Yes, He was a Great Actor...
I can't think of any role, that I saw him play, Where I didn't like his performance.
Some of my Favorites:
Movies:
"The Muppet Movie" (1979)
"When a Stranger Calls" (1979)
"The Final Countdown" (1980)
"The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" (1982)
TV:
"Everybody Loves Raymond" - as "Father Hubley" (1998–2002)
&
"Amazing Stories": S2 EP5: "You Gotta Believe Me" (1986)Charles Durning plays Earl...
Earl has a vivid nightmare of a Boeing 747 crashing into his home... While he explores his home and the wreckage...
He encounteres the passenger's ghosts. One of the crew mentions that they were forced to take off too soon, because there was a vehicle on the runway...
He then comes across the body of a little blonde girl, that has a robotic talking bear, which is repeating a part of the story about the "THREE BEARS"... Earl is then startled awake!
Earl then explores his house, and discoveres that it was just a dream... or was it?... It seemed so real to him, that he begins to wonder if maybe, the dream was a premonition... Eventually he goes to the airport near his home,
in his pajamas & robe, to look around...
As he starts to recognize the passengers, as being some of the ghosts he encountered in his dream...
...From a distance, he hears an earily familiar robotic talking bear, telling a story about the "THREE BEARS"... When he tracks the bear down, his worst fears are confirmed, when he learns it belongs to a little blonde girl...
Now convinced his dream, was in fact a premonition... Earl now tries to prevent the accident...
But, as one might expect... "people won't believe him"!
Can Earl Save The Day?