R.I.P. Barnard Hughes

[Big Magilla]

I didn't realize Barnard Hughes was over 90.

I could have sworn I knew Barnard Hughes from something prior to Midnight Cowboy but in looking over his filmography on the IMDB I can't imagine what it could have been. I do remember him as a semi-regular on All in the Family but that wasn't until a few years later.

It is a pity that Da was such a stinkeroo on film. 1988 was not a good year for lead actors. Had it been the charmer it should have been, he could have been a nominee, perhaps even a winner in the Art Carney traditon.

[Mister Tee]

Like, I assume, many, I first became aware of Barnard Hughes when he played his pivotal role in Midnight Cowboy -- a huge career boost for a man already in his 50s but basically unknown. In the years following, I of course saw him in movies (like The Hospital) and on TV, but most memorably got to observe his stage work -- Dogberry in the Central Park Much Ado, the priest in Lanford Wilson's Angels Fall, and, best of all, his Tony-winning role in Da. It's a great pity the film version of Da was so misconceived (did no one tell the director it had been funny, not precious, onstage?); Hughes could have been one of those actors at least lucky enough to preserve his stage peak in a solid film (and maybe even get a freak Oscar nomination).

At least back in the early 80s, Hughes was living near me on the upper West Side, and I ran into him once or twice at our newsstand. He was unfailingly gracious to all. Both his demeanor and career brought nothing but honor to the acting profession.

[anonymous1980]

From the IMDb:

Beloved Actor Barnard Hughes Dies

Beloved US stage and screen star Barnard Hughes has died after a brief illness. He was 90. The Tony and Emmy Award-winner, who has featured in a string of movies including The Lost Boys, Hamlet, Tron, Midnight Cowboy and Cradle Will Rock, died in a New York City hospital on Monday, just six days before his 91st birthday. Hughes fell in love with show business after auditioning for a play on a dare and went on to star in more than 400 Broadway, New York City, shows, according to theater website broadwayworld.com. He made his Broadway debut in 1935 in Herself Mrs. Patrick Crowley and returned to the stage after serving in the US Army in World War Two. After a string of movie roles in the 1960s and 1970s, Hughes made a big splash on Broadway in Da - a role which won him Tony and Drama Desk awards in 1978. He later recreated the role in the 1988 movie adaptation. His TV roles included a 1977 Emmy Award-winning performance on Lou Grant. Hughes was awarded an honorary doctorate from Manhattan College, the school he'd dropped out of to become an actor, in 1992. Plans for a memorial gathering will be announced