Other notable Durning movie roles included a cop in “Dog Day Afternoon,” a man who falls in love with Dustin Hoffman’s cross-dressing character in “Tootsie,” “Dick Tracy,” “Home for the Holidays,” “The Muppet Movie,” “North Dallas Forty” and “O Brother Where Art Thou?” “Whorehouse” was one of 13 movies Durning made with friend Burt Reynolds, as well as Reynolds’ 1990s TV sitcom “Evening Shade.” He gained his first substantial acting experience through the New York Shakespeare Festival starting in the early 1960s and won a Tony Award for playing Big Daddy in a 1990 Broadway revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”ĭurning did not start amassing film and TV credits until he was almost 40 but went on to appear in more than 100 movies, in addition to scores of TV shows.ĭurning’s first national exposure came playing a crooked policeman who gets conned by Robert Redford in the 1973 movie “The Sting.” He got the role after impressing director George Roy Hill with his work in the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning Broadway play “That Championship Season.”ĭurning had everyday looks - portly, thinning hair and a bulbous nose - and was a casting director’s delight, equally adept at comedy and drama.ĭurning was nominated for supporting-actor Oscars for playing a Nazi in the 1984 Mel Brooks comedy “To Be or Not to Be” and the governor in the musical “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” in 1983. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan confirmed Durning’s death to Reuters.ĭurning also was an accomplished stage actor and once said he preferred doing plays because of the immediacy they offered. REUTERS/Phil McCartenĭurning, who was nominated for nine Emmys for his television work as well as two Academy Awards, died of natural causes at his New York City home on Monday, his agent told People magazine. Charlie loved Christmas and if he could have chosen a time to pass, he would have chosen this day.Actor Charles Durning is interviewed at a ceremony where he receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood July 31, 2008. Some of Durning’s other best-known roles included his Tony-winning performance as Big Daddy in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, the governor in “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”, a beleaguered police officer in “Dog Day Afternoon” and as Doc Hopper, the owner of a frog leg restaurant in “The Muppet Movie.”ĭurning’s family, in a statement issued Tuesday, said, “Not only was Charlie a World War II hero but he was also a hero to his family. ![]() He also attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he trained with Jason Robards, Colleen Dewhurst and others. He worked odd jobs that ranged from professional boxing to teaching ballroom dancing to ushering in a burlesque house, where he got his start on stage by once filling in for a comic who failed to show up, the actor often recalled. Durning landed at Normandy on D-Day and fought in the Battle of the Bulge, receiving the Silver Star and three Purple Hearts. Photos: Notable people we've lost in 2012īorn in Highland Falls, New York, on February 28, 1923, Durning became an actor relatively late.Īccording to his TV Guide biography, Durning left home at age 16 and later enlisted in the Army.
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