth, Massachusetts. Holbrook graduated from the Culver Academies and Denison University, where an honors project about Mark Twain led him to develop the one-man show he is best known for, a series of performances called Mark Twain Tonight for which he won both a Tony and a Drama Desk Award.[2] Holbrook served in the US Army in World War II and was stationed in Newfoundland, where he performed in little theatre, including the play Madam Precious.
[edit] Career
According to Playbill, Holbrook's first solo performance as Twain was at Lock Haven State Teachers College in Pennsylvania in 1954. Ed Sullivan saw him and gave Holbrook his first national exposure on his February 12, 1956 show. Holbrook was also a member of the Valley Players (1941-1962), a summer stock theater company based in Holyoke, Massachusetts. He was a member of the cast for several years and performed Mark Twain Tonight as the 1957 season opener.[5] The State Department even sent him on a European tour, which included pioneering appearances behind the Iron Curtain. In 1959, Holbrook first played the role Off-Broadway. Columbia Records recorded an LP of excerpts from the show.
In 1967, Mark Twain Tonight was presented on television by CBS and Xerox, and Holbrook received an Emmy for his performance. Holbrook's Twain first played on Broadway in 1966, and again in 1977 and 2005; Holbrook was at least 80 years old during his most recent Broadway run, older (for the first time) than the character he was portraying. Holbrook won a Tony Award for the performance in 1966. Mark Twain Tonight has repeatedly toured across the country in what as of 2005 has amounted to over 2000 performances. In 1964, Holbrook played the role of the Major in the original production of Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy. In 1968, he was one of the replacements for Richard Kiley in the original Broadway production of Man of La Mancha, although he had limited singing ability.
Holbrook co-starred with Martin Sheen in the controversial and acclaimed 1972 television movie That Certain Summer said to be the first television movie to portray homosexuality in a sympathetic, non-judgemental light. In 1976, Holbrook won further acclaim for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in a series of television specials based on Carl Sandburg's acclaimed biography. He has also starred in many films and TV programs. He won an Emmy for Lead Actor in a Dramatic Series in the 1970 TV series, "The Bold Ones: The Senator". In 1979 he starred, with Katharine Ross, Barry Bostwick, and Richard Anderson in the made-for-TV movie, "Murder by Natural Causes".
Early in his career he worked on stage and in a television soap opera, The Brighter Day. Holbrook is also famous for his role as the enigmatic Deep Throat (whose identity was unknown at the time) in the film All the President's Men. More recently, Holbrook appeared as a featured guest star in a 2006 episode of the HBO series The Sopranos.
Holbrook has appeared in at least six movies in which he is part of a conspiracy: Fletch Lives, Magnum Force, The Star Chamber, Capricorn One, All the President's Men, and The Firm.
Holbrook appeared on Fisher Investments' infomercials.
In 2000 he appeared in Men of Honor where he portrayed a racist officer who ensured the failure of an African-American diver trainee.
He appeared in Sean Penn's critically acclaimed film Into the Wild (2007) and received an Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role at the 80th Academy Awards. This renders Holbrook, at age 82, the oldest nominee in Academy Award history in the Best Supporting Actor category. On December 20, 2007, Holbrook was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for his work in the film.[3] In late August 2007 through mid-September he starred as the narrator in the Hartford Stage production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town.
[edit] Filmography
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[edit] Further reading
- Holbrook, Hal. (1959). Mark Twain Tonight! An Actor's Portrait. New York: Ives Washburn.
- Young, Jordan R. (1989). Acting Solo: The Art of One-Person Shows. Beverly Hills: Past Times Publishing Co.
[edit] References
- ^ "Hal Holbrook at the Internet Movie Database". Biography. Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
- ^ a b "Hal Holbrook at the Internet Broadway Database". Awards. Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
- ^ a b "Hal Holbrook at the Internet Movie Database". awards. Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
- ^ Hal Holbrook Biography (1925-)
- ^ http://holyokehistory.blogspot.com/ Holyoke History Room & Archives Valley Players Collection (1941-1993). HPLA2007.527
[edit] External links
- Hal Holbrook at the Internet Movie Database
- Hal Holbrook at the Internet Broadway Database
- Hal Holbrook profile, NNDB
- Biography and story about his return to Broadway from Playbill
- 2004 Story on Holbrook from NOW
- State of Mississippi Resolution
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