Hal Holbrook, Actor Who Channeled Mark Twain, Is Dead at 95
He carved out a substantial career in television and film but achieved the widest acclaim with his one-man stage show, playing Twain for more than six decades.
Hal Holbrook on stage as Mark Twain in 2005. Mr. Holbrook was 29 when he started playing Twain at 70; as he grew older, he found he needed less and less makeup to look elderly.Credit.Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
By Robert Berkvist
Feb. 2, 2021
Hal Holbrook, who carved out a substantial acting career in television and film but who achieved his widest acclaim onstage, embodying Mark Twain in all his craggy splendor and vinegary wit in a one-man show seen around the world, died on Jan. 23 at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 95.
Hal Holbrook, actor who channeled Mark Twain, dies at 95 He was the shadowy patriot Deep Throat in All the President s Men and an achingly grandfatherly character in Into the Wild, for which he received an Oscar nomination.
By Robert Berkvist New York Times February 2, 2021 8:08am Text size Copy shortlink:
Hal Holbrook, who carved out a substantial acting career in television and film but who achieved his widest acclaim onstage, embodying Mark Twain in all his craggy splendor and vinegary wit in a one-man show seen around the world, died Jan. 23 at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was 95.
His death was confirmed by his assistant, Joyce Cohen, on Monday night.
Actor Hal Holbrook, indelible portrayer of Mark Twain, dies at 95 Adam Bernstein In a remarkable feat of theatrical longevity, actor Hal Holbrook, who died Jan. 23 at 95, played Samuel Clemens better known as Mark Twain in a solo show for nearly as long as the American humorist and iconoclast was alive.
“Mark Twain Tonight!” which Mr. Holbrook conceived and debuted in 1954 earned him a Tony Award on Broadway in 1966 and captivated more than 20 million viewers in a CBS telecast in 1967. Into his 90s, he was still crisscrossing the globe, weaving Twain’s stories and quips into a peppery monologue about mankind’s pretensions and vices.
Hal Holbrook, who carved out a substantial acting career in television and film but who achieved his widest acclaim onstage, embodying Mark Twain in all his craggy splendour and vinegary wit in a one-man show seen around the world, died Jan. 23 at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was 95.
His death was confirmed by his assistant, Joyce Cohen, on Monday night.
Holbrook had a long and fruitful run as an actor. He was the shadowy patriot Deep Throat in “All the President’s Men” (1976); an achingly grandfatherly character in “Into the Wild” (2007), for which he received an Oscar nomination; and the influential Republican Preston Blair in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” (2012).
“George Washington.”
“If you know more about me than I do, what do you ask me for?”
The patients stared straight ahead “No one was looking at us,” Hal Holbrook wrote and guffawed at the laugh lines, proving that “the guys in the ward were saner than they looked” and that the material had legs.
The Twain piece became their most popular sketch over the next four years, as the couple crisscrossed the country performing for schoolchildren, ladies’ clubs, college students and Rotarians.
Hal Holbrook began developing his one-man show in 1952, the year Ruby Holbrook gave birth to their first child, Victoria. He soon looked the part, with a wig to match Twain’s unruly mop, a walrus moustache and a rumpled white linen suit, the kind Twain himself wore onstage. From his grandfather, Holbrook got an old penknife, which he used to cut the ends off the three cigars he smoked during a performance (though he was not sure whether Twain ever smoked onstage). He sought out