Recent Obituaries, Classic Films Only

[CBHagman]

27. Actor and D-Day veteran Charles Durning, 89.

Stage, screen, and television actor Charles Durning died on Christmas Eve. His stage, TV, and film credits alone are astonishing, but that wasn't the most remarkable thing about the man.

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[url]http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/character_actor_charles_durning_dies_at_89/[/url]

He was among the first wave of U.S. soldiers to land at Normandy during the D-Day invasion and the only member of his Army unit to survive. He killed several Germans and was wounded in the leg. Later he was bayoneted by a young German soldier whom he killed with a rock. He was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and survived a massacre of prisoners.

In later years, he refused to discuss the military service for which he was awarded the Silver Star and three Purple Hearts.

“Too many bad memories,” he told an interviewer in 1997. “I don’t want you to see me crying.”

Tragedy also stalked other members of his family. Durning was 12 when his father died, and five of his sisters lost their lives to smallpox and scarlet fever.

A high school counselor told him he had no talent for art, languages or math and should learn office skills. But after seeing “King Kong” and some of James Cagney’s films, Durning knew what he wanted to do.

Leaving home at 16, he worked in a munitions factory, on a slag heap and in a barbed-wire factory.


TV and film credits:

[url]http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001164/[/url]