Charles Durning died Monday at age 89 in New York.
He got his start as an usher at a burlesque theater in Buffalo, N.Y. When one of the comedians showed up too drunk to go on, Durning took his place. He would recall years later that he was hooked as soon as heard the audience laughing. He also worked in "Best Little Whorehouse," "To Be or Not to Be." "Dog Day Afternoon." "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." "That Championship Season" "The Sting," "Tootsie;" "The Muppet Movie;" "Dick Tracy," "The Front Page," "The Hindenburg," "Breakheart Pass," "North Dallas Forty," "Starting Over," "Tough Guys," "Home for the Holidays," "Spy Hard" and 'O Brother Where Art Thou?"
| | | quote | Durning's rugged early life provided ample material on which to base his later portrayals. He was born into an Irish family of 10 children in 1923, in Highland Falls, N.Y., a town near West Point. His father was unable to work, having lost a leg and been gassed during World War I, so his mother supported the family by washing the uniforms of West Point cadets.
The younger Durning himself would barely survive World War II.
He was among the first wave of U.S. soldiers to land at Normandy during the D-Day invasion and the only member of his Army unit to survive. He killed several Germans and was wounded in the leg. Later he was bayoneted by a young German soldier whom he killed with a rock. He was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and survived a massacre of prisoners.
In later years, he refused to discuss the military service for which he was awarded the Silver Star and three Purple Hearts.
"Too many bad memories," he told an interviewer in 1997. "I don't want you to see me crying."
Tragedy also stalked other members of his family. Durning was 12 when his father died, and five of his sisters lost their lives to smallpox and scarlet fever.
A high school counselor told him he had no talent for art, languages or math and should learn office skills. But after seeing "King Kong" and some of James Cagney's films, Durning knew what he wanted to do.
Leaving home at 16, he worked in a munitions factory, on a slag heap and in a barbed-wire factory, before finally becoming an actor. |
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