Charles Durning
1923 – 2012
The man who played the pope, the governor of Texas, Dustin Hoffman’s Tootsie suitor, four different Santa Clauses, and a bumbling Mel Brooks-inspired Nazi colonel has died. Charles Durning, known in the business as the King of Character Actors, died Christmas Eve at his home in Manhattan. He was 89.
Born in Highland Falls, NY into an Irish family of ten children, the first years of his life were a struggle. His father, wounded in WWI, could not work, and Charles lost five sisters to smallpox and scarlet fever. Durning eventually joined the Army and was among the first wave to land on Normandy, was wounded in the leg, and became the only member of his unit to survive.