![]() "I can't count how many of my buddies are in the cemetery at Normandy."ĭurning was married twice and had three children.One of the most popular stars in the world for decades, Burt Reynolds was the boyishly charming but undeniably rugged star of such action and drama films as "Deliverance" (1972), "The Longest Yard" (1975), "Smokey and the Bandit" (1977), "The Cannonball Run" (1981) and "Boogie Nights" (1997). "I forget a lot of stuff now but I still wake up once in a while and it's still there," he said. ![]() He said he had to jettison his weapon and gear in order to swim ashore and saw mortally wounded comrades offering themselves as human shields. In addition to three Purple Heart medals for his wounds, Durning was presented the Silver Star for valor.Īt an observation of the 60th anniversary of D-Day in Washington, Durning told of the terror he felt and carnage he saw when hitting the beach on D-Day. ![]() A few days later he was shot in the hip - he said he carried the bullet in his body thereafter - and after six months of recovery was sent to the Battle of the Bulge.ĭurning, who was wounded twice more, was captured and was one of the few survivors of the Malmedy massacre when German troops opened fire on dozens of American prisoners. force that landed at Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion in June 1944. He had nine siblings and five of his sisters died of smallpox or scarlet fever - three within a two-week period.ĭurning was part of the U.S. He said I couldn't do anything else but act."ĭurning grew up in Highland Falls, New York, and was 12 years old when his Irish-born father died of the effects of mustard gas exposure in World War One. "Joe said to me once, 'If you hadn't been an actor, you would have been a murderer,'" Durning told the Times. Occasional stage roles led him to Joseph Papp, the founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival, who became his mentor. He worked a number of make-do jobs - cab driver, dance instructor, doorman, dishwasher, telegram deliveryman, bridge painter, tourist guide - all while waiting for a shot at an acting career. "They basically said you have no talent and you couldn't even buy a dime's worth of it if it was for sale," Durning told The New York Times. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts until he was kicked out. He was nominated for Emmys for the TV series "Rescue Me," "NCIS," "Homicide: Life on the Street," "Captains and the Kings" and "Evening Shade," as well as the specials "Death of a Salesman," "Attica" and "Queen of the Stardust Ballroom."ĭurning was a fan of Jimmy Cagney and after returning from harrowing service in World War Two he tried singing, dancing, and stand-up comedy. Other notable Durning movie roles included a cop in "Dog Day Afternoon," a man who falls in love with Dustin Hoffman's cross-dressing character in "Tootsie," "Dick Tracy," "Home for the Holidays," "The Muppet Movie," "North Dallas Forty" and "O Brother Where Art Thou?" "Whorehouse" was one of 13 movies Durning made with friend Burt Reynolds, as well as Reynolds' 1990s TV sitcom "Evening Shade." He gained his first substantial acting experience through the New York Shakespeare Festival starting in the early 1960s and won a Tony Award for playing Big Daddy in a 1990 Broadway revival of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."ĭurning did not start amassing film and TV credits until he was almost 40 but went on to appear in more than 100 movies, in addition to scores of TV shows.ĭurning's first national exposure came playing a crooked policeman who gets conned by Robert Redford in the 1973 movie "The Sting." He got the role after impressing director George Roy Hill with his work in the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning Broadway play "That Championship Season."ĭurning had everyday looks - portly, thinning hair and a bulbous nose - and was a casting director's delight, equally adept at comedy and drama.ĭurning was nominated for supporting-actor Oscars for playing a Nazi in the 1984 Mel Brooks comedy "To Be or Not to Be" and the governor in the musical "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" in 1983. AP Photoĭurning also was an accomplished stage actor and once said he preferred doing plays because of the immediacy they offered. Actor Charles Durning accepts the life achievement award from presenter Burt Reynolds, left, at the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |