In Remembrance: Hume Cronyn

     Hume Cronyn, one of the best-known character actors of American cinema, died June 15^th, 2003 of cancer at his Fairfield, CT home. He was 91.

     Cronyn began acting at age 19, as a paperboy in Up Pops The Devil against the wishes of his father. His passion for acting led him to leave law school. He enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. A strong ability to act enabled him to play a variety of characters. In his 1934 Broadway debut, he played a janitor in the critically panned Hippers Holiday. Although the play was a failure, he continued on and received accolades for his role as Andrei Prozoroff, the brother in Chekov’s Three Sisters.

     A random screen test seen by Alfred Hitchcock helped him land his debut film role-playing the detective story addict Herbie Hawkins in Hitchcock’s thriller Shadow of A Doubt (1943). Cronyn won rave reviews and continued to take on quirky roles. His performance as a German in Zinneman’s The Seventh Cross (1944) earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. That same year he also appeared in Hitchcock’s Lifeboat, portraying a radio operator.

     He appeared as a slick lawyer in Tay Garnett’s classic noir The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and as the sadistic prison guard Munsey in Brute Force (1947). He would work with Hitchcock again, though behind the camera, adapting the plays Rope (1948) and Under Capricorn (1949).

     In the 50s and 60s Cronyn returned to the stage. He was awarded his first Tony Award in 1964 for his portrayal of Polonius to Richard Burton’s Hamlet, directed by John Gielgud. He earned a second Tony for A Delicate Balance in 1968.

     Cronyn is best known to modern audiences for his role as Joe Finley, one of a group of elderly people who discover a Fountain of Youth in Ron Howard’s Cocoon (1985) and its sequel Cocoon: The Return (1988). Both films co-starred his wife Jessica Tandy. He also starred in The Parallax View (1974) and The World According To Garp (1982).

     Cronyn were elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1979, received the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement medal (1986) and was awarded a Tony Award for lifetime achievement in 1994.

-John Gibbon