Famed for his Mark Twain one-man show, actor Hal Holbrook dies at 95
In 1985, actor Hal Holbrook told an interviewer in Kalamazoo, Michigan, that American humorist-writer Mark Twain “has become integrated into my whole life … no matter what the subject, he’s always a tremendously amusing wise old bird.” By that time, Holbrook had been performing his one-man show, “Mark Twain Tonight” for 31 consecutive years just about the midpoint of its run. The actor went on, “I think it would be a pretty good idea to keep doing this every year until I drop dead.”
Hal Holbrook in 2007 (Wikimedia Commons/lukeford)
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.
Into the Wild (2007).
Wild in the Streets (1968); as the vigilante boss of police inspector Clint Eastwood in
Magnum Force (1973); as a NASA exec who engineers a fake Mars landing in
Capricorn One (1977); as a judge who takes matters into his own hands in
The Star Chamber (1983); and as old-school stockbroker Lou Mannheim in
Wall Street (1987).
Holbrook played Twain longer than Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who made Twain his pen name in 1863. He first appeared as the famed author and humorist in the late 1940s in a show for school groups; Holbrook’s first wife, Ruby, would ask questions of famous people in history, including Twain. He turned that into the one-man show,
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.
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 multicharacter revue Holbrook and his first wife took on a high school assembly tour of the Southwest in the late 1940s.