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Harold Rowe Holbrook, Jr. (born February 17, 1925, Cleveland, Ohio) is a Tony Award-winning American actor.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Marriage 4 Year of birth 5 Trivia 6 Partial filmography 7 External Links/Sources/References

"Hal" Holbrook was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Harold Rowe Holbrook and Aileen Davenport, and was mostly raised in South Weymouth, Massachusetts. He graduated from the Culver Academies and Denison University, where an honors project about Mark Twain led him to develop the one-man show he is best known for, a series of performances called Mark Twain Tonight.

Holbrook served in the US Army in World War II and was stationed in Newfoundland, where he performed in little theatre, including the play Madam Precious.

According to Playbill, Holbrook’s first solo performance as Twain was at Lock Haven State Teachers College in Pennsylvania in 1954. Ed Sullivan saw him and gave Holbrook his first national exposure on his February 12, 1956 show. The State Department even sent him on a European tour, which included pioneering appearances behind the Iron Curtain. In 1959, Holbrook first played the role Off-Broadway. Columbia Records recorded an LP of excerpts from the show.

In 1967, Mark Twain Tonight was presented on television by CBS and Xerox, and Holbrook received an Emmy for his performance. Holbrook's Twain first played on Broadway in 1966, and again in 1977 and 2005; Holbrook was at least 80 years old during his most recent Broadway run, older (for the first time) than the character he was portraying. Holbrook won a Tony Award for the performance in 1966. Mark Twain Tonight has repeatedly toured across the country in what as of 2005 has amounted to over 2000 performances.

In 1964, Holbrook played the role of the Major in the original production of Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy. In 1968, he was one of the replacements for Richard Kiley in the original Broadway production of Man of La Mancha, although he had limited singing ability.

Holbrook co-starred with Martin Sheen in the controversial and acclaimed 1972 television movie That Certain Summer said to be the first television movie to portray homosexuality in a sympathetic, non-judgemental light. In 1976, Holbrook won further acclaim for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in a series of television specials based on Carl Sandburg's acclaimed biography. He has also starred in many films and TV programs.

Early in his career he worked on stage and in a television soap opera, The Brighter Day. Holbrook is also famous for his role as the enigmatic Deep Throat (whose identity was unknown at the time) in the film All the President's Men. More recently, Holbrook appeared as a featured guest star in a 2006 episode of the HBO series, The Sopranos.

Holbrook is married to stage and television actress Dixie Carter. He had a recurring role as Carter's boyfriend on her 1990s series Designing Women.

According to the periodical Theatre World^[1] Holbrook was born on February 17, 1916. This periodical is well respected and generally accurate in the biodata it provides. Given the margin of the discrepancy between this date of birth (1916) and the generally accepted year of birth (1925), 9 years, the matter should be regarded as pending unless confirmed by census data. The 1916 year of birth would, however, better explain Holbrook's first marriage in 1945, when he would otherwise have been only 20 years old. Mr. Holbrook's graduation from Culver Military Academy was in 1942 [1]. If born in 1925, Holbrook would have been 17 at graduation, a typical age for finishing prep school.

• Holbrook has appeared in at least 6 movies where he is part of a conspiracy: Fletch Lives, Magnum Force, The Star Chamber, Capricorn One, All the President's Men, and The Firm.

Hal Holbrook appeared on Fisher Investment's commercials.

• The Group (1966): Film debut
• Wild in the Streets (1968)
• They Only Kill Their Masters (1972)
• Magnum Force (1973)
• All the President's Men (1976)
• Midway (1976)
• Capricorn One (1978)
• The Fog (1979)
• The Kidnapping of the President (1980)
• Creepshow (1982)
• The Star Chamber (1983)
• Wall Street (1987)
• The Unholy (1988)
• Fletch Lives (1989)
• The Firm (1993)
• Innocent Victims (1996)
• Eye of God (1997)
• Cats Don't Dance (1997) (voice)
• Hush (1998)
• Men of Honor (2000)
• The Majestic (2001)
• The West Wing (2001, 2002)
• Shade (2003)
• The Sopranos (2006)

1. ^ Theatre World (Season 1962-63), p. 241, Library of Congress Catalog Card #46-13321.

• Hal Holbrook at the Internet Movie Database.
• Hal Holbrook at the Internet Broadway Database.
• Hal Holbrook profile, NNDB.
• Biography and story about his return to Broadway from Playbill.
• 2004 Story on Holbrook from NOW.