On the same day we lost
Jack Klugman, Christmas Eve, we also lost Charles Durning, the king of the character actors. The multiple award-winning actor, featured in over a hundred films, was 89.
I first encountered Charles Durning as Detective Moretti in
Dog Day Afternoon. He was the likable but straight arrow cop who negotiated with Al Pacino's bank robber Sonny Wortzik. I love the film, a time capsule of the 1970s, that earned Durning a Best Supporting Actor nom from the Golden Globes. But it's not his only film, before or since.
Durning's resume also includes terrific roles in
The Sting,
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,
O Brother Where Art Thou,
The Muppet Movie, and
Tootsie, among so many others. He was also a veteran of the Second World War, won a Tony for playing Big Daddy in
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and had regular parts on the TV shows "Evening Shade," "Family Guy," "Everyone Loves Raymond," and "Rescue Me."
Throughout his long career as an actor he was rarely not working, and was always playing memorable characters. We've lost another of the greats. He will be missed.
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