HAL (HAROLD ROWE, JR.) HOLBROOK. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A., 17 February 1925. Educated at Suffield Academy, 1933-37, Culver Military Academy, 1938-42; Denison University, B.A. with Honors 1948. Married: 1) Ruby Elaine Johnson, 1945 (divorced), children: Victoria and David; 2) Carol Rossen (divorced), child: Eve; 3) Dixie Carter, 1984. Early career in summer stock; developed solo performance, Mark Twain Tonight!, 1953; toured widely in the United States and abroad; in film and television from 1960s. Member, Committee on International Cultural Exchange; National Council of Arts and Government; Mark Twain Memorial Association. Recipient: Vernon Rice Memorial Award, 1959; Outer Circle Award, 1959; Special Citation, New York Drama Critics Circle, 1966; Tony Award, 1966; Torch of Liberty Award, Anti-Defamation League, B'nai Brith, 1972; Emmy Awards, 1970, 1973, 1974-75.

TELEVISION SERIES

1954 The Brighter Day
1970 The Senator
1986 Designing Women
1990 Evening Shade

TELEVISION MINISERIES

1974 Sandburg's Lincoln
1984 George Washington
1984 Celebrity
1985 North and South
1986 North and South II
1988 Mario Puzo's "The Fortunate Pilgrim"

MADE-FOR-TELEVISION MOVIES

1966 The Glass Menagerie
1969 The Whole World Is Watching
1970 Travis Logan, D.A.
1970 A Clear and Present Danger
1971 Suddenly Single
1971 Goodbye, Raggedy Ann
1972 That Certain Summer
1973 Pueblo
1978 The Awakening Land
1979 When Hell Was in Session
1979 Murder by Natural Causes
1979 The Legend of the Golden Gun
1980 Our Town
1980 Off the Minnesota Strip
1981 The Killing of Randy Webster
1984 The Three Wishes of Billy Grier
1985 Behind Enemy Lines
1986 Under Siege
1986 Dress Gray
1987 Plaza Suite
1988 I'll Be Home for Christmas
1988 Emma: Queen of the South Seas
1989 Sorry, Wrong Number
1989 Day One
1990 A Killing in a Small Town
1993 Bonds of Love
1994 A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Lethal         Lifestyle
1994 A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the         Grimacing Governor
1995 She Stood Alone: The Tailhook Scandal
1995 A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Jealous        Jokester

TELEVISION SPECIAL (selection)

1967 Mark Twain Tonight!

FILMS

The Group, 1966; Wild in the Streets, 1968; The People Next Door, 1970; The Great White Hope, 1970; They Only Kill Their Masters, 1972; Magnum Force, 1973; Jonathan Livingston Seagull, 1973; The Girl from Petrovka, 1974; Midway, 1976; All the President's Men, 1976; Julia, 1977; Rituals, 1978; Capricorn One, 1978; Natural Enemies, 1979; The Kidnapping of the President, 1980; The Fog, 1980; Creepshow, 1982; The Star Chamber, 1983; Girl's Night Out, 1984; Wall Street, 1987; The Unholy, 1988; Fletch Lives, 1989; The Firm, 1993; Cats Don't Dance (voice), 1996; Carried Away, 1996.

STAGE (selection)

Mark Twain Tonight!; The Apple Tree; I Never Sang For My Father; Man of La Mancha; Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?; King Lear

PUBLICATIONS

Mark Twain Tonight: An Actor's Portrait. Selections from Mark Twain, (edited, adapted, and arranged, with a prologue). New York: Washburn, 1959.

Hal Holbrook is a highly respected television actor, perhaps known to most TV viewers for his regular supporting role Evening Shade. This sitcom, which began on CBS in 1990, portrays Holbrook as a cantankerous older man, a newspaper editor, whose son-in-law is played by Burt Reynolds. Or for other viewers, Holbrook may be known as the cunning lawyer Wild Bill McKenzie in the NBC made-for-TV Perry Mason Mystery movies. In these movies Perry Mason is out of town and Holbrook's McKenzie is handling court cases for Mason. And another regular recurring role introduced him to audiences as Reese Watson, "boyfriend" of the rambunctious Julia Sugarbaker on Designing Women. (Dixie Carter, who portrayed Julia, is Holbrook's real-life wife.) But Holbrook's acting experience is much more expansive than these recent television excursions indicate.

He began his acting career on Broadway in the 1950s when his characterization of Mark Twain won him international recognition. The one-man drama Mark Twain Tonight! premiered on Broadway in 1959, and won him a Tony Award in 1966. He performed the act on network TV, and has continued its performance. He also has acted in many other plays and locations. In 1993, for example, he played Shakespeare's King Lear at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California where the critics and audiences loved him. While touring with Mark Twain Tonight! Holbrook began acting in cinema. He first appeared in The Group (1966) and Wild in the Streets (1968).

Holbrook began acting on TV as he simultaneously toured Mark Twain Tonight! and acted in film. In 1969 he first appeared in the made-for-TV movie The Whole World is Watching. This was followed by a quick succession of other TV movies, such as A Clear and Present Danger, Travis Logan, D.A., Suddenly Single, Goodbye Raggedy Ann, and That Certain Summer. Most of his best acting on TV, especially where he received the Emmy Award, is in single appearances rather than in a series. Many of these performances are based on historical figures (e.g., Twain, Lincoln, Commander Lloyd Bucher of the ship Pueblo). He has won the Emmy for The Senator, Pueblo, and Sandburg's Lincoln. His TV credits also include working as the sometimes host on Omnibus, and acting in miniseries such as North and South.

Holbrook's work in the theater has been of enormous benefit to his TV performances. For Holbrook, money--not art--is in Hollywood films and TV. He learned the craft of acting primarily on the stage. In theater, says H-olbrook, the actor is responsible for his/her success or failure. Thus, his acting has improved over several decades due to his professional theater work. But he has consistently come back to the mass medium of TV to entertain audiences in movies and historical dramas, bringing well crafted acting, intelligent characterizations, and award winning performances. He has gone one step further with Designing Women and Evening Shade. Classic and classy acting now resides in a TV sitcom.

-Clayland Waite