Conservative Political Forum

General Category => Entertainment => Movies => Topic started by: Solar on December 25, 2012, 07:18:26 PM

Title: Charles Durning
Post by: Solar on December 25, 2012, 07:18:26 PM
One of the greats passes.

Charles Durning grew up in poverty, lost five of his nine siblings to disease, barely lived through D-Day and was taken prisoner at the Battle of the Bulge.

His hard life and wartime trauma provided the basis for a prolific 50-year career as a consummate Oscar-nominated character actor, playing everyone from a Nazi colonel to the pope to Dustin Hoffman's would-be suitor in "Tootsie."

Durning, who died Monday at age 89 in New York, got his start as an usher at a burlesque theater in Buffalo, N.Y. When one of the comedians showed up too drunk to go on, Durning took his place. He would recall years later that he was hooked as soon as he heard the audience laughing.

He told The Associated Press in 2008 that he had no plans to stop working. "They're going to carry me out, if I go," he said.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20121225/DA3D2NR01.html (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20121225/DA3D2NR01.html)
Title: Re: Charles Durning
Post by: Darth Fife on December 27, 2012, 09:29:39 PM
Sorry to hear this. Although, I have to say, I didn't know he was still alive.
Title: Re: Charles Durning
Post by: Solar on December 28, 2012, 06:15:27 AM
Yeah, I hadn't seen him in anything new in a decade.