Charles Durning

The Soldier Who Learned to Dance

Charles Durning landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. He was the only survivor of his unit and carried the scars of German bayonets and shrapnel for decades. That horror forged a dry demeanor that he would later bring to the screen with astonishing ease.

Before acting, he worked as a professional boxer and dance instructor at Fred Astaire school. His physical agility contrasted with a heavy, stocky build that New York casting directors didn't know where to place in the late 1950s.

Then New York theater gave him a chance.

Joseph Papp recruited him for the New York Shakespeare Festival, and there Durning showed that his presence could fill the stage without him ever having to shout. But film resisted him, because his face didn't fit the beauty standards of the era. He had to wait until he was past fifty for the industry to recognize that this man with an ordinary look was a titan in front of the camera.

The Character Actor of a Thousand Faces

In 1973, he played the corrupt cop Snyder in The Sting. It was the moment his career finally took off after years of tiny TV roles. Brian De Palma and Sidney Lumet took notice of him for projects that required a mix of authority and vulnerability.

His role as the police inspector in Dog Day Afternoon in 1975 is an exercise in restraint. While Al Pacino shouted outside the bank door, Durning kept his cool with a look that conveyed the exhaustion of an entire police department. That job allowed him to move from crime dramas to musical comedy without losing an ounce of credibility.

Comedy was his unexpected refuge.

In 1982, he received his first Oscar nomination for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. He played a dancing governor who moved with a lightness no one expected from a man of his size. A year later, he earned another nomination for his role as a clumsy Nazi in To Be or Not to Be, Mel Brooks's version of Lubitsch's classic.

Maturing on the Small Screen

But the work never let up, and his pace was relentless. Through the 1990s, he took part in projects as different as the Coen brothers' The Hudsucker Proxy and the series Evening Shade. On the latter, he shot nearly a hundred episodes, proving that the demands of television didn't scare him.

The Coen brothers called him back in 2000 for O Brother, Where Art Thou?. His portrayal of Governor Pappy O'Daniel is a display of Southern charisma and barely contained meanness. Durning was commanding six-figure salaries at the time for just a few weeks of work on high-profile productions.

He never wanted to retire completely.

In 2004, he joined the cast of the series Rescue Me to play the protagonist's father. It was one of his last major roles, exploring the relationship between an alcoholic father and his firefighter son in post-11/11 New York. Critics noted that his mere presence on set pushed the other actors to raise their game.

Charles Durning died on December 24, 2012 at his Manhattan home of natural causes at the age of 89. He rests at Arlington National Cemetery with all the military honors he earned before ever stepping onto a set. He was buried in section 66, grave number 124.