Goodnight, Mr. Holbrook
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| Holbrook as Mark Twain |
So, what's special about Hal Holbrook?
Above all, Hal Holbrook was a great actor--not just good, but truly great. The evidence of this comes from his mastery of every venue where one could practice the craft.
On Television, Holbrook was a five-time winner of the prestigious Emmy Award, for various acting and presenting roles over the course of his career.
On Film, he embodied many notable characters in different projects. Among his best known included the character "Deep Throat" in All the President's Men; Oliver Lambert in The Firm, based on John Grisham's novel of the same name; Old Jacob in Water for Elephants, Abner Meecham in That Evening Sun, which he co-starred with his late-wife Dixie Carter; Francis Preston Blair in the 2012 film Lincoln, directed by Stephen Spielberg; and Into the Wild, playing Ron Franz, which garnished him an Oscar-nomination.
However, for me, Holbrook's greatest work as on the stage. It was on the stage in a one-man show, where Holbrook embodied the character--and really, the person--with whom he'll be ever-linked: the role of writer Mark Twain in Mark Twain Tonight!. This role, for a show he "wrote," directed, and performed for over 60 years earned him a Tony Award in the 1960s.
For people like me, who love the works of Mark Twain, the two man are eternally intertwined together.
Holbrook's immersive performance as Twain was as close as a contemporary audience could get to seeing the great writer in the flesh.
Many people who know the life of Twain know that he was a great "lecturer." He would go out on a stage and perform his work to the audience, frequently from memory, but sometimes reading from the page. In his later life, Twain resorted to his great skill as a performer to help him and his family recover from debts he'd incurred following poor financial investments. It was this sort of experience that Holbrook attempted--and succeeded--in replicating on the stage for his audiences.
In performing, Holbrook never just wanted to make the audience laugh--although, that's quite easy to do with Twain. What he'd do is lure them in with the first half of his stage show, doing the more lighthearted pieces. It was a sweetener, to convince them he was harmless. Then, at the top of act two, he again would get them to laugh, but gradually, he'd get into Twain's heavier, serious, bitingly critic satire. In doing that, he gave a truly comprehensive performance as Twain, whose body of work wasn't just literary frivolity, the "tame Twain," as some critics call it. Twain's work was just as equally tough and true--and to ignore that side of the man would be a disservice.
Among Twain scholars and enthusiasts, like myself, Holbrook will always hold a special place. A superb actor, unquestionably. An American original, absolutely (you don't get a National Medal in the Humanities from a President if you aren't). More than anything, he will be a great advocate for the works of Twain. In the documentary Holbrook/Twain, which follows and explores Holbrook's acting life on the stage in his late 80s, one of the interviewees even called him the premier Mark Twain scholar.
For a performer who read everything Twain wrote, had such command of the material that he could decide what to perform on stage from one act to another, and understood Twain's work enough--through his own experience and reading--to know exactly how to deliver his words, I can't think of a better way to describe Holbrook. That is except for the word genius.
Goodnight, Mr. Holbrook, and thank you.
(If you'd like to get an idea of how great Hal Holbrook was as Mark Twain, check out the video below.)
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