Early life

Holbrook was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Aileen (Davenport) Holbrook (1905-1987), a vaudeville dancer, and Harold Rowe Holbrook, Sr (1902-1982). After being abandoned by his parents at age two, he and his two sisters were raised by his paternal grandparents first in South Weymouth, Massachusetts, and then in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood.

He graduated from the Culver Academies and Denison University, where an honors project about Mark Twain led him to develop the one-man show for which he is best known, a series of performances called Mark Twain Tonight. Holbrook served in the United States Army in World War II and was stationed in Newfoundland, where he performed in theatre productions such as the play Madam Precious.

Career

According to Playbill, Holbrook's first solo performance as Twain was at Lock Haven State Teachers College in Pennsylvania in 1954. Ed Sullivan saw him and gave Holbrook his first national exposure on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 12, 1956. Holbrook was also a member of the Valley Players (1941-1962), a summer stock theater company based in Holyoke, Massachusetts, which performed at Mountain Park Casino Playhouse at Mountain Park. He joined The Lamns in 1955 where he began developing his one-man show, MARK TWAIN TONIGHT. He was a member of the cast for several years and performed Mark Twain Tonight as the 1957 season opener. The State Department even sent him on a European tour, which included pioneering appearances behind the Iron Curtain. In 1959, Holbrook first played the role off-Broadway. Columbia Records recorded an LP of excerpts from the show.

Holbrook performed in a special production for the New York World's Fair (1964, 1965) for the Bell Telephone Pavilion. Jo Mielziner created an innovative audio-visual ride experience and used Hal's acting talents on 65 different action screens for "The Ride Of Communications" with the movie itself known as From Drumbeats to Telstar.

In 1967, Mark Twain Tonight was presented on television by CBS and Xerox, and Holbrook received an Emmy for his performance. Holbrook's Twain first played on Broadway in 1966, and again in 1977 and 2005; Holbrook was 80 years old during his most recent Broadway run, older (for the first time) than the character he was portraying. Holbrook won a Tony Award for the performance in 1966. Mark Twain Tonight has repeatedly toured the country in what, as of 2005, has amounted to over 2000 performances. He has portrayed Twain longer than Samuel Langhorne Clemens did.

In 1964, Holbrook played the role of the Major in the original production of Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy. In 1968, he was one of the replacements for Richard Kiley in the original Broadway production of Man of La Mancha, although he had limited singing ability.

Holbrook co-starred with Martin Sheen in the controversial and acclaimed 1972 television movie That Certain Summer. In 1973, Holbrook appeared as Lieutenant Neil Briggs, the boss and rival of Detective Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) in Magnum Force, an "obsessively neat and prim fanatic" who supports the obliteration of San Francisco's criminals and who is the leader of a rogue group of vigilante officers. In 1976, Holbrook won acclaim for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in a series of television specials based on Carl Sandburg's acclaimed biography. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the 1970 series The Bold Ones: The Senator. In 1979, he starred with Katharine Ross, Barry Bostwick, and Richard Anderson in the made-for-TV movie Murder by Natural Causes. Holbrook also had a major role on the sitcom Evening Shade throughout its entire run.

Early in his career, Holbrook worked onstage and in a television soap opera, The Brighter Day. He is also famous for his role as the enigmatic Deep Throat (whose identity was unknown at the time) in the film All the President's Men. Holbrook was the narrator on the Ken Burns documentary Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery in 1997.

In 1999, Holbrook was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Later career

In 2000, Holbrook appeared in Men of Honor, where he portrayed a racist and hypocritical officer who endlessly tries to fail an African-American diver trainee.

He appeared in Sean Penn's critically acclaimed film Into the Wild (2007) and received an Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role at the 80th Academy Awards. This renders Holbrook, at age 82, the oldest nominee in Academy Award history in the Best Supporting Actor category. On December 20, 2007, Holbrook was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for his work in the film. In late August through mid-September 2007, he starred as the narrator in the Hartford Stage production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, a role he had once played on television.

Holbrook appeared with wife Dixie Carter in That Evening Sun, filmed in East Tennessee in the summer of 2008. The film was produced by Dogwood Entertainment. It is based on a short story by William Gay. That Evening Sun premiered in March 2009 at South By Southwest, where it received the Audience Award for Narrative Feature and a special Jury Prize for Ensemble Cast. Joe Leydon of Variety hailed Hollbrook's performance in the film as a "career-highlight star turn as an irascible octogenarian farmer who will not go gentle into that good night." That Evening Sun also was screened at the 2009 Nashville Film Festival, where Holbrook was honored with a special Lifetime Achievement Award, and the film itself received another Audience Award.

Holbrook appeared as a featured guest star in a 2006 episode of the HBO series The Sopranos and the NCIS episode "Escaped". On April 22, 2010, Holbrook signed on to portray Katey Sagal's character's father on the FX original series Sons of Anarchy for a four-episode arc in their third season, as well as appearing in additional fifth episode in the final season. He also had a multiple-episode arc on The Event, an American television series on NBC, appearing in the 2010-2011 season.

In 2011, Holbrook appeared in Water for Elephants. In 2012, Steven Spielberg cast Holbrook to play Francis Preston Blair in Lincoln. His recent films are Gus Van Sant's Promised Land (2012) and the animated film Planes: Fire & Rescue (2014).

Personal life

Holbrook has been married three times and has three children. He married Ruby Holbrook on September 22, 1945, and they had two children, Victoria Holbrook and David Holbrook. They divorced in 1965, and on December 28, 1966, he married Carol Eve Rossen. They had one child, Eve Holbrook, and they divorced on June 14, 1983.

He married actress Dixie Carter on May 27, 1984. Architect Hoyte Johnson of Atlanta redesigned Carter's family home and created an environment that the couple shared with family and friends. Holbrook has said that the home has the "feel" of the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut, and that there is no other place to which he feels so ideally suited. Holbrook and Carter remained married until her death on April 10, 2010. Holbrook had a recurring role on his wife's hit sitcom Designing Women, appearing in nine episodes between 1986 and 1989 as Carter's on-screen significant other.

Holbrook grew to love Dixie's home in McLemoresville, Tennessee, and continues to retreat there from the busy life on the road and in Hollywood. The local community responded by building the Dixie Theatre for Performing Arts in nearby Huntington, Tennessee, which features the Hal Holbrook Auditorium.

Holbrook is a converted Christian, even though he tends to criticize the Bible at times. He is a registered Independent, but tends to lean more liberal. Holbrook has criticized the Republican Party since Barack Obama took office. Holbrook is the great-uncle of fellow actor Boyd Holbrook.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1966	The Group	Gus Leroy
1967	Mark Twain Tonight	Mark Twain	TV special
1968	Wild in the Streets	Senator Johnny Fergus
1970	The Bold Ones: The Senator	Senator Hays Stowe
1970	The Great White Hope	Al Cameron
1972	They Only Kill Their Masters	Watkins
1972	That Certain Summer	Doug Salter	TV movie
1973	Pueblo	Captain Lloyd Bucher	TV movie
1973	Magnum Force	Lieutenant Briggs
1974	The Girl from Petrovka	Joe
1974	Carl Sandburg's Lincoln	Abraham Lincoln	TV miniseries
1976	All the President's Men	Deep Throat
1976	Midway	Commander Joseph Rochefort
1977	Julia	Alan
1977	Rituals	Harry
1978	Capricorn One	Dr. James Kelloway
1978	The Awakening Land	TV series	Portius Wheeler - The Solitary
1979	When Hell Was in Session	Commander Jeremiah A. Denton	TV movie
1979	Murder by Natural Causes	Arthur Sinclair	TV series
1979	The Legend of the Golden Gun	J. R. Swackhammer	TV series
1979	Natural Enemies	Paul Steward
1980	The Fog	Father Malone
1980	The Kidnapping of the President	President Adam Scott
1981	The Killing of Randy Webster	John Webster	TV series
1982	Creepshow	Henry Northrup	Segment: "The Crate"
1982	Girls Nite Out	Jim MacVey
1983	The Star Chamber	Judge Benjamin Caulfield
1984	George Washington	John Adams	TV miniseries
1985	North and South Part 1	Abraham Lincoln	TV miniseries
1986-1989	Designing Women	Reese Watson	TV series
1986	Portrait of America		TV series
1986	Dress Gray	General Charles Hedges	TV series
1986	North and South Part 2	Abraham Lincoln	TV miniseries
1987	Wall Street	Lou Mannheim
1988	The Unholy	Archbishop Mosely
1988	I'll Be Home for Christmas	Joseph Bundy
1988	The Fortunate Pilgrim	Dr. Andrew McKay
1989	Day One	General George Marshall	TV movie
1989	Fletch Lives	Hamilton "Ham" Johnson
1990-1994	Evening Shade	Evan Evans	TV series
1993	The Firm	Oliver Lambert
1996	Innocent Victims	Bob Hennis
1997	Eye of God	Sheriff Rogers
1997	Cats Don't Dance	Cranston	Voice
1997	Hercules	Amphitryon	Voice
1998	Beauty	Alexander Miller	TV movie
1998	Hush	Dr. Franklin Hill
1998	Walking to the Waterline	Man on the Beach
1999	The Bachelor	Roy O'Dell
2000	Waking the Dead	Isaac Green
2000	Men of Honor	Mr. Pappy
2000	The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus	Ak - Master Woodsman of the World	Voice
2001	The Majestic	Congressman Doyle
2001	The Legend of the Three Trees	Narrator	Voice
2001-2002	The West Wing	Assistant Secretary of State Albie Duncan	TV series
2002	Seventh Day	Himself	Documentary
2003	Country Music: The Spirit of America	Narrator	IMAX
2003	Shade	The Professor
2006	The Sopranos	John Schwinn	TV series
2006	NCIS	Mickey Stokes	TV series
2007	Into the Wild	Ron Franz
2008	ER	Walter Perkins	TV series
2008	Killshot	Papa
2009	That Evening Sun	Abner Meecham
2010; 2014	Sons of Anarchy	Nate Madock	TV series
2010-2011	The Event	James Dempsey	TV series
2011	Water for Elephants	Old Jacob
2011	Good Day for It	Hec
2012	Lincoln	Francis Preston Blair
2013	Savannah	Judge Harden
2013	Promised Land	Frank Yates
2013	Rectify	Rutherford Gaines	TV series
2013	Monday Mornings	Dr. Arvin Wayne	TV series
2014	Planes: Fire & Rescue	Mayday	Voice
2015	Go with Me	Whizzer	Post-production

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

• (2008) Nominated - Best Supporting Actor / Into the Wild

Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards

• (2008) Nominated - Best Supporting Actor / Into the Wild

Chicago Film Critics Association Awards

• (2007) Nominated - Best Supporting Actor / Into the Wild

Online Film Critics Society Awards

• (2008) Nominated - Best Supporting Actor / Into the Wild

Screen Actors Guild Awards

• (2008) Nominated - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role / Into the Wild

Primetime Emmy Awards

• Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a Movie -
  • (1967) Nominated - Mark Twain Tonight!
  • (1971) Nominated - A Clear and Present Danger
  • (1973) Nominated - That Certain Summer
  • (1974) Won - Pueblo
  • (1976) Won - Sandburg's Lincoln
  • (1978) Nominated - The Awakening Land
  • (1969) Nominated - The Whole World is Watching
• Outstanding Lead Actor - Drama or Comedy Special
  • (1978) Nominated - Our Town
• Outstanding Lead Actor - Drama Series
  • (1971) Won - The Bold Ones: The Senator
• Outstanding Informational Series
  • (1988) Nominated - Portrait of America (segment: New York City)
• Outstanding Performance in Informational Programing
  • (1989) Won - Portrait of America (segment: Alaska)
• Actor of the Year (Retired category)
  • (1974) Won - Pueblo

Tony Awards

• (1966) Won - Best Actor in a Play / Mark Twain Tonight

[ Source: Wikipedia ]