|
 Holbrook died on Jan. 23 at his
home in Beverly Hills, California, the New York
Times reported. It said his death was confirmed
late on Monday by his assistant, Joyce Cohen.
https://nyti.ms/3pHHnBw
In 2008, at age 82, Holbrook became the oldest
male performer ever nominated for an Academy
Award for his supporting role in "Into the
Wild."
But it was his recreation of the revered
American novelist, humorist and social critic in
"Mark Twain Tonight" that brought Holbrook his
greatest fame. It earned him a Tony award for
his Broadway performance in 1966 and the first
of his 10 Emmy nominations in 1967.
Holbrook was still a young man in the mid-1950s
when he crafted the role of Twain, who died in
1910 at age 75, and his first big exposure came
when he took the act to the popular "The Ed
Sullivan Show."
He performed it for former President Dwight
Eisenhower and in an international tour
sponsored by the U.S. State Department. He
continued with his Twain act well into his 90s.
"Mark Twain is something precious to me. It's my
side arm through life," Holbrook told NPR in
2007.
Holbrook said he took on the Twain persona after
trying to find a figure to portray in a one-man
play. He read a few pages of "The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer" and said he felt a connection.
He developed the act in New York City nightclubs
and first took it to Broadway in 1959.
With makeup, wig, bushy white mustache, white
suit and a cigar, Holbrook bore a striking
resemblance to the author at age 70 as he
delivered a monologue drawn from Twain's
writings and speeches on subjects ranging from
religion to politics to human frailties. He said
he had performed the show every year since and
in every state, as well as around the world.
Tall, with an air of dignified reserve, Holbrook
also gave distinguished portrayals of Abraham
Lincoln, winning an Emmy for lead actor in a
limited series in 1976 for specials based on
Carl Sandburg's biography of the president.
[to top of second column]
|
 He also won Emmys for a
television special playing Captain Lloyd Bucher
in 1973's "Pueblo" and as lead actor in a
dramatic series in 1970 for the series "The Bold
Ones: The Senator."
Other significant roles were as "the major" in
the original Broadway production of Arthur
Miller's "Incident at Vichy," as Martin Sheen's
partner in "That Certain Summer," the first TV
movie to give a sympathetic portrayal of
homosexuality, and as "Deep Throat," the key
source in the Watergate scandal that brought
down Richard Nixon's presidency, in the 1976
movie "All the President's Men."
Holbrook was born in Cleveland on Feb. 17, 1925,
and his mother was a vaudeville dancer. After
serving in the Army in Newfoundland during World
War Two, Holbrook attended Denison University in
Granville, Ohio, where his senior honors project
was on Twain.
He toured small towns as Twain, then took the
show off-Broadway where it was a hit that
launched his career. Holbrook made some 2,000
appearances as Twain.
His other films included "The Group" in 1966,
"Wild in the Streets" in 1968, "Magnum Force" in
1973, "The Star Chamber" and "Wall Street" in
1987, "The Firm" in 1993, "That Evening Sun" in
2009 with wife Dixie Carter, and Steven
Spielberg's "Lincoln" in 2012.
Holbrook had a recurring role with Carter, a
star of the sitcom "Designing Women," ring role,
who died in April 2010 at age 70.
(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing
by Bill Trott and Diane Craft)
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