EVER THE TWAIN (REMEMBERING HAL HOLBROOK)

 

Of all the tributes that were paid to Hal Holbrook, one from Steven Spielberg stood out.

The Academy Award winning director recalled how he first met Holbrook on the set of the NBC miniseries 'Senator' and was so impressed he vowed he would work with him one day.

Spielberg got to fulfil that ambition when he cast Holbrook as the newspaper editor Francis Preston Blair in 'Lincoln,' directing him in scenes with the star Daniel Day Lewis.

Holbrook was often cast in roles of great integrity and dignity but his glorious career as a character actor saw him work with some of the greatest actors and directors Hollywood has seen and he always held his own against them.

He was also an accomplished Emmy winning actor, appearing in shows ranging from 'Perry Mason,' to 'North and South','Becker,' 'ER,' 'The Sopranos,''The West Wing,' 'Sons of Anarchy' and 'Grey's Anatomy'.

But it was his deep connection with Mark Twain and the championing of his work that would help cement his status as an acting legend.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1925, his mother was a Vaudeville dancer but he and his two sisters were raised by their paternal grandparents in Weymouth, Massachusetts and then Lakewood, Ohio after being abandoned by his parents at the age of two.

A graduate of Culver Military Academy in Indiana.

Holbrook served in the US Army during World War II from 1942 to 1946, attaining the role of Staff Sergeant and he ended up being stationed in Newfoundland.

It was there where he developed a taste for acting, appearing in a number of local theatre productions.

In 1945, he married a local Ruby Elaine Johnston with whom he would have two children.

The marriage would last 20 years.

In 1966 he wed Carol Eve Rossen with whom he would have another child.

Their relationship lasted until 1983 and he married a third time in 1984, taking the singer Dixie Carter as his wife who he remained with until her passing in 2010 from endometrial cancer.

After his spell in the military, he attended the Ohio liberal arts college Dennison University, where he would develop his fascination with the writer Mark Twain which would see him build an acclaimed one man show known as 'Mark Twain Tonight'

His first performance of the show was in 1954 at Lock Haven State Teachers College in Pennsylvania and eventually he would perform it across Europe with the support of the US State Department and also off Broadway.

It would be recorded on an album by CBS and for TV, as well as having Broadway revivals in 1966, 1975 and 2005.

There were US tours too that continued up to 2017 when, at the age of 92, it was estimated the had performed the show over 2,100 times, including for President Dwight D Eisenhower.

His one-man show in 1954 effectively launched his career, gaining national exposure with an appearance on CBS's 'The Ed Sullivan Show' and he also performed shows as a member of the Valley Players, a summer theatre troupe based in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

The success of 'Mark Twain Tonight' led to him landing his first TV role in a CBS soap opera set in Wisconsin 'The Brighter Day' in which he played Grayling Dennis, one of three grown up children of a Reverend.

The show, which originated on NBC radio, ran for eight years on television.

The profile he built for his one-man show also led to him being employed by the Bell Telephone Company for an audio-visual ride at the 1964/65 World Fair in New York that used 65 screens called 'The Ride of Communications,' in an installation created by Jo Mielziner.

In 1964, he appeared on Broadway in a production of Arthur Miller's 'Incident at Vichy' with Michael Strong and Paul Mann about a number of Frenchmen detained by the Nazis and local police sympathetic to their cause.

However the play ended after a run of only 32 performances.

In 1966, Holbrook took on the role of Tom Wingfield in a widely praised CBS Playhouse adaptation of Tennessee Williams' 'The Glass Menagerie' with Shirley Booth, Barbara Loden and Pat Hingle.

He made his feature film debut in Sidney Lumet's 1964 drama 'The Group' with Candice Bergen, Shirley Knight, Joan Hackett, Elizabeth Hartman, Richard Mulligan and Larry Hagman, a drama about the lives of eight women which was a minor hit.

Holbrook's 1967 performance of 'Mark Twain Tonight' on CBS earned him an Emmy nomination - a year after capturing a Tony Award for his performance onstage.

In 1967 and 1968, he was coaxed into being the narrator on the mostly live action but partially animated ABC 'The Wizard of Oz' inspired anthology series 'We're Off To See The Wizard' which also saw Chuck Jones involved as an executive producer.

There was a more substantial movie role as a Kennedyesque Senate candidate in Barry Shear's 1968 'Wild in the Streets' with Christopher Jones, Shelley Winters and Richard Pryor which divided critics.

That year he appeared in Martin Ritt's the Mafia movie 'The Brotherhood,' with Kirk Douglas, Irene Papas, Murray Hamilton and Alex Cord but it bombed at the box office. 

Holbrook's appearance in 1969 in the pilot for the NBC legal drama 'The Bold Ones: The Lawyers,' earned him another Emmy nomination for his supporting role.

It led to him taking on the role of Senator Hays Stowe in the nine episode spin-off 'The Bold Ones: The Senator' whose directors included Jon Badham and whuch led to his first encounter with Spielberg.

Holbrook received two other Emmy nominations- the first in a Best Actor category for its pilot in 1969 and the second for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series.

Martin Ritt directed Holbrook again in the well received 1970 boxing drama 'Thr Great White Hope' with James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander.

His performance as a father who hides his homosexuality from his son in Lamont Johnson's 1972 ABC TV movie 'That Certain Summer' with Martin Sheen and Scott Jacoby was widely praised and landed him another Emmy nomination for Best Single Performance by a Lead Actor.

In 1973, Holbrook turned up in the 'Dirty Harry' sequel, Ted Post's 'Magnum Force' as Clint Eastwood's superior in a twisty police thriller which proved even more successful than the original.

In 1974, Holbrook finally broke his duck in the Emmys capturing the Best Lead Actor in a Drama as the commanding officer of a US Navy vessel caught spying off the coast of North Korea in 'Pueblo'.

Essentially a videotaped stage production, director Anthony Page's film about the capture and incarceration of the crew with Ronny Cox and Andrew Duggan for ABC earned wide acclaim.

Holbrook also received a special Emmy Actor of the Year Award for his performance.

That year he co-starred with Goldie Hawn in George Feifer's Iron Curtain comedy 'The Girl from Petrovka' in which he played an American journalist who gets involved with a Soviet ballet dancer.

Feifer's movie took a critical hammering, with Hawn taking the bulk of the flak.

In 1976, Holbrook would have the pivotal role of Deep Throat in Alan J Pakula's Watergate journalism drama 'All the President's Men' with Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Robards, Jack Warden and Martin Balsam.

With Holbrook featuring in the movie's iconic rendezvous scenes in which he fed information to Redford's Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, the film was an instant classic and a big critical and commercial success.

He joined Henry Fonda, Charlton Heston, James Coburn, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Mitchum, Glenn Ford, Pat Morita and Cliff Robertson that year in Jack Smight's 'Midway' about the 1942 World War II battle with Japan - playing a Naval Commander in a big budget box office hit which drew mostly positive reviews

There was another Emmy Best Actor win in 1976 for his performance as Abraham Lincoln in the acclaimed NBC miniseries 'Sandburg's Lincoln' whose cast included Sada Thompson, James Carroll Jordan, John Randolph and Richard Dysart.

He played a lawyer whose family opts to eke out a life in the wilds of Ohio in another Emmy nominated role for the NBC post-American Revolution family drama 'The Awakening Land' with Elizabeth Montgomery and Jane Seymour.

Holbrook scored a double Emmy nomination for his performance as The Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder's 'Our Town' on NBC with Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor, directed to much acclaim by George Schaefer.

In 1977, he joined Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards, Maximilian Schell, Rosemary Murphy and Meryl Streep in Fred Zinneman's Oscar winning drama 'Julia' about the relationship between the writer Lilian Hellman and a woman fighting against the Nazis.

That year, he played a NASA official who forces James Brolin, Sam Waterston and OJ Simpson's astronauts to fake a moon landing after their launch fails in Peter Hyams' sci-fi conspiracy theory hit 'Capricorn One' with Elliott Gould.

In 1979, he joined Jeff Osterhage, Robert Davi and Carl Franklin in the NBC TV movie Western 'The Legend of the Golden Gun'.

Holbrook memorably played Father Malone in John Carpenter's 1980 horror film 'The Fog' with Jamie Lee Curtis and her mother Janet Leigh - a box office success which initially drew mixed reviews but has grown in popularity over the years.

In George Mendeluk's thriller 'The Kidnapping of the President' with William Shatner, Ava Gardner and Van Jonson he played a Commander in Chief who ignored warnings only to be abducted by a South American terrorist.

Sam Wannamaker directed him in in the 1981 CBS TV movie 'The Killing of Randy Webster' which starred his future third wife Dixie Carter, Jennifer Jason Leigh, James Whitmore and Sean Penn in which he played a father who challenges the police account of his son's death in Houston.

Horror director George A Romero cast him as a Professor in the 1982 Stephen King anthology movie 'Creepshow' which also featured performances from Ted Danson, Adrienne Barbeau, Fritz Weaver and Leslie Nielsen and which did well at the box office and with critics.

He played a judge involved in ordering the assassination of people who walk free from court after escaping conviction for their crimes in Peter Hyams' critically lauded but commercially disappointing thriller 'The Star Chamber' with Michael Douglas, Yaphet Kotto and Sharon Gless.  

In 1984, Holbrook popped up as John Adams in the CBS miniseries 'George Washington' with Barry Bostwick, Patty Duke Astin, Lloyd Bridges, Jose Ferrer, Kelsey Grammer and Trevor Howard.

He joined Debbie Allen, Ned Beatty, Michael Beck and James Whitmore in NBC's miniseries 'Celebrity' about three high school friends who are involved in a fatal  rape and later pay the price after finding fame as a movie star, a journalist and a televangelist.

Holbrook was cast agsin as Abraham Lincoln in the popular, big budget, Golden Globe nominated 1985 ABC Civil War miniseries 'North and South' with James Read, Patrick Swayze, Lesley-Anne Down and Kirstie Alley and reprised the role in its sequel, 'North and South: Book II' in 1986.

He also played that year a US President under pressure to retaliate against an act of foreign terrorism on American soil in the NBC TV movie 'Under Siege' with Peter Strauss and Paul Winfield and joined Alec Baldwin, Lloyd Bridges and Lane Smith in Glenn Jordan's NBC military academy TV movie 'Dress Gray,' which written by Gore Vidal.

Holbrook had a recurring role as the love interest of Dixie Carter's Julia Sugarbaker in the first four seasons of the CBS interior design sitcom 'Designing Women' in 1986 with Annie Potts but he was killed off in the fifth season to enable him to play a newspaper owner in CBS's small town sitcom about a Pittsburgh Steelers American Footballer, 'Evening Shade' with Burt Reynolds, Marilu Henner and Ossie Davis.

The show ran for four seasons from 1990 but was cancelled by the network which blamed spiralling costs and wages for the stars - although Reynolds had been going through a difficult divorce from Loni Anderson at the time and was keen to exit.

Oliver Stone cast him as an old school trader and a voice of morality in his hit broker drama 'Wall Street' with Charlie Sheen, Michael Douglas, Daryl Hannah, Sean Young, Martin Sheen, James Spader, John C McGinley and Terence Stamp.

In 1987, he starred alongside Carol Burnett, Richard Crenna and Dabney Coleman in a TV version of Neil Simon's 'Plaza Suite' in which Burnett took on the three lead female roles but it received mixed reviews when it aired on ABC.

He popped up as a lovelorn doctor who pursues Sophia Loren's Lucia in the NBC's Mario Puzo family drama miniseries 'The Fortunate Pilgrim' with John Turturro and Edward James Olmos about a Neapolitan woman raising a family in Long Island.

There was a role as a villain in the lame 1989 comedy sequel 'Fletch Lives' with Chevy Chase, Julianne Phillips and R Lee Ermy.

Holbrook earned kudos for his portrayal of a therapist who is convinced of a murder suspect's innocence in Stephen Gyllenhaal's 1990 CBS TV movie 'Killing in a Small Town' with Barbara Hershey and Brian Dennehy.

He also played the senior partner in a corrupt law firm in Sydney Pollack's hit adaptation of John Grisham's legal thriller 'The Firm' with Tim Cruise, Gene Hackman,  Jeanne Trippelhorn, Holly Hunter, Ed Harris, David Strathairn and Wilford Brimley.

In 1994 and 1995, he made three appearances as the maverick lawyer Wild Bill McKenzie in episodes of 'Perry Mason' for NBC - one of which co-starred Dixie Carter and Diahann Carroll, another with Tony Curtis, Ken Kercheval and James Brolin and a third with Tony Roberts and Dyan Cannon.

There was an appearance as an Admiral in the 1997 Chuck Norris action film 'Operation Delta Force' before he started to appear as a guest star in shows like the Canadian American series 'The Outer Limits' and the CBS series 'Family Law' in which he played a judge.

In 1998, he joined Alan Richman, Emma Thompson, Gil Bellows and Philip Baker Hall in  Sebastian Gutierrez's thriller 'Judas Kiss' in which he played a US Senator but it got an unenthusiastic response from critics and audiences.

Gary Sinyor's 1999 romantic comedy 'The Bachelor' saw him play a priest alongside Chris O'Donnell, Renee Zellweger, Mariah Carey, Ed Asner, Peter Ustinov and James Cromwell in a film which scored a minor success at the box office despite an indifferent response from film critics.

Holbrook landed the part of a US Navy camp commander in George Tillman Jr's drama 'Men of Honour' with Cuba Gooding Jr and Robert de Niro which performed decently in cinemas despite mixed reviews.

Frank Darabont directed him alongside Jim Carrey, Martin Landau, Bob Balaban, James Whitmore and David Ogden Stiers in the 2001 historical romantic drama 'The Majestic' which failed to stir critics and audiences.

In 2001 and 2002, he appeared as Assistant Secretary of State Albie Duncan in two episodes in season three and four of NBC's 'The West Wing,' advising Martin Sheen's President Bartlett despite being an elderly Republican working in the State Department since the days of President Harry S Truman.

Holbrook guest starred in the ABC sitcom 'Hope and Faith' in 2005 before appearing as an elderly patient in the same hospital ward as James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano in a 2006 episode in the sixth season of HBO's 'The Sopranos'.

There was another Emmy nod for Outstanding Performance for Informational Programming for his work on the CNN documentary 'Portrait of America: New York City' in 1988 and for an episode the following year 'Portrait of America: Alaska'.

In 2008, he finally landed a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance as a widower who is an amateur leather worker in Sean Penn's gripping Alaskan adventure drama 'Into the Wild' with Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart and William Hurt.

Francis Lawrence's 2011 romantic circus drama 'Water for Elephants' saw him depict the older version of Robert Pattinson's character in a critically and commercial successful movie that also starred Reese Witherspoon, Christooh Waltz and the veteran Irish actor Jim Norton.

The following year saw him appear in Spielberg's critically and commercially successful 'Lincoln' which landed Daniel Day Lewis a third Best Actor Oscar and also featured Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, David Strathairn, Jared Harris and Bill Camp.

In Gus Van Sandt's 'Promised Land,' he played an elderly science teacher who challenges Matt Damon's energy company representative about the dangers of fracking in the taut 2012 drama featuring Frances McDormand, John Krasinski and Scoot McNairy.

Scott Teems released a well received 2014 documentary on him 'Holbrook/Twain: An American Odyssey' which charted his devotion to his one man show and was built around his 90th birthday performance of it in the writer's home town if Hartford, Connecticut.

In the latter part of his career, there were also small screen appearances as a guest star in 'NCIS,' 'ER,' 'Sons of Anarchy,' 'Bones,' 'Gray's Anatomy' and in 2017 in the 'Hawaii Five-O' reboot, as well as the recurring role of an elderly businessman in the 2016 NBC sci-fi action adventure series 'The Event' with Jason Ritter, Laura Innes and Blair Underwood but it was cancelled after one series.

He lent his voice in 2014 to the role of an old rescue truck in Bobs Gannaway's 3D Disney animation 'Planes: Fire and Rescue' whose voice cast included Teri Hatcher, Stacy Keach, Regina King, Ed Harris, Cedric the Entertainer, Julie Bowen and Wes Studi.

Holbrook's last movie role came in 2015 in Daniel Alfredsen's thriller 'Blackway' with Anthony Hopkins, Julia Stiles and Ray Liotta which was not widely seen after brutal reviews.

Not that it mattered as Holbrook had commanded the respect of his peers for seven decades.

In 2003, Holbrook was a recipient of a National Humanities Medal from President George W Bush who praised him for bringing the wit and wisdom of Mark Twain to thousands of people during his career.

Holbrook regarded himself as an independent politically, although more liberal in outlook.

He was particularly critical of the Republican Party's behaviour during Barack Obama's Presidency and in 2016 presciently observed that Donald Trump did not have the maturity to be a good President.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders drew his praise for his honesty and not resorting to saying things that were designed to get him elected.

In 2017, Holbrook took particular exception to President Donald Trump's immigration ban and castigated him for upending and destroying American values and trying to distort the American Dream. 

His passing this week resulted in tributes from the likes of Roma Downey, director Edgar Wright, 'West Wing' star Bradley Whitford, John Cusack, Viola Davis and 'Seinfeld' star Jason Alexander.

But one of the most striking came from 'This is Spinal Tap' and 'Better Call Saul' star Michael McKean who said: "I saw Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain twice, 50 years apart. 

"He did a ton of work over the years, never less than first rate, but the Twain performances approaced perfection and they will stay with me forever."

Holbrook undoubtedly left his mark onstage and onscreen and not just as Twain.

He was a solid presence on the big screen whose performance will be studied for decades to come.

(Hal Holbrook passed away at the age of 95 on February 2, 2021)