Charles Durning (AP)
Charles Durning, a World War II hero who became the king of the character actors, died Monday at his Manhattan home. He was 89.
Durning appeared in more than 100 movies, in roles ranging from Dustin Hoffman’s unlikely suitor in “Tootsie” to a seller of frog legs in “The Muppet Movie” and a police chief in “Dick Tracy.”
He also won a Tony on Broadway and was a familiar face on television — playing Santa Claus in four made-for-TV movies, as well as portraying the pope in “I Would be Called John: Pope John XXIII.”
Durning endured plenty of drama in his personal life. He was born in upstate Highland Falls and grew up in poverty. Five of his nine brothers and sisters died of smallpox or scarlet fever.
Shortly after being drafted during World War II, 21-year-old Durning was among the first GIs to land on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He survived a Nazi war crime known as the “Malmedy Massacre” and left the service with a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts.
He began a new life in New York, trying to break in as an actor and as a standup comedian while working in various jobs, including cabby, dance instructor, doorman, dishwasher, telegram deliveryman, bridge painter and tourist guide.
His big break came when Joseph Papp hired him in 1962 for the first of about 30 Durning appearances in New York Shakespeare Festival presentations, mainly in minor spear-carrier roles.
Slowly, he emerged from anonymity on Broadway and became a minor star in the Tony-winning “That Championship Season.”
That led to TV roles — playing a detective in an “All in the Family” episode — and then a breakout movie appearance as a crooked vice cop stalking Robert Redford in “The Sting.”
In Hollywood, Durning was a casting director’s ideal, a highly versatile character actor equally adept at comedy and drama.
He earned two Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations for playing a Nazi in the 1984 Mel Brooks flick “To Be or Not to Be” and the governor in the musical “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” in 1983.
His finest Broadway moment was winning a Tony for his portrayal of Big Daddy in a 1989 revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
“I never turned down anything and never argued with any producer or director,” Durning said in 2008, when he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.