Hal Holbrook, an award-winning actor praised for his one-man image of American literary legend Mark Twain and whose film work includes the depiction of the mysterious ‘Deep Throat’ in ‘All the President’s Men’, has died at 95, New York Times Tuesday reported.
Holbrook died on January 23 at his home in Beverly Hills, California, the New York Times reported. His death is said to have been confirmed late Monday by his assistant, Joyce Cohen.
In 2008, at the age of 82, Holbrook became the oldest male artist ever to be nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role in ‘Into the Wild’.
But it was his relaxation from the respected American novelist, humorist and social critic in “Mark Twain Tonight” that earned Holbrook his greatest fame. This earned him a Tony Award for his Broadway performance in 1966 and the first of his ten Emmy nominations in 1967.
Holbrook was still a young man in the mid – fifties when he played the role of Twain, who died in 1910 at the age of 75, and his first major exposure came when he performed the popular “The Ed Sullivan Show “.
He performed it for former President Dwight Eisenhower and during an international tour sponsored by the US State Department. He continued with his Twain act until his 90s.
“Mark Twain is something precious to me. It’s my side arm through life,” Holbrook told NPR in 2007.
Holbrook said he tackled the Twain character after trying to find a figure 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 nightclubs in New York and took it to Broadway for the first time in 1959.
With makeup, wig, bushy white mustache, white suit and a cigar, Holbrook had a striking resemblance to the author at age 70 when he delivered a monologue from Twain’s writings and speeches on varying topics. from religion to politics to human flaws. He said he has performed the show ever since and in every state, as well as around the world, every year.
High, with a worthy reserve, Holbrook also gave leading performances of Abraham Lincoln and won an Emmy for Leading Actor in a Limited Series in 1976 for presentations based on Carl Sandburg’s biography of the president.
He also won Emmys for a television special that Captain Lloyd Bucher played in ‘Pueblo’ in 1973 and starred in a dramatic series in 1970 for the series ‘The Bold Ones: The Senator’.
Other important roles were as ‘the lead role’ 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 has, and as ‘Deep’. Throat, ‘the most important source in the Watergate scandal that ruined Richard Nixon’s presidency, in the 1976 film’ All the President’s Men ‘.
Holbrook was born on February 17, 1925 in Cleveland and his mother was a vaudeville dancer. After serving in the Army in Newfoundland during World War II, Holbrook visited Denison University in Granville, Ohio, where his senior honors project was at Twain.
He toured small towns as Twain and then took the show off Broadway, where it was a hit that launched his career. Holbrook appeared as Twain in about 2000.
His other films include “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 played a recurring role with Carter, a star of the sitcom “Designing Women”, ring role, who passed away in April 2010 at the age of 70.