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   Actor Hume Cronyn dead at 91

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Topic: Actor Hume Cronyn dead at 91 (Read 258 times)

Rhune
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Actor Hume Cronyn dead at 91
« on: Jun 16^th, 2003, 5:12pm »

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Actor Hume Cronyn dead at 91
Monday, June 16, 2003 Posted: 4:27 PM EDT (2027 GMT)

FAIRFIELD, Connecticut (AP) -- Hume Cronyn, a veteran stage and screen actor who charmed audiences with his portrayals of irascible old men and frequently paired up with his longtime wife, Jessica Tandy, has died of cancer. He was 91.

Cronyn died of prostate cancer Sunday at his home in Fairfield, Connecticut, a family spokeswoman said Monday. He and Tandy were married for nearly 52 years at the time of her death from ovarian cancer in September 1994. Cronyn married Susan Cooper in 1996; she survives him.

Cronyn and Tandy were honored at the 1994 Tony Awards with the first-ever Special Lifetime Achievement Award.

Cronyn, known to modern audiences for his roles in the 1980s "Cocoon" movies, was a seasoned stage actor, making his theater debut in 1931 as a paperboy in "Up Pops the Devil."

He was known for his versatility as an actor, playing a wide variety of characters on stage, including a janitor in "Hippers' Holiday," in his Broadway debut in 1934; the gangster Elkus in "There's Always a Breeze," 1938; and Andrei Prozoroff, the brother in Chekov's "Three Sisters," 1939.

He made his film debut in 1943 as the detective story addict Herbie Hawkins in Alfred Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt."

After Cronyn appeared in Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" in 1944, a critic in the New York World-Telegram wrote: "Hume Cronyn is one of the most vivid young character actors to come along in Hollywood in quite a time."

Cronyn went on to take other film parts, both major and minor, appearing in numerous movies over the next 50 years, including: "Phantom of the Opera" (1943); "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946); "People Will Talk" (1951); "Cleopatra" (1963); "There Was a Crooked Man" (1970); and "The World According to Garp" (1982).

He was nominated for an Academy Award as best supporting actor for his performance in "The Seventh Cross" in 1944.

'I just don't want to play the grouch'
Cronyn frequently worked with his wife -- on Broadway in "The Gin Game" (197 Cool

and "Foxfire" (1983); and in movies, as a married couple, in "Cocoon" (1985) and "Cocoon: The Return," 1988.

Both he and Tandy were Emmy Award nominees in 1994 for their performances in "Hallmark Hall of Fame: To Dance With the White Dog." Cronyn won the award for best actor in a miniseries or special for the CBS movie about an elderly man whose dead wife's spirit returns in the form of a dog.

Cronyn, who often found himself playing curmudgeons, joked about his crusty image in a 1987 interview with the New York Post.

"I don't mind playing absolute bastards -- some of the best parts I've had have been heavies. I just don't want to play the grouch," he said.

Cronyn also tried his hand at writing and directing.

In 1946, he directed a production of Tennessee Williams' "Portrait of a Madonna," starring Tandy, and in 1950, on Broadway, Ludwig Bemelmans' "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep."

He co-wrote the television adaptation of "The Dollmaker," starring Jane Fonda, in 1985.

Tandy once told an interviewer that Cronyn had a certain restlessness about him.

"I find it very difficult just to sit. I would love to learn how to do that with contentment," Cronyn said in 1988.

"I fill my life with a lot of `busyness' in between jobs. Then I work very hard. Some of it is quite unhealthy. It's compulsive. I don't know what to do about it. I'm a little old to change."

Building characters 'very, very carefullly'
On the set, Cronyn was known for being something of a perfectionist.

Director Dan Petrie, who worked with Cronyn in "Cocoon: The Return" and "The Dollmaker," said Cronyn was meticulous about learning the idiosyncrasies of his characters.

"Hume ... had to work out everything very, very carefully for himself -- how he would sit, how he would wear a hat, should he wear a hat, should it be down over his right eye or over his left eye, should he wear glasses, should he wear suspenders ... all of those things were very vital concerns of his," Petrie said.

"The mechanics of it, all of that was grist for his mill," Petrie said. "He very painstakingly built his character through the way he would dress, the way he would present himself."

Cronyn conceded he could be somewhat persnickety when preparing for a role.

"I do a lot of planning and plotting. That's my greatest weakness," he said in a 1984 interview. "If I'm not terribly careful, I'll plan to a point where it could come out cut and dried."

Cronyn was born in London, Ontario, one of five children of Hume Blake, a prominent Canadian financier and political figure.

He studied law for two years at McGill University in Montreal, but gave up a legal career for the theater.

At McGill, Cronyn was an amateur boxer; he was nominated for the Canadian Olympic boxing team in 1932.

Cronyn spent a summer studying under Max Reinhardt, a famous Austrian drama teacher and theatrical producer. From 1932 to 1934, he attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.

Cronyn leaves his wife, children's writer Susan Cooper Cronyn, whom he married in 1996.

He also is survived by a son, Christopher Cronyn of Missoula, Montana; daughters Tandy Cronyn of New York and Susan Tettmer of Los Angeles; and stepchildren Jonathan Grant and Kate Glennon, both of Scituate, Massachusetts; as well as eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Services will be private.

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Re: Actor Hume Cronyn dead at 91
« Reply #1 on: Jun 16^th, 2003, 5:28pm »

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Cronyn was born in London, Ontario, one of five children of Hume Blake, a prominent Canadian financier and political figure.

He studied law for two years at McGill University in Montreal, but gave up a legal career for the theater.

Yes, my home town London, Ontario. He studied law as well but then wised up. I know he lived a long and fruitful life but I am still sad that he has died.

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Re: Actor Hume Cronyn dead at 91
« Reply #2 on: Jun 16^th, 2003, 5:44pm »

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http://www.dotydocs.com/Archives/grand/cronyn.htm

The article quoted below is from the above site, the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario is where I first went to the theatre and saw my first ballet and dramas.

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Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy

During the Christmas season of 1939 a touring company from England arrived at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario for a production of George Bernard Shaw's Geneva. The play starred a 30-year-old actress named Jessica Tandy.

"She used to go up and down Richmond Street learning her lines and, she said, I'm sure half the Londoner thought I was totally insane because here I am walking down, grumbling, mumbling to myself, yelling, hollering, guesticulating and, she said, I would then duck into St. Pauls and have a quiet moment to myself and then come back to the theatre," recalls Rob Wellan, public relations manager at the Grand

Three years later, Tandy married a rising movie actor who was the great grandson of a bishop who had once preached at the cathedral that had given her that quiet moment.

Although he went to the Grand Theatre as a child, Hume Cronyn did not begin his acting career until he was in and Ottawa boarding school, isolated from family and friends.

"Someone told me that I was leading a very rich fantasy life and I suppose I was," says Cronyn. "I got into the habit of performing for no audience at all. Just to please myself and escape from a sort of loneliness I suppose."

Cronyn made his first professional appearance at the Grand during the 1939 Dominion Drama Festival - but as an activist, not an actor. At a round table discussion Toronto drama critic Hector Charlesworth flatly dismissed the future of professional Canadian theatre. Cronyn took up the challenge, arguing passionately for a national company. He pointed to the Grand's amateur troop as a stepping stone towards that goal.

Cronyn finally brought his theatrical skills to the Grand in 1950 when he directed and co-produced a new play starring Oscar-winner Frederic March. Tandy, fresh from her Broadway triumph in Streetcar Named Desire, flew in to catch the world premier of Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep - with a cast of 46.

"I had delusions of grandeur I think," Cronyn laughs. "It was a play but it was done on the scope of a musical. Today it would be impossible. It would just be too expensive…I directed, in all six Broadway plays but this was the first and certainly of them all it was the most ambitious."

A year later, at the age of 40, Cronyn made his acting debut in London. The play was The Four Poster, a two-hander about a married couple, starring a married couple. Cronyn and Tandy would take the play on to a successful Broadway run, and help it to win a Tony Award for best play.

In 1976 they opened the Grand's 75th season with another two-person show, The Many Faces of Love. Four months later Tandy returned for the fourth time to star with then-artistic director William Hutt in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night.

"I remember Hume standing out on the stage that evening after all the applause had died down and just said to the audience I hope you appreciate what you have," says Elenor Ender, the wife of then board president Art Ender.

Applause and awards followed every London visit by North America's greatest theatrical couple. In return, they gave free readings and lectures and lent their names to local fundraising campaigns. After Tandy's death in 1994 The Grand Theatre's rehearsal hall was named in her honor.

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Re: Actor Hume Cronyn dead at 91
« Reply #3 on: Jun 16^th, 2003, 6:26pm »

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That's so sad! Seems he had been around for forever and would continue to do so. Cry

I had forgotten Jessica Tandy had predeceased him - was it that long ago? And I didn't know he had remarried either. I hope the estate is set up properly so that their (Jessica and Hume's) children will receive what is properly theirs and not the stepchildren Hume acquired.

London must be a sad little place today, addams.

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Re: Actor Hume Cronyn dead at 91
« Reply #4 on: Jun 16^th, 2003, 8:33pm »

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Mr. Cronyn was always a joy to watch acting any part. When Jessica was still alive, and they acted together, it was magic.

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Re: Actor Hume Cronyn dead at 91
« Reply #5 on: Jun 16^th, 2003, 11:00pm »

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Yes London will be sad. I know my mom talked about him all during my growing up years.

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Re: Actor Hume Cronyn dead at 91
« Reply #6 on: Jun 29^th, 2003, 6:54am »

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I'm sooo sad. Cry

One of the movies he made is my favourite. And I watch it every week!!! Wish he could've lived longer.

« Last Edit: Jun 29^th, 2003, 6:56am by username »

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Re: Actor Hume Cronyn dead at 91
« Reply #7 on: Jun 29^th, 2003, 9:24am »

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Which movie arfan?

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Re: Actor Hume Cronyn dead at 91
« Reply #8 on: Jun 29^th, 2003, 10:43am »

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Cocoon - maybe? It will be one of my all-time favs.

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