Hal Holbrook is a highly respected actor whose career in the television medium began in the 1950s when he appeared on daytime soap operas. However, his creation of the stage play Mark Twain Tonight! in 1954 was the endeavor that really admitted him into a highly respected career as a television, film, and stage actor. He has since performed onstage as Twain more than 2,000 times.

     Holbrook is known to many TV viewers for his regular supporting role in Evening Shade, in which he played a cantankerous older man, a newspaper editor whose son-in-law was played by Burt Reynolds. Hol­ brook is also known for his portrayal of the cunning lawyer Wild Bill McKenzie in the NBC made-for-TV Perry Mason Mystery movies of the 1990s. In these movies, Perry Mason is out of town, and Holbrook's McKenzie handles court cases for him. Another regular recurring role introduced Holbrook to television audiences as Reese Watson, boyfriend of the rambunctious Julia Sugarbaker on Designing Women (1986-93). Dixie Carter, who portrayed Julia, is Hol­brook's wife. However, Holbrook's acting experience is much more expansive than these television excursions indicate.

     Holbrook 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 Holbrook won a Tony Award for the play in I 966. 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, winning both critical and popular acclaim. 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 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 has been in single appearances rather than in series. Many of these performances have been based on historical figures (such as Twain, Lincoln, and Commander Lloyd Bucher of the ship Pueblo). He has won Emmy Awards for The Senator, Pueblo, and Sandburg's Lincoln. His TV credits include working as the sometime-host of 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. He has learned the craft of acting primarily on the stage. In theater, says Holbrook, the actor is responsible for his/her successor failure. Thus, Holbrook's acting has improved over several decades due to his professional theater work. However, 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. As he continues his work in TV and film, he also receives acclaim for his work on stage, winning, for example, the 1998 William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theater.