Honored Actor Has Local Roots

Just a little train of thought.  Doesn’t mean a whole bunch, except it’s on my mind...

I was watching the Screen Actors Guild Awards last night, and they gave a lifetime achievement award to Charles Durning.  If you don’t know him by name, you would recognize his face, as his career has been defined by those indistinguishable yet satisfying character roles—angry cop, disgruntled garbage man, difficult neighbor, angry cop, Burt Reynolds side man, guy with drinking problem and bad knee, angry cop.  He has played some of those over the years, and not others (I don’t know what made me give a drunk a bad knee, but it seemed to fit).

However, what his speech was mostly about had to do with Durning defeating the odds throughout his budding acting career.  He was told, time and time again, that he would not make it in the acting industry.  In the intervening years between gigs, he became a professional boxer, a ballroom dancer and dance teacher.  Even more amazing, he was in the U.S. Army and is the only surviving soldier from his unit that survived the D-Day attacks on Normandy; his honorable services during WWII awarded him a whole slew of medals, including three Purple Hearts.

Here is Durning in a clip from “The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas,” with his big showstopping number, “Sidestep.” These moves earned him an Oscar nomination, especially the ones at 2:35 and 4:15:

Durning was told he would never make it, and here he is, receiving an honor from the SGA and his peers.  He gave a speech that was touching and hilarious, ending with a poignant and off-the-cuff, “See you later.” One of the more memorable parts of the presentation was the footage of Durning’s early years, during which an above-shot of a city showed up.  My father and I had the same thought at the same time:  “That looks like Buffalo.” Turns out it was.  Durning’s professional stage debut was in Buffalo at the age of 16, before he went into the Army.

It was a brief vision of Buffalo in its heyday, the shining downtown theater where he appeared (it was too grainy for me to see the name of the theater, though it looked like one from here I’ve seen a picture of before).  Many big-time actors have performed in Buffalo in the decades since “the good old days.” Studio Arena has ushered in many top names, including Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, John Goodman, Colleen Dewhurst and theater stars like Betty Buckley, just a few years back in “Buffalo Gal.”

It was nice to see an image of Buffalo when it was a star-studded glam town, and when both stars of the day were making pit stops and stars of the last half-century got their starts.  The Buffalo News recently did a story about Buffalo’s vaudeville theater circuit which was very well written and so interesting.

That’s all, just a few thoughts about an actor I’ve always liked (especially in “Home For the Holidays,” where he’s amazing as Anne Bancroft’s cooky husband) and never knew so much about.  The fact that he got his start in Buffalo is merely a side note, though one I’m more than interested in anyway.

More info about Charles Durning.
Image courtesy this guy.
Also, this guy has a few mysterious photos of Durning taken while on vacation in Hawaii.  Was this guy stocking the guy?  And if so.....Charles Durning? REALLY?!?!?

Posted by on 01/28 at 04:33 PM