Sheldon Vanauken was a poet and novelist best known for his memoir
A Severe Mercy (1977), about converting to Christianity and his wife’s unexpected death at age forty. A less famous sequel,
Under the Mercy, was published, to less acclaim, in 1985.
Vanauken, the son of Glenn and Grace Hanselman Vanauken, was born Frank Sheldon Vanauken in DeKalb County, Indiana, on August 4, 1914. Van, as he preferred to be called, first visited Virginia when he attended Staunton Military Academy during the 1928–1929 school year. He also attended Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, and in 1938 he graduated from Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Vanauken served as a naval officer during World War II (1939–1945) and was at Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. (In 1991, on the fiftieth anniversary of Pearl Harbor, he recalled in a letter to the
WWII Vet Hal Holbrook, Known for Accurate Portrayal of Mark Twain, Dies at 95
FILE - Actor Hal Holbrook appears during an interview in his New York apartment on Feb. 8, 1973. (AP Photo/Jerry Mosey, File)
2 Feb 2021 The Los Angeles Times | By Dennis McLellan
Hal Holbrook, the World War II Army veteran best known for his amazingly accurate portrayal of Mark Twain in the renowned one-man show he performed on stages for more than five decades, has died. He was 95.
Holbrook’s former wife Carol Rossen confirmed his death. The New York Times said he died Jan. 23 at his home in Beverly Hills, California.
Actor Hal Holbrook, known for portrayal of Mark Twain, dies at 95
Updated Feb 02, 2021;
Posted Feb 02, 2021
Hal Holbrook at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Monday, March 16, 2015. The actor has died, his family announced. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, file)Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
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By Dennis McLellan, the Los Angeles Times (TNS)
Hal Holbrook, the actor best known for his amazingly accurate portrayal of Mark Twain in the renowned one-man show he performed on stages for more than five decades, has died. He was 95.
Holbrook’s former wife Carol Rossen confirmed his death. The New York Times said he died Jan. 23 at his home in Beverly Hills, California.
By DENNIS MCLELLAN | Los Angeles Times | Published: February 2, 2021 LOS ANGELES (Tribune News Service) Hal Holbrook, the actor best known for his amazingly accurate portrayal of Mark Twain in the renowned one-man show he performed on stages for more than five decades, has died. He was 95. Holbrook s former wife Carol Rossen confirmed his death. The New York Times said he died Jan. 23 at his home in Beverly Hills. Holbrook s Tony Award-winning Twain re-creation on Broadway in 1966 was part of an acting career that spanned stage, movies and television. He first encountered Twain when he portrayed the legendary author and humorist in a two-person sketch that was part of a multi-character revue Holbrook and his first wife took on a high school assembly tour of the Southwest in the late 1940s.