Charles Durning

Character actor and war hero Charles Durning will be honored for lifetime achievement during January's Screen Actors Guild Awards, the guild announced Monday. Durning, 84, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for fostering the "finest ideals of the acting profession" during the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards show on Jan. 27, the guild said.

In 1985 I began working with producer Joseph Papp on "Free for All," an oral history of the celebrated New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater. I ended up interviewing more than 160 individuals, including actors known for their powerful personalities, like James Earl Jones, Tommy Lee Jones and George C. Scott. But no one I talked to made more of an impression than Charles Durning. Durning, who died Dec. 24 at age 89, appeared in numerous plays and films, and he was equally at home in dramas like "That Championship Season" and "Dog Day Afternoon" or comedies like "Tootsie.

"Woody asked me not to talk about it," Charles Durning said. "But it's true. I'm out of the movie." For three months, Durning--together with Sam Shepard, Maureen O'Sullivan and others--worked on Woody Allen's new, as yet untitled movie, shot on Long Island. Now, although he had completed his lead role, Durning finds he is no longer in the film. Shepard and O'Sullivan also reportedly have had their work scrapped. "We knew Woody was having trouble," Durning said this week.

Charles Durning, a Tony Award-winning actor whose prolific work in films and television included supporting roles in the classic comedy "Tootsie" and the TV sitcom "Evening Shade," died Monday. He was 89. Durning, a decorated veteran of World War II, died of natural causes at his home in Manhattan, according to his longtime agent Judith Moss. A seasoned former member of Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival whom Papp once described as a "stocky, tough Irishman," Durning had a breakthrough role in the hit Papp-produced 1972 Broadway play "That Championship Season" when he was 49. PHOTOS: 2012 notable deaths Durning's Drama Desk Award-winning performance as one of four former high school basketball players who reunite with their old coach led to his being cast as the corrupt police lieutenant in "The Sting," the Oscar-winning 1973 movie starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

Charles Durning is the kind of guy you call up in Cleveland in the middle of November and he'll tell you how nice it is there this time of year. "It's very cold, but there is no storm," he said, with emphasis on the good-news half of that observation. Durning is speaking by phone from that much-maligned Midwestern city, his latest stop on a 15-city national tour of "The Gin Game," a National Actors Theatre revival of D.L. Coburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning play in which he stars with Julie Harris.

"Harvey" is the story of Elwood P. Dowd, a sweet-natured innocent who lives to spread conviviality and a kind-hearted philosophy -- and of Harvey, the invisible, 6-foot-plus white rabbit who is Dowd's constant companion and guide. The comedy ran seven years on Broadway, starting in 1944, and won the Pulitzer Prize for author Mary Coyle Chase.

More arts and entertainment coverage on the Web TELEVISION No rescue for poor old Dad Did Tommy's dad (Charles Durning) die of boredom during the "Rescue Me" season finale? Our critic weighs in on the Show Tracker blog at latimes.com/entertainment. There's also a new post on "The Real World." MOVIES The latest from up north As the Toronto Film Festival continues, check out reaction to screenings at TheEnvelope.com.

Charles Durning will play the lead role in "Harvey" at the Laguna Playhouse in July. In mid-April, Durning had been announced as playing another role. Co-producer Don Gregory said he and director Charles Nelson Reilly tried to cast John Larroquette in the lead, a role associated with James Stewart in the movie version, but couldn't wait to learn if a Larroquette TV pilot might be picked up.

Imagine Ed Herrmann's predicament. From among all the passengers arriving at Dulles International Airport, he's got to choose one man whom the CIA will believe is a spy. Where to pick? From among the neat Japanese businessmen? The matched pair of rabbis? The confident yuppie black? What about the sweetly puckish guy on the escalator, ordinary in every respect except that only one of his shoes is a bright red sneaker? So the utterly innocent Tom Hanks has just been dubbed a spy.

Character actor and war hero Charles Durning will be honored for lifetime achievement during January's Screen Actors Guild Awards, the guild announced Monday. Durning, 84, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for fostering the "finest ideals of the acting profession" during the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards show on Jan. 27, the guild said.

More arts and entertainment coverage on the Web TELEVISION No rescue for poor old Dad Did Tommy's dad (Charles Durning) die of boredom during the "Rescue Me" season finale? Our critic weighs in on the Show Tracker blog at latimes.com/entertainment. There's also a new post on "The Real World." MOVIES The latest from up north As the Toronto Film Festival continues, check out reaction to screenings at TheEnvelope.com.

"Harvey" is the story of Elwood P. Dowd, a sweet-natured innocent who lives to spread conviviality and a kind-hearted philosophy -- and of Harvey, the invisible, 6-foot-plus white rabbit who is Dowd's constant companion and guide. The comedy ran seven years on Broadway, starting in 1944, and won the Pulitzer Prize for author Mary Coyle Chase.

Charles Durning will play the lead role in "Harvey" at the Laguna Playhouse in July. In mid-April, Durning had been announced as playing another role. Co-producer Don Gregory said he and director Charles Nelson Reilly tried to cast John Larroquette in the lead, a role associated with James Stewart in the movie version, but couldn't wait to learn if a Larroquette TV pilot might be picked up.

Charles Durning is the kind of guy you call up in Cleveland in the middle of November and he'll tell you how nice it is there this time of year. "It's very cold, but there is no storm," he said, with emphasis on the good-news half of that observation. Durning is speaking by phone from that much-maligned Midwestern city, his latest stop on a 15-city national tour of "The Gin Game," a National Actors Theatre revival of D.L. Coburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning play in which he stars with Julie Harris.

From the moment Charles Durning fills the screen wearing the scarlet robes of Cardinal Angelo Roncalli, the actor bears an uncanny resemblance to the man he is playing in the one-man special, "I Would Be Called John: Pope John XXIII." Durning has the diffident gestures, the broad nose, kind eyes, and yes, the similarly rumpled portly shape of Pope John, who served as pontiff for four years, seven months and six days from 1958 to 1963.

From the moment Charles Durning fills the screen wearing the scarlet robes of Cardinal Angelo Roncalli, the actor bears an uncanny resemblance to the man he is playing in the one-man special, "I Would Be Called John: Pope John XXIII." Durning has the diffident gestures, the broad nose, kind eyes, and yes, the similarly rumpled portly shape of Pope John, who served as pontiff for four years, seven months and six days from 1958 to 1963.

In 1985 I began working with producer Joseph Papp on "Free for All," an oral history of the celebrated New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater. I ended up interviewing more than 160 individuals, including actors known for their powerful personalities, like James Earl Jones, Tommy Lee Jones and George C. Scott. But no one I talked to made more of an impression than Charles Durning. Durning, who died Dec. 24 at age 89, appeared in numerous plays and films, and he was equally at home in dramas like "That Championship Season" and "Dog Day Afternoon" or comedies like "Tootsie.

"Woody asked me not to talk about it," Charles Durning said. "But it's true. I'm out of the movie." For three months, Durning--together with Sam Shepard, Maureen O'Sullivan and others--worked on Woody Allen's new, as yet untitled movie, shot on Long Island. Now, although he had completed his lead role, Durning finds he is no longer in the film. Shepard and O'Sullivan also reportedly have had their work scrapped. "We knew Woody was having trouble," Durning said this week.