Hal Holbrook life and biography

Hal Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Academy Award. He has also done a one-man show as Mark Twain since 1954.

Born Harold Rowe Holbrook, Jr. on February 17, 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio. Hal Holbrook studied theater at nearby Denison University but was forced to put his schooling on hold to serve as an Army engineer during World War II. Three years later, he returned to Denison to immerse himself in an honors project on the life and works of Mark Twain. These studies were a precursor to Holbrook's most famed work: his portrayal of the American humorist in the Tony Award-winning one-man show Mark Twain Tonight!, which ran from 1959 to 2005.

To supplement his income during the Twain show's early years, Holbrook appeared on the soap opera "The Brighter Day." A tout on the Ed Sullivan Show led to an off-Broadway production and national tour of Mark Twain Tonight! In 1966, the show debuted on Broadway earning Holbrook Tony and Drama Desk awards. He continued to perform the show for 50 years, as well as write a book about his experience entitled Mark Twain Tonight! An Actor's Portrait. In 2004, Holbrook marked his 2,000 th performance with the show.

Holbrook had other stage performances to his credit, including 1965's The Glass Menagerieand 1977's Our Town. He was also notably cast on television in 1973's Pueblo and 1976's Lincoln, and more recently on The West Wing and The Sopranos. His film credits include 1976's All The President's Men,1993's The Firm and 2001's The Majestic.In 2008, Holbrook received an Academy Award nomination for his performance as a lonely widower in director Sean Penn's film adaptation of Into the Wild. At age 82, Holbrook is the oldest actor to receive the nomination.

Holbrook has been married three times, and has three children. He married Ruby Holbrook on September 22, 1945, and they had two children, Victoria Holbrook and David Holbrook. They divorced in 1965, and on December 28, 1966 he married Carol Eve Rossen. They had one child, Eve Holbrook, and they divorced on June 14, 1983. He married Dixie Carter on May 27, 1984. They remained married until her death on April 10, 2010.

Films:
The Group (1966)
Wild in the Streets (1968)
They Only Kill Their Masters (1972)
Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973) (voice)
Magnum Force (1973)
All the President's Men (1976)
Midway (1976)
Julia (1977)
Rituals (1977)
Capricorn One (1978)
The Awakening Land (1978) (T.V.)
The Fog (1979)
When Hell Was in Session (1979) (T.V.)
Murder by Natural Causes (1979) (T.V.)
The Legend of the Golden Gun (1979) (T.V.)
The Kidnapping of the President (1980)
The Killing of Randy Webster (1981) (T.V.)
Creepshow (1982)
The Star Chamber (1983)
Girls Night Out (1983)
North and South Book I (1985) (T.V.)
North and South Book II (1986) (T.V.)
Wall Street (1987)
The Unholy (1988)
Fletch Lives (1989) Evening Shade (1990–1994) (T.V. Series)
The Firm (1993)
Innocent Victims (1996)
Eye of God (1997)
Cats Don't Dance (1997) (voice)
Hercules (1997) (voice)
Hush (1998)
Walking to the Waterline (1998)
The Bachelor (1999)
Waking the Dead (2000)
Men of Honor (2000)
The Majestic (2001)
The West Wing (2001, 2002)
Seventh Day documentary about persecution of sabbath keepers by the church (2002)
Country Music: The Spirit of America (2003, IMAX)
Shade (2003)
The Sopranos (2006)
NCIS (2006)
Into the Wild (2007)
ER (2008)
That Evening Sun (2009)
Sons of Anarchy (2010)
The Event (2010)
Water for Elephants (2011)

Read more