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Post by petrolino on Oct 13, 2017 18:29:55 GMT
Hal Holbrook has decided it's time to call it a day and make no more public appearances as Mark Twain. 'Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain' by Mark Dawidziak Holbrook has spent a lifetime battling authority and giving the poor and disenfranchised a mouthpiece. Sometimes he takes a lot of heat - for example, his open letter in defense of Nate Parker's controversial feature 'The Birth Of A Nation' (2016) - but this doesn't deter him, it drives him on. "Lincoln has been portrayed on film and television over 270 times since the dawn of celluloid. That's predictable enough, given his overarching prominence in American history, but one wonders too if the American acting profession still bears the taint of John Wilkes Booth on its collective conscience, so eager have so many of their number been to play Lincoln. (Incidentally, the killer's more talented actor-brother Edwin Booth lived for another half-century, and was a good friend to the parents of actor-director Raoul Walsh, who played Booth in DW Griffith's The Birth of A Nation; now that's some role-research!) Griffith's own Lincoln was played by Joseph Henabery. But the actor whose real stock in trade was Lincoln in the early 'teens was one Francis Ford, directorial mentor and elder brother to the cantankerous genius John Ford. John's fondness for Lincoln surfaced over and over in his work, even though he never let his brother play the role in one of his own movies. Thus Lincoln shows up in Ford's great silent breakthrough The Iron Horse, in 1925, and then briefly in 1936's The Prisoner Of Shark Island, a thriller about the aftermath of Lincoln's murder (called Je n'ai pas tue Lincoln for its French release), in which Francis only got to play comic relief. So often did John torment his elder brother – because, grouchy alcoholic prick that he was, he hated to acknowledge a debt – one has to wonder if he cast Francis in a minor part in Young Mr Lincoln simply to let him witness, day after day, his own signature role being forever obliterated by Henry Fonda's entrancing new reading. Between Fonda and Day-Lewis we have seen Sam Waterston as Gore Vidal's syphilitic Lincoln, and Jason Robards voicing Lincoln in a 1992 PBS documentary miniseries. Spielberg's Lincoln actually contains two, possibly three Lincolns, given that cast member Hal Holbrook has played Abe twice, once in the fondly remembered Carl Sandburg series, and again in North And South."
- John Patterson, The Guardian
"I have another new piece that I think was pretty chancy to add in, and that has to do with Mark Twain's thoughts on the Christian Bible. It’s about how people use the Bible without even understanding what Jesus is saying in it. And I am telling you, it is right on the nose. As a religious nation, we have a tremendous lack of understanding of what Jesus Christ is telling us. We turn it into something else and make a mess of it. That's what happens when you marry politics to religion. That’s what we’ve done, and it is creating a big problem in this country. Politics and religion do not go well together.”
- Hal Holbrook, speaking at the Denver Center For Performing Arts in 2015
"A word of advice to journalists and political junkies of all stripes: When given the chance to interview Hal Holbrook, don't turn it down. You won't be disappointed."
- David Ng, The Los Angeles Times
Hal Holbrook holds Elizabeth Montgomery
Hal Holbrook returns to Denison University
Keep fighting the good fight, Mr Holbrook.
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Post by teleadm on Oct 14, 2017 15:07:01 GMT
OMG Is he still around!!! Fantastic!!  Karl Formes, First actor to play Mark Twain on film (??) 1921 |
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Post by petrolino on Oct 14, 2017 15:12:32 GMT
OMG Is he still around!!! Fantastic!! Karl Formes, First actor to play Mark Twain on film (??) 1921 Val Kilmer has a one-man stage show called 'Citizen Twain' in which he plays Mark Twain. He's expressed a desire to make it into a movie. |
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Post by teleadm on Oct 14, 2017 15:25:20 GMT
OMG Is he still around!!! Fantastic!! Karl Formes, First actor to play Mark Twain on film (??) 1921 Val Kilmer has a one-man stage show called 'Citizen Twain' in which he plays Mark Twain. He's expressed a desire to make it into a movie. is it fat Val or well trimmed Val? |
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Post by petrolino on Oct 14, 2017 15:35:52 GMT
Val Kilmer has a one-man stage show called 'Citizen Twain' in which he plays Mark Twain. He's expressed a desire to make it into a movie. is it fat Val or well trimmed Val? It's actually his sister, Valerie. Valerie Kilmer.  |
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Post by petrolino on Feb 2, 2021 15:17:47 GMT
Huckleberry Finn & Mark Twain
Transformation
In Memory of Hal Holbrook ~ Rest in Eternal Peace
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Post by politicidal on Feb 2, 2021 18:15:57 GMT
R.I.P.
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Post by spiderwort on Feb 2, 2021 21:03:42 GMT
Mr. Holbrook was a formidable talent on the stage, screen, and tv. I would have loved to have seen him in the Broadway produtions of Incident at Vichy and I Never Sang for My Father. I did see and loved his Mark Twain stage production on tv. So thankful for that. I also loved him in so many of his film roles, especially as Deep Throat in All the President's Men, as Martin Sheen's lover in the ground-breaking tv movie, That Certain Summer, in his Oscar nominated role in Into the Wild, and as Shirley Booth's son in the 1966 tv version of The Glass Menagerie. In addition to his Oscar nomination he received 10 Emmy nominations and won 4. He was a wonderful talent whose legacy is large.
May he rest in peace.
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Post by hi224 on Feb 3, 2021 12:07:21 GMT
Hal Holbrook has decided it's time to call it a day and make no more public appearances as Mark Twain. 'Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain' by Mark Dawidziak Holbrook has spent a lifetime battling authority and giving the poor and disenfranchised a mouthpiece. Sometimes he takes a lot of heat - for example, his open letter in defense of Nate Parker's controversial feature 'The Birth Of A Nation' (2016) - but this doesn't deter him, it drives him on. "Lincoln has been portrayed on film and television over 270 times since the dawn of celluloid. That's predictable enough, given his overarching prominence in American history, but one wonders too if the American acting profession still bears the taint of John Wilkes Booth on its collective conscience, so eager have so many of their number been to play Lincoln. (Incidentally, the killer's more talented actor-brother Edwin Booth lived for another half-century, and was a good friend to the parents of actor-director Raoul Walsh, who played Booth in DW Griffith's The Birth of A Nation; now that's some role-research!) Griffith's own Lincoln was played by Joseph Henabery. But the actor whose real stock in trade was Lincoln in the early 'teens was one Francis Ford, directorial mentor and elder brother to the cantankerous genius John Ford. John's fondness for Lincoln surfaced over and over in his work, even though he never let his brother play the role in one of his own movies. Thus Lincoln shows up in Ford's great silent breakthrough The Iron Horse, in 1925, and then briefly in 1936's The Prisoner Of Shark Island, a thriller about the aftermath of Lincoln's murder (called Je n'ai pas tue Lincoln for its French release), in which Francis only got to play comic relief. So often did John torment his elder brother – because, grouchy alcoholic prick that he was, he hated to acknowledge a debt – one has to wonder if he cast Francis in a minor part in Young Mr Lincoln simply to let him witness, day after day, his own signature role being forever obliterated by Henry Fonda's entrancing new reading. Between Fonda and Day-Lewis we have seen Sam Waterston as Gore Vidal's syphilitic Lincoln, and Jason Robards voicing Lincoln in a 1992 PBS documentary miniseries. Spielberg's Lincoln actually contains two, possibly three Lincolns, given that cast member Hal Holbrook has played Abe twice, once in the fondly remembered Carl Sandburg series, and again in North And South."
- John Patterson, The Guardian
"I have another new piece that I think was pretty chancy to add in, and that has to do with Mark Twain's thoughts on the Christian Bible. It’s about how people use the Bible without even understanding what Jesus is saying in it. And I am telling you, it is right on the nose. As a religious nation, we have a tremendous lack of understanding of what Jesus Christ is telling us. We turn it into something else and make a mess of it. That's what happens when you marry politics to religion. That’s what we’ve done, and it is creating a big problem in this country. Politics and religion do not go well together.”
- Hal Holbrook, speaking at the Denver Center For Performing Arts in 2015
"A word of advice to journalists and political junkies of all stripes: When given the chance to interview Hal Holbrook, don't turn it down. You won't be disappointed."
- David Ng, The Los Angeles Times
Hal Holbrook holds Elizabeth Montgomery
Hal Holbrook returns to Denison University
Keep fighting the good fight, Mr Holbrook.
Also starred with Al Pacino within a play as well. |
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Post by petrolino on Feb 4, 2021 14:35:43 GMT
Also starred with Al Pacino within a play as well.
It's a bit difficult to see their faces, but this is apparently Barry Primus, Barbara Harris and Hal Holbrook in rehearsals for a play by Arthur Miller. It's a dynamic photograph taken during the early stages of the theatrical process.
Barry Primus and Barbara Harris rehearse scenes with Hal Holbrook for director Harold Clurman
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Post by timshelboy on Feb 4, 2021 14:38:59 GMT
He got half a page in the Telegraph obits
Here is a neat TV thriller from 1979 in which he has the lead opposite a scheming Katharine Ross
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Post by spiderwort on Feb 4, 2021 15:32:21 GMT
Also starred with Al Pacino within a play as well.
It's a bit difficult to see their faces, but this is apparently Barry Primus, Barbara Harris and Hal Holbrook in rehearsals for a play by Arthur Miller. It's a dynamic photograph taken during the early stages of the theatrical process.
Barry Primus and Barbara Harris rehearse scenes with Hal Holbrook for director Harold Clurman
Would love to know what play this is. "Incident at Vichy," maybe, but I don't remember a woman in the cast (though my memory isn't what it used to be). Clurman was a giant in American Theatre. I took a class with him once years ago. He was fascinating, passionate, and incredibly knowledgeable. Highly recommend two of his books, "On Directing," and "The Fervent years." The latter is about the seminal Group Theatre in the 1930s. He was one of its founders, along with Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg.
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Post by petrolino on Feb 4, 2021 16:12:08 GMT
It's a bit difficult to see their faces, but this is apparently Barry Primus, Barbara Harris and Hal Holbrook in rehearsals for a play by Arthur Miller. It's a dynamic photograph taken during the early stages of the theatrical process.
Barry Primus and Barbara Harris rehearse scenes with Hal Holbrook for director Harold Clurman
Would love to know what play this is. "Incident at Vichy," maybe, but I don't remember a woman in the cast (though my memory isn't what it used to be). Clurman was a giant in American Theatre. I took a class with him once years ago. He was fascinating, passionate, and incredibly knowledgeable. Highly recommend two of his books, "On Directing," and "The Fervent years." The latter is about the seminal Group Theatre in the 1930s. He was one of its founders, along with Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg.
It's not one I'm familiar with; it's called 'The Creation Of The World And Other Business' (1972).
"Hal Holbrook and Barbara Harris, at left, the original Lucifer and Eve. Susan Batson, at right, who replaced Miss Harris, and in turn was replaced, below, by Zoe Caldwell, while George Grizzard played Lucifer.
Once they have been signed for a part, actors are able to whip themselves into spirals of enthusiasm for even the creakiest play. So imagine the euphoria that enfolded the nine players who were chosen last summer for the cast of Arthur Miller's “The Creation of the World and Other Business.”
“Doing this play was the zenith for almost all of us,” said Stephen Elliott, who plays. God, in his dressing room at the Shubert Theater a few days before last Thursday's opening.
“I said to myself, ‘An Arthur Miller play is a work of art,’ said Barry Primus, the Cain: of the cast. “When we first saw the script, every punctuation mark was sacred to us.”"
- Tom Buckley, The New York Times
Harold Clurman oversees rehearsals for 'The Creation Of The World And Other Business'
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Post by spiderwort on Feb 4, 2021 23:09:22 GMT
It's not one I'm familiar with; it's called 'The Creation Of The World And Other Business' (1972).
How interesting. Not one I'm familiar with either. Thanks a lot for the info. I need to check it out.
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