![]() ![]() It's the least we can do, considering all they gave to us. ![]() It's up to the rest of us to keep their memory going. ![]() Time is taking them from us, and by the time the 80th anniversary of D-Day rolls around there will probably be almost no one alive who was on the beach that day. Only a fool wouldn't have been terrified that morning. Listening to him talk about how scared he was helps crystalize the real meaning of courage - it's being scared and fighting through it to do what needs to be done. In 2007 he spoke at the National Memorial Day Concert, recounting his experiences, and his testimony is inspiring and heartbreaking. 5 Min Read NEW YORK (Reuters) - Charles Durning, a World War Two hero who became one of Hollywood’s top character actors in films like The Sting, Tootsie and The Best Little Whorehouse in. 21 years old, years before he would become famous as a great character actor, Durning saw his first ever combat on June 6, 1944. Although he portrayed everyone from blustery public officials to comic foils to put-upon everymen, Durning may be best remembered by movie audiences for his. Movies like Overlord and Saving Private Ryan help us picture it, but no film matches the sheer power of hearing a veteran of the invasion describe what they saw.Ĭharles Durning was one of those men that day. I can't even imagine what it must have been like in one of those Higgins boats, approaching the shore, hoping against hope you weren't going to be killed the second you stepped foot on the sand. The Sidestep - Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Charles Durning) - YouTube 0:00 / 4:57 The Sidestep - Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Charles Durning) scoop 70 subscribers Subscribe. It was a moment of extraordinary bravery and sacrifice, with 4,414 confirmed dead and thousands more injured - many maimed for life. His most recent Emmy honors were for a stint as Denis Leary's father on "Rescue Me".70 years ago Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, beginning the slow, painful defeat of Nazi Germany. Durning won a Tony Award in 1990 for playing "Big Daddy" in a revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opposite Kathleen Turner (who he worked with onscreen immediately thereafter in the failed would be franchise launch VI Warshawski) but sadly he never won any major competitive acting award for his onscreen work despite Globe, Emmy, and Oscar nominations. The Golden Globes got to him before the Academy - as they so often do - nominating him for Best Supporting Actor for his hostage negotiator in Dog Day Afternoon (1975) which we recently discussed. Other roles I have slightly less vivid memories of from that decade were his Oscar nominated turn in Mel Brooks comedy To Be Or Not To Be (1983) and his monsignor in the gay drama Mass Appeal (1985). So I rented that one in 1985 of 1986, I think, on the sly - my parents did not approve of "raunchy movies" - and just delighted in his "little sidestep ♫ " I remember experiencing early onset Oscar confusion when I realized (a couple of years after the fact) that he had been nominated for an extended cameo in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas instead. 7:46 AM on CST LOS ANGELES Charles Durning, the two-time Oscar nominee who was dubbed the king of the character actors for his skill in playing everything from a Nazi colonel to. I absolutely loved him in Tootsie (1982), one of the all time great movie comedies, as Jessica Lange's widower dad who took an unfortunate shine to Dorothy (Dustin Hoffman in drag). Since the seeds of my movie mania were planted in the early 1980s, Charles Durning was one of the very first actors that embodied and defined the term "Character Actor" for me. Had any of those movies (well, not, Magic Mike) been made in the 1980s, he would with certainty have popped up - 100% - growling great lines in a suit or stove pipe hat. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas - Sidestep: The Governor (Charles Durning) makes his position clearly unclear.BUY THE MOVIE. Performed Country Song Award, and the film generated an Oscar nomination for Charles Durning, singing The Sidestep as the slippery Governor of Texas. He was 89 years-old.Ĭharles Durning at the SAG ceremony in 2008 accepting his lifetime achievement award 2012 has been, so definitively, the year for huge teeming male casts ( Argo, Lincoln, Zero Dark, Magic Mike) of stars and character actors playing anxious determined men that I felt an extra pang of sadness to hear about the passing of Charles Durning on Christmas Eve. ![]()
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