Charles Durning

Charles was born in a big Catholic family of ten children out of which only five survived. The rest of his siblings died as children due to either smallpox or scarlet fever. They all were born in Highland Falls, NY, to Louise and James. Both of his parents were of Irish backgrounds. At the age of twenty, he entered the U.S. Army. He served the Army for three years (1943-1946) and gained the rank of Private First Class on leaving. For his bravery and good conduct, he received nine awards, two badges and a button for the time he served in the army. Even after leaving the US Army, he participated on several occasions to give honor to various veterans. He also served as the Chairman of the US National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans. For all his contribution to the country, he was given a special remembrance tribute by sounding Taps on National Memorial Day in 2013.

He began to pursue his acting career in 1951. During that period, he taught ballroom dancing at Fred Astaire Dance Studio, NYC and also worked as an usher at a bar joint. He performed in around 50 off-Broadway plays and other stock company creations and hence eventually got noticed by Joseph Papp. Joseph got him into 35 plays in the Shakespeare Festival as he was the founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival and also of The Public Theater. He entered the film industry in 1965 while doing Broadway plays alongside. His debut movie was Harvey Middleman, Fireman. He is seen in several movies afterward like Hi, Mom (1970), Sisters (1973), The Fury (1978), Starting Over (1979), Tootsie (1982) and many more. All his appearances are hard to enlist as he has appeared in over 200 films, plays and TV shows.

His movie awards include Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for ‘’Dog Day Afternoon’’, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for ‘’Queen of the Stardust Ballroom’’, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for ‘’Attica’’, Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for ‘’The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas’’, Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for ‘’To Be or Not To Be’’, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for the TV movie ‘’Death of a Salesman’’ and CableACE Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for ‘’The Man Who Broke 1000 Chains’’. He has won three awards for the movie ‘’State and Main’’ and one for Dog Day Afternoon.

He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor five times for appearances in various TV shows and won the Golden Globe for his role in The Kennedys of Massachusetts. Durning was married to Carole Doughty from 1959-1972. He had three children from his first marriage. He later married Mary Ann in 1974 until they declared their separation in 2010. There’s a collection named after him at the Academy Film Archive which mostly has the movies he liked and a small collection of his homemade movies. He received the Life Achievement Award on  27th January, 2008 at the Screen Actors Guild Award Ceremony. He is honoured by a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He passed away due to natural causes on December 24, 2012 when he was 89 years old.