WWII veteran, dance instructor and diversely talented stage & screen actor were all inclusions on the resume of this perpetually busy US actor who didn't get in front of the cameras until around the time of his fortieth birthday. The stockily built Charles Durning was one of Hollywood's most dependable and sought after supporting actors. Durning was born in Highland Falls, New York, to Louise Marie . Plus, he has appeared in the role of "Santa Claus" in five different television movies.
Was a ballroom dance instructor in his early career. He also studied Judo.
Has played Santa Claus five times to date, in It Nearly Wasnt Christmas , Mrs. Santa Claus , Elmo Saves Christmas , Mr. St. Nick , and A Boyfriend for Christmas .
He died at his home in Manhattan (NYC). He was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.
Won Broadways 1990 Tony Award as Best Actor (Featured Role - Play) for portraying Big Daddy in a revival of Tennessee Williams "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."
He met Mary Ann Amelio, his second wife, after his discharge from the army. He met her again while in "That Championship Season" on Broadway. They then married in 1974 and were legally separated in 2010.
His military records from the National Archives show that he arrived in Normandy on June 15, 1944 and was wounded the same day by shrapnel from an exploding German "S" mine. He received his first and only Purple Heart for this wound. Arlington National Cemetery recently recut his headstone to reflect the award of only one Purple Heart Medal. His medical records state that all the shrapnel was removed so there was no metal remaining in his body.
Was kicked out of the American Academy of Dramatic Art drama school because they thought he had no talent. Another famous thespian to be booted from the school was Jason Robards.
His first job in the entertainment field was as an usher at a burlesque house. His career officially started as a singer with a band at the age of 16, before going into acting. His first professional play was in Buffalo before he went off to war.
His breakthrough role occurred on Broadway in 1972 starring in "That Championship Season" where he was noticed by director George Roy Hill who cast him in his acclaimed Oscar-winning movie The Sting .
Despite the wounds he received in WWII (he was shot in the legs and hip by machine-gun fire), he went on to become a professional dancer and dance teacher. He taught at the Fred Astaire studios and relied upon it when he couldnt find acting work.
Was considered for the role of General Worden in The Dirty Dozen .
He was the ninth of ten children, but five of his sisters died of smallpox or scarlet fever in childhood, three of them within two weeks. His surviving siblings were James (1915-2000), Clifford , Frances (born 1919) and Gerald Durning (born 1926). His mother, Louise (Leonard), who was of Irish descent, was a laundress at West Point, and his father, James Durning, was an Irish immigrant who had been badly wounded in World War I, just as Charles would be in WW II. He died when Charles was 12.
He had three children with his first wife, Carole: daughters, Michele and Jeanine; and a son, Douglas Edward.
Passed away on same day as actor Jack Klugman.
Appeared in three films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: The Sting , Dog Day Afternoon and Tootsie . Of those, The Sting is a winner in the category.
Developed an interest in Acting at the age of 28 when, while working as an usher, he was called onstage to replace a drunken Actor. Durning said he was hooked when he first heard the audience laugh.
(October 2002) In off-Broadway production of "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui", Bertolt Brecht s Nazi Allegory set in Chicago.
(December 2007) Was the recipient of the 44th Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award for 2007.
(May 2013) His life and military service honored as part of the 24th National Memorial Day concert, which features Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise.
Started his show business career in burlesque.
Born twenty-four days after Conrad Bain. He also passed away within a month of Bain.
In 2017, author Anna Graham Hunter , who had worked as an intern on Death of a Salesman , published her diaries from the shoot: though sharply critical of other cast-members, she recalled that Durning "made every room he entered a happier place".
Dancing came easy for me. Acting came hard.
I never turned down anything and never argued with any producer or,director.
I was in the business ten years before the actors began to notice me.
Then it took another five years before the agents and producers noticed,me. Five years after that, the public found me. And five or six years,later, the critics took note.
James Cagney is probably the reason I became an actor. I think I learned,much of what I know about acting from watching James Cagney movies.
