Much-lauded actor Hal Holbrook, who has had a stupendously successful career that spanned seven decades, died on January 23, several weeks short of his 96th birthday. Joyce Cohen, the actor’s assistant, confirmed his death on Monday night, February 1st.
Holbrook, winner of Tony and Emmy Awards, starred on Broadway and Off-Broadway stages, toured widely nationally and internationally, and found success in film and on television. Yet, he is most remembered for his one-man portrayal of Mark Twain in Mark Twain Tonight!, a show he began working on in the late 1940s and won the best actor Tony for in1966. He also received an Emmy nomination for a TV adaptation of Mark Twain Tonight! in1967, the first of multiple nominations for his television work. Ultimately, Holbrook won four Emmy Awards.
Not so evident to most people, though, is Holbrook’s intersection with cabaret. When the Duplex was established in 1950 (in its original location on Grove Street), Holbrook was its booking manager and major domo. Not only was the Duplex of that era a launching platform for the likes of Barbra Streisand and Woody Allen, but Holbrook was a hands-on manager, literally building the wall that separated the two rooms of the club.
Harold Rowe “Hal” Holbrook, Jr. was born in Cleveland, OH on February 17, 1925. Abandoned by his parents when he was two, he was raised in South Weymouth, MA. by grandparents. He attended high school at the Culver Military Academy in Indiana and then enrolled at Ohio’s Denison University as a drama major. When World War II intervened, Holbrook signed on with the Army. While stationed at St. John’s, Newfoundland, he not only joined an amateur theater group, but met his first wife, Ruby Johnston. In completing his education at Denison after the war, his fascination with Twain was born. Post graduation, the Holbrooks took their act, portraying great personalities of history, on the road for four years—performing for schoolchildren, ladies’ clubs, college students and Rotarians. The Mark Twain sketch proved to be their most popular. Holbrook began developing Twain as a one-man show in 1952, perfecting it to his satisfaction by 1954. Ed Sullivan, catching the act, invited him on his Sunday evening television show in February 1956, providing Holbrook with his first national exposure. Mark Twain from there became a staple of Holbrook’s acting life.
He made his Broadway debut in 1961in the short-lived Do You Know the Milky Way? Holbrook also played the role of the Major in the original Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s Incident at Vichy in 1964. Despite limited vocal abilities he was one of the replacements for Richard Kiley in the original Broadway production of Man of La Mancha. Other stage roles included Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, Shakespeare’s Hotspur and King Lear, and the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.
With a penchant for portraying historical and larger-than-life characters, Holbrook starred as the title character in the 1976 NBC miniseries “Lincoln.” He also played Lincoln in an Off-Broadway production of Abe Lincoln in Illinois in 1963. He was the influential Republican Preston Blair in Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film, Lincoln, played the title role in the The Kidnapping of the President and a senior judge in The Star Chamber. Holbrook was John Adams in the 1984 miniseries “George Washington.”
On television, Holbrook appeared in the soap opera “The Brighter Day” from 1954 through 1959. In 1972, ahead of his time, received an Emmy nomination for ABC’s “That Certain Summer,” playing a father who reveals his homosexuality to his son, played by Martin Sheen. He also appeared on “Designing Women,” “The West Wing,” “The Sopranos.” FX’s “Sons of Anarchy” and NBC’s “The Event.” In 2017, Holbrook appeared on the final season of “Bones” and also in an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Hawaii Five-0.” As a narrator, he won an Emmy for 1989’s “Alaska” segment of the “Portrait of America” documentary series.
In film, Holbrook received an Oscar nomination in 2008 at age 82 for supporting actor—the oldest performer in Oscar history to be so recognized—for his role in the film Into the Wild. Other notable films included All the President’s Men, where as Deep Throat he spoke the now famous line, “Follow the money!” Holbrook also appeared in Magnum Force, Wall Street, Promised Land and Water for Elephants.
Holbrook’s memoir “Harold: The Boy Who Became Mark Twain” was published in September 2011 and in 2014 he was the subject of the documentary “Holbrook/Twain: An American Odyssey,” directed by Scott Teems.
Holbrook was married three times. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1965. His second marriage, to actress Carol Eve Rossen, ended in divorce in 1983. In 1984 he married actress Dixie Carter, who died in 2010. He is survived by three children and two stepdaughters, as well as two grandchildren and two step-grandchildren.
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