Hal Holbrook, the award-winning character actor who toured the world as a one-man show for over 50 years as Mark Twain and the immortal board ‘Follow the Money’ in the classic political thriller ‘All the President’s Men’. deceased. He was 95.
Chris Pizzello / Invision / AP
Holbrook died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, on January 23, his publicist, Steve Rohr, told CBS News on Tuesday.
Actors across the spectrum lament the passing of Holbrook, including Bradley Whitford, who called him an ‘incredible actor’, and Viola Davis, who wrote “RIP to the always wonderful Hal Holbrook.”
Holbrook has pursued a busy career in theater, television and film, winning five Emmies and a Tony. His more than two dozen film credits ranged from ‘Lincoln’ by Steven Spielberg to ‘Wall Street’ by Oliver Stone. He was also a regular presence on TV and appeared in programs such as ‘The West Wing’, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘Bones’.
But his most famous film was a key source for Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward (played by Robert Redford) in the 1976 adaptation of “All the President’s Men,” Woodward’s best-selling report and co-reporter Carl Bernstein on their investigation into Richard Nixon’s administration and the Watergate scandal that led to his resignation.
Holbrook played the mysterious informant ‘Deep Throat’ (who later turned out to be an FBI official Mark Felt) who provided key information to Woodward. The most famous tip uttered from the shadows of a parking garage – “Follow the money” – became an immediate expression, but was never said in real life. The rule was invented by screenwriter William Goldman.
‘Follow the money’ was perhaps his most famous film words, but Twain was his defining role. The association began in 1954 when an instructor at Denison University in Ohio gave Holbrook the role as part of a thesis assignment.
Holbrook and his first wife, Ruby Johnson, later created a two-part show that featured characters from Shakespeare to Twain. After their daughter, Victoria, was born, he started working on a one-man Twain show while working on the soap opera “The Brighter Day”.
Holbrook, who grew up in Cleveland, was 29 when he first appeared as Twain (pictured as 70) and eventually developed the role into a two-part one-man show called ‘Mark Twain Tonight!’, Which it to schools, nightclubs. and theaters. He took it to Broadway three times – 1966, 1977 and 2005 – and won a Tony Award for Best Dramatic Actor for the 1966 version.
“The truth is, he was a great company,” Holbrook told The Plain Dealer in 2017. ‘It would be an understatement to say I like him. He never ceases to amaze me. by his insight into the human character. So much of what he had to say more than 100 years ago is on the money for today. “
In 1959, after years of honing his material in small towns, Holbrook debuted his Twain in an outdoor Broadway theater in New York with great acclaim. “Mr. Holbrook’s material is exciting, his ability to hold an audience by performing is brilliant,” The New York Times reported. The New Yorker calls it a “brilliant display of virtuosity.”
Holbrook toured as Twain – with the author’s famous white suit and white hair – when he was not engaged in other acting. He updated the program to fit according to the times and played the role about 2,200 times in his account. He hung up the white suit in 2017.
“He has done a lot of work over the years, never less than first class, but the Twain performances have approached perfection and they will stay with me forever,” tweeted Michael McKean.
He was meticulous in his preparations, and he took as long as 3 1/2 hours to put on his make-up and insisted on excessive stage furniture so that at 6 feet he would not look larger than the 5 feet-8 1/2 . -inch Twain was. He read books by and about the author and searched newspaper files looking for interviews with Twain and stories about his lecture travels.
During a performance on the open side at Wolf Trap near Vienna, Virginia, lightning flashed and a thunderstorm cracked just as Holbrook grabbed the humidor for a cigar. He shakes backwards. A roar of laughter ensues. Holbrook looks out over his glasses at the audience. When he was heard again, he said, “He did not speak to you.”
Over the years, Holbrook has ‘Mark Twain Tonight!’ to numerous foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia. His audiences included Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Carter.
When he did not play Twain, Holbrook showed impressive versatility. He was Burt Reynolds’ stepfather-in-law in the TV series “Evening Shade” from the nineties. He appeared as Abraham Lincoln in two different miniseries on the 16th president and won one of his Emmies for the title role in the 1970-71 TV series “The Senator”.
Other notable stage credits were ‘After the Fall’, ‘Abe Lincoln in Illinois’ and ‘I Never Sang for My Father’. In 2008, at the age of 82, he received his first Oscar nomination for the portrayal of a lone widower who befriended the young wanderer Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch) in director Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild”.
In 1980, he met actress Dixie Carter when they both starred in the TV movie “The Killing of Randy Webster”. Although they were attracted to each other, each suffered two failed marriages and was initially cautious. They finally married in 1984, two years before Carter took on the role of Julia Sugarbaker in the long-running TV series “Designing Women”. Holbrook appeared regularly in the late 1980s as her boyfriend, Reese Watson. She passed away in 2010.
Holbrook had two children, Victoria and David, with his first wife, and a daughter, Evie, from his second marriage to actress Carol Rossen. He was stepfather to Mary Dixie Carter and Ginna Carter.
