The Actor Within: Intimate Conversations with Great Actors

Charles Durning

83 i Charles Durning Charles Durning began his film career playing hot-under-the-collar tough guys in films like The Sting (1973) and Dog Day Afternoon (1975). A few years later, he would demonstrate his versatility in more soft-edged teddybear roles like Les, Jessica Lange’s father in Tootsie (1982), and the singing, dancing Governor in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982). My conversation with the veteran actor of more than two hundred films took place at his upscale Miracle Mile apartment in Los Angeles. His living room decor documents his illustrious career, with honors and framed photos of fellow actors he described as lifelong friends: Burt Reynolds, James Garner, Dom Deluise, and Julie Harris. Before mugging for my camera, he assured me that ‘‘the actor within me has never felt stronger.’’ ‘‘I understand that, before becoming an actor, you were a dancer,’’ I began. ‘‘Yes, that’s right. I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I got out of the service. I did all sorts of jobs, but what I most enjoyed was dancing. So I got hired to teach at the Arthur Murray dance school and then Fred Astaire hired me to teach at his school in New York. I was teaching all the ballroom dances: waltzes, cha chas, tangos, fox trots. Sometimes, I performed in hotel ballrooms and then I’d teach afterwards if people wanted to learn how to dance.’’ ‘‘How did you end up acting?’’ ‘‘I got into acting after I met Joseph Papp. Maybe you’ve heard of him?’’ ‘‘Yes, of course, he’s legendary in the theater, known for producing A Chorus Line.’’ ‘‘If not for Joe Papp, I wouldn’t have been an actor. He started Shakespeare in the Park and hired me to perform in the plays—mostly as the clowns. He’d give me soliloquies to act out, and that’s how I learned how to do lines. ‘Joe,’ I said one day, ‘I’d like to play the major roles.’ ‘You are doing major roles; you’re doing the clowns,’ he told me. ‘Yeah, but I want to play Romeo or Hamlet, you know.’ So he said, ‘Charlie, I hate to tell you this, but you’re not a poetic actor.’ ‘But I’m doing Shakespeare,’ I protested . ‘Yeah, but you’re doing the clowns!’ ‘Well, give me something to read. I’ll prove to you that I can do poetry.’ So I read some lines: ‘To be or 84 The Actor Within not to be!’ And at the end of it, he said, ‘See what I mean?’ ’’ Charles said, bursting into laughter. ‘‘Joe directed and produced That Championship Season on Broadway and cast me in it. I played a man who was angry with one of his best friends because he was sleeping with his wife. My other best friend squealed on him; that’s how I found out. So I tried to kill him, and they had to wrestle the shotgun away from me. It broke up the friendship. That’s the story. George Roy Hill saw me in That Championship Season and thought I’d be right for a part in his film, The Sting. I had an argument with Joe Papp over that because he had a strict rule that no one could quit his show without his permission. So I came to him and asked to let me do this film. ‘Who’s directing?’ he wanted to know. ‘George Roy Hill,’ I said. ‘And who’s in it?’ ‘Paul Newman and somebody I never even heard of named Robert Redford .’ Joe let me go but not without a warning. ‘If you don’t come back after the film, we’re done; don’t ever call me again.’ ’’ ‘‘Did you?’’ ‘‘Well, not exactly. I got an o√er to do another film right after The Sting. It took me out to Hollywood. Then I got another and another, and so I stayed out here. I didn’t call Joe Papp for twenty years. And when I finally did he said, ‘What do you want now?’ We made up and I did a few things with him. But he was very important in my life. I owe him my acting career.’’ ‘‘What did George Roy Hill see in you? Why did he want you for The Sting?’’ ‘‘I have no idea. I don’t know why people even use me now. I have no idea what they see, but...