In Remembrance: Barnard Hughes

     Barnard Hughes, the Tony award winning actor who made several film appearances in supporting character roles, has passed away on July 11, 2006 in New York City, NY. He was 90.

     Born on July 16, 1915 in Bedford Hills, New York, Hughes worked as a dockworker, in Macy’s department store and as a Wall Street copyreader before auditioning for a stage show on a dare from a friend. Although he made his Broadway debut in the 1935 production Herself Mrs. Patrick Crowley, Hughes spent the majority of his early acting career touring with stock companies, interrupted only by an Army tour of duty during World War Two.

     Hughes made his film debut in a small, uncredited role in the 1954 drama Playgirl. For the next fifteen years he appeared in several Broadway productions and television series, but only made two more film appearances- 1961’s The Young Doctors and 1969’s Midnight Cowboy.

     Over the next three decades Hughes would balance television, stage and film jobs, appearing in such movies as Sisters (1973), Oh, God! (1977), First Monday In October (1981), Tron (1982), Maxie (1985), The Lost Boys (1987), Doc Hollywood (1991), Sister Act 2 (1993) and The Odd Couple II (1998). In 1978, Hughes starred on Broadway in the drama Da, winning a Tony Award for his performance. In 1988 he would recreate the role for the film adaptation.

     His final film was they 2000 musical The Fantasticks.