Obit: The Great Hal Holbrook (1925-2021)

Subject: Obit: The Great Hal Holbrook (1925-2021)
From: robomatic
Date: 04 Feb 21 - 08:34 PM

One of my favorite actors the long time character actor and stage performer Hal Holbrook passed away the 23rd January. He would've been 96 in another couple of weeks.

I grew up on his Mark Twain performances which I listened to again and again on long playing records. He appeared in a large number of movies and series. His stage and screen presence was palpable but never overbearing. He held his part of a role solidly and in any position, whether as an evil plotter or a terminal hospital patient.

I got to see him as "Mark Twain Tonight" when he showed up in Anchorage in the 1980s.

One version of his performance can be seen on Youtube

Subject: RE: Obit: The Great Hal Holbrook (1925-2021)
From: Cool Beans
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 02:51 PM

I spent a couple of days with Hal Holbrook, working on a profile/preview that ran in the Detroit Free Press before what would be his final Detroit performances as Mark Twain. Ticket sales had been slow but went through the roof after the story was published. Holbrook called and left a lighthearted message offering to put my first-born child through college. A year or two later, when the kid was actually in college, my wife and I met up with Holbrook at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami and reminded him of the offer. No dice. I really enjoyed getting to know him, even on the relatively superficial subject/journalist level.

Subject: RE: Obit: The Great Hal Holbrook (1925-2021)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 04:33 PM

He had quite and interesting and varied career. I remember enjoying his conversations on talk shows (Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, David Frost - I watched all of those back in the day).

Subject: RE: Obit: The Great Hal Holbrook (1925-2021)
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 04:52 PM

Saw him twice, on stage, in intimate theatre ( under 300 audience}.



Wow! Could he weave a spell. Beginning with "Tom" walking a split-rail.
Such youth and enthusiasm with discovery on wonder.


A very GOOD model to follow.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Obit: The Great Hal Holbrook (1925-2021)
From: robomatic
Date: 06 Feb 21 - 04:58 PM

There was a reference in one of the Mark Twain monologues about a tale from the American classic: "Two Years Before the Mast". Some years later I found a copy of "Two Years Before the Mast" by Dana. Great book, great author. But the incident was not there. I don't know who to blame, Twain or Holbrook. But it led to a great read.

Subject: RE: Obit: The Great Hal Holbrook (1925-2021)
From: voyager
Date: 06 Feb 21 - 05:57 PM

Fortunate to have seen HH 5 years ago here in Denver, CO. He was 'clear as a bell' having performed Mark Twain Tonight for 25 years. God speed thespian.

Subject: RE: Obit: The Great Hal Holbrook (1925-2021)
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 06 Feb 21 - 10:05 PM

As far as the incident from Two Years Before the Mast, it is printed in Holbrook's 1959 book Mark Twain Tonight! An Actor's Portrait, as well as on one of the record albums (I have all three somewhere).

In the book's notes, Holbrook says that it comes from Twain's The Last Lotos Club Speech in the book Mark Twain's Speeches (1923 edition). It's also in The Family Mark Twain. The speech itself was delivered January 11, 1908. It can also be found online. Holbrook used Twain's anecdote pretty much verbatim.

Did it come from Dana? I haven't read that book, so I can't comment. But it definitely came from Mark Twain.


Jay