![]() ![]() In 1972, director George Roy Hill, impressed by his performance in the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning That Championship Season, offered Durning a role in The Sting. He also appeared in Brian De Palma’s Hi, Mom! (1971), credited as Charles Durnham. During this period, he segued into TV, notching a stint as a police chief on the NBC soap opera Another World.ĭurning made his film debut in 1965, playing in Harvey Middleman, Fireman. He attracted the attention of Joseph Papp: Beginning in 1962, Durning appeared in 35 plays as part of the New York Shakespeare Festival. He plowed into his new calling, performing in roughly 50 Brooklyn stock company productions and in various off-Broadway plays. While working as an usher in a burlesque joint, Durning was hired to replace a drunken actor onstage. He fought on the same card as another future actor, Jack Warden, in New York’s Madison Square Garden. Durning took part in the Normandy invasion of France on D-Day, winning the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts.Īfter his military discharge, he held several jobs: elevator operator, ironworker, cab driver, dance instructor, boxer. Following high school, he served in the Army’s 1st Infantry Division during World War II. The son of an Army officer, he took classical dance lessons as a youth. The second youngest of five children, Durning was born Feb. He had a role in Scavenger Killers, a crime thriller scheduled to open next year starring Eric Roberts and Robert Loggia. With his stocky frame, he played Santa Claus five times in TV movies, often invigorating the “ho-ho” hum character with a curt edge. Resembling what one might envision as a grizzled cop, Durning excelled in congenial everyman roles and was a familiar character actor, if not a household name. He also did voice work for Family Guy and had a recurring role as a priest on Everybody Loves Raymond. He was nominated for nine Emmys, most recently for outstanding guest actor in a drama series for FX’s Rescue Me.ĭurning served as a regular on the Linda Bloodworth-Thomason sitcom Evening Shade, having previously played with that series’ star, Burt Reynolds, in the films Starting Over (1979) and Best Little Whorehouse. Long active on the stage, Durning won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Big Daddy in the Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1990.Īlso that year, he captured a Golden Globe for his role as “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald in the miniseries The Kennedys of Massachusetts, based on the book by Doris Kearns Goodwin. He also appeared in two Coen brothers films: The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). president in Twilight’s Last Gleaming (1977) and a formidable monsignor in Mass Appeal (1984). He was a frazzled police lieutenant in Dog Day Afternoon (1975), the U.S. ![]() His other memorable movie roles included playing Dustin Hoffman’s surprised suitor in Sydney Pollack‘s classic comedy Tootsie (1982). ![]()
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