Charles durning and burt reynolds movies8/14/2023 ![]() ![]() His profile on stage and in film was elevated considerably by his turn in the 1972 Broadway run of Jason Miller's "That Championship Season." Director George Roy Hill saw the show and tapped Durning to play a corrupt police lieutenant in "The Sting" (1973). He also had supporting turns in features, including two appearances in early films by Brian De Palma: 1970's "Hi Mom!" for which he was billed as Charles Dunham, and 1973's "Sisters." During this period, Durning divorced his first wife, Carol, and married Mary Ann Amelio - reportedly, his childhood sweetheart - in 1973. For the next few years, Durning alternated between stage productions, television guest shots and TV movies, most notably the Emmy-nominated "Look Homeward, Angel" (1972). He made his TV debut in 1963 in an episode of the acclaimed drama "East Side/West Side" (CBS, 1963-65) his first film appearance came two years later in the experimental comedy "Harvey Middleman, Fireman" (1965). His first on-camera parts came during this period as well. By the early 1960s, he was an in-demand performer on the New York stage, with 35 performances for Joseph Papp's Shakespeare Festival and turns in Broadways comedies and musicals. ![]() With the help of the recent GI Bill, he also enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and began landing stage roles in regional and touring productions. Despite injuries to both legs, he found regular employment as a nightclub and ballroom dancer, as well as an instructor at Fred Astaire Studios. In 2004, his story was incorporated into an episode of "NCIS" (CBS, 2003-) in which he guest-starred as a veteran who turns himself into the authorities for the accidental murder of a fellow GI at Iwo Jima.After the war, Durning returned to his entertainment career. In interviews, Durning revealed that he still struggled with the lingering physical and mental effects of his experiences. Durning would later be a regular figure at events honoring World War II vets, but did not speak about his experiences until his "Evening Shade" co-star, Ossie Davis, suggested that he appear at the annual National Memorial Day Concert on the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 2004. Durning was shipped back to the United States and received treatment for his injuries as well as psychological trauma from his involvement in these two bloody ordeals eventually being discharged in 1946 with three Purple Hearts and the Silver Star. He was once again wounded and taken prisoner by Axis forces, and was one of only a handful of POWs to survive the brutal massacre at Malmedy, in which German forces machine-gunned an engineering battalion that had been caught behind enemy lines after the American retreat and who were surrendering at the time. As the lone survivor in his unit, Durning was immediately shipped to England to recover, and returned to the frontlines for the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944. He also received eight stab wounds from a German soldier, whom he killed with a rock in hand-to-hand combat. The event was by all accounts a horrific one for him: among the first wave to land on Omaha Beach on June 6, he suffered machine gun wounds to his right leg and shrapnel injuries over his entire body. When America entered World War II, Durning was drafted into the Army as a rifleman and was present at the invasion of Normandy on D-Day in 1944. ![]() Unfortunately, like many men just starting out their lives at the time, world events proceeded to get in the way. ![]() He also did time as a professional boxer, construction worker, elevator operator, cab driver, nightclub singer and ballroom dancer before making his stage debut in Buffalo. He even took to the stage there after a comic was relieved of his job for drunkenness. As a teen, Durning displayed the tenacious nature that would later earmark many of his film and television roles by working as an usher at a burlesque theater in Buffalo, NY. Born in Highland Falls, NY, Durning was reared solely by his mother Louise after his father, John, died when he was very young, leaving Louise to support her and her son by working as a laundress at the nearby West Point military academy. ![]()
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