Personal life

Cullum was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of a banker. He attended Knoxville High School and the University of Tennessee. He played on the university's Southeastern Conference championship tennis team and was a member of Phi Gamma Delta. He starred in "Chucky Jack", an outdoor drama about Tennessee Governor John Sevier, at the old Hunter Hills Theater in Gatlinburg.

Cullum has been married to Emily Frankel since 1959. They have one son, JD Cullum (John David Cullum), who is also an actor.

Career

He made his Broadway debut as Sir Dinadan in Alan Jay Lerner's and Frederick Loewe's Camelot in 1960. He also understudied Richard Burton (King Arthur) and Roddy McDowall (Arthur's son Mordred), going on four times when Burton became ill and succeeding McDowall. He would go on to play Laertes opposite Burton's 1964 Broadway performance as Hamlet (and in the film version of the production) and in Burton's final Broadway appearance in Noël Coward's Private Lives in 1983.

In 1965, he was called in to replace Louis Jourdan during the Boston tryout of the musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. It was his first starring role on Broadway, netting him a Theatre World Award and his first Tony Award nomination. The original cast album received a Grammy Award (presented to lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Burton Lane).

He portrayed Edward Rutledge of South Carolina in the Broadway musical 1776, providing a dramatic highlight with his performance of "Molasses to Rum," a tirade against the hypocrisy of some Northerners over the slave trade ("They don't keep slaves, but they are willing to be considerable carriers of slaves to others. They're willing - for the shilling.") Cullum had been the third Rutledge on Broadway, but played the role the longest and repeated it for the 1972 film.

He is well known for premiering the role of Charlie Anderson in the musical Shenandoah, which began at Goodspeed Opera House, Connecticut in 1974. Cullum won the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards when the show was produced on Broadway in 1975. He also played the role at Wolf Trap, Virginia, in June 1976, opened the national tour for 3 weeks in Fall 1977 in Chicago, and starred in the limited run Broadway revival in 1989.

He followed Shenandoah by playing the maniacal Broadway producer Oscar Jaffee in the 1978 musical On the Twentieth Century, opposite Madeline Kahn and later Judy Kaye, earning his second Tony Award. He received his fourth Tony nomination in 2002 for originating the role of evil moneygrubber corporate president Caldwell B. Cladwell in Urinetown The Musical. He earned his fifth Tony nomination in the 2007 revival of 110 in the Shade, playing H.C. Curry, father to Audra McDonald's Lizzie.

Recent Broadway appearances include the title role of William Shakespeare's seldom-performed Cymbeline, at Lincoln Center in 2007 and August: Osage County, by Tracy Letts for the week of September 16, 2008 and then since November 11, 2008.

In addition to enjoying a long stage career, he is well known to television audiences for his regular role as Holling Vincoeur on the quirky CBS series Northern Exposure, his extended appearances on the NBC medical drama ER as Mark Greene's father, and on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as constitutional lawyer and later judge, Barry Moredock. Cullum has also appeared as Lucky Strike executive Lee Garner, Sr. on AMC's Mad Men. He appeared as Leap Day William, the embodiment of the fictional Leap Day national holiday, in the "Leap Day" episode of the sixth season of NBC's 30 Rock.

John Cullum most recently appeared on Broadway in The Scottsboro Boys (2010), a musical by John Kander and the late Fred Ebb about a notorious miscarriage of justice in the American South in the 1930s. The Scottsboro Boys was directed by Susan Stroman.

John Cullum was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2007.

In 2015 Cullum appeared in- and sang in- the satirical B&W period movie-musical footage of "Daddy's Boy" on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The "forgotten footage" features comically incestuous lyrics set in an innocent context that apes classic 1930's films.

Work

Stage productions

Camelot (1960) - Sir Dinidan Infidel Caesar (1962) The Rehearsal (1963) Hamlet (1963) - Laertes On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965) -Dr. Mark Bruckner Man of La Mancha (1967) -Cervantes/Don Quixote 1776 (ca. 1970)- Edward Rutledge Vivat! Vivat Regina! (1972) Shenandoah (1975) - Charlie Anderson The Trip Back Down (1977) On the Twentieth Century (1978) Deathtrap (1979)- Sidney Bruhl

Private Lives (1983) - Victor Prynne Doubles (1985) The Boys in Autumn (1986) - Huck You Never Can Tell (1986) Shenandoah (revival) (1989) - Charlie Anderson Aspects of Love (1990) - George Dillingham Show Boat (1994) - Cap'n Andy Hawkes "Man of La Mancha"(1995) - Don Quixote/Cervantes Urinetown (2001) - Caldwell B. Cladwell Sin: a Cardinal Deposed (2005)- Cardinal Law Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2006) 110 in the Shade (2007)- H.C. Curry Cymbeline (2008) - King Cymbaline August: Osage County (2009) The Scottsboro Boys (2010) Measure for Measure (Shakespeare in the Park) 2011 - Vincentio All's Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare in the Park) 2011 - The Duke Casa Valentina (2014)

Filmography All the Way Home (1963) Hamlet (1964) Hawaii (1966) They Call Me Trinity (1971) 1776 (1972) The Prodigal (1983) Marie (1985) Sweet Country (1986) The Secret Life of Algernon (1997) Ricochet River (1998) Held Up (1999) Inherit the Wind (1999) Blackwater Elegy (2003) The Notorious Bettie Page (2006) The Night Listener (2006) The Conspirator (2011) Kill Your Darlings (2013) Adult World (2013) Love Is Strange (2014) Christine (2016)

Television The Edge of Night (1966-67) One Life to Live (1969) The Day After (1983) The Equalizer (1986) Buck James (1987) Quantum Leap - "To Catch A Falling Star" (1989) Northern Exposure (1990-95) Touched By An Angel - "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" (1997) Mark Twain To Have and To Hold (1998) ER (1997-2000) Law & Order (2001) Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2003-present) Mad Men (2007) The Middle (2009-present) 30 Rock (2012) Nurse Jackie (2013) Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015)

Awards and nominations

Awards

• 1966 Theatre World Award - On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
• 1975 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actor, Musical - Shenandoah
• 1975 Outer Critics Circle Award, Best Performances - Shenandoah
• 1975 Tony Award Best Actor in a Musical - Shenandoah
• 1978 Tony Award Best Actor in a Musical - On the Twentieth Century
• 1982 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience for the one-man show Whistler
• 1998 Founders Day Medal, University of Tennessee
• 2004 Clarence Brown Theatre Company (University of Tennessee), Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2007 Inductee American Theatre Hall of Fame

Nominations

• 1966 Tony Award Best Actor in a Musical - On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
• 1993 Emmy Award Best Supporting Actor in a Drama - Northern Exposure
• 2002 Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Actor in a Musical - Urinetown
• 2002 Tony Award Best Actor in a Musical - Urinetown
• 2005 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play - Sin (A Cardinal Deposed)
• 2008 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play - The Conscientious Objector

[ Source: Wikipedia ]