Vale: Charles Durning

Character actor Charles Durning, best known for film, stage and TV roles has died, aged 89.

Durning died of natural causes on Monday in New York.

A prolific actor, his film roles included Tootsie, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and To Be or Not to Be.

He made dozens of films including The Sting, True Confessions, Dog Day Afternoon, Dick Tracy, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Front Page, The Hindenburg, Breakheart Pass, North Dallas Forty, Starting Over, Tough Guys, Home for the Holidays, Spy Hard and O Brother Where Art Thou?

His television credits ranged from guest spots to telemovies and mini-series. He was a regular on Evening Shade, the 1990s sitcom that starred Burt Reynolds, and First Monday, a short-lived 2002 drama about the Supreme Court. He had recurring roles as a priest on Everybody Loves Raymond and as the ex-firefighter father of Denis Leary’s Tommy in the firehouse series Rescue Me. Telemovie and miniseries roles included Captains and the Kings, Attica, Death of a Salesman, Queen of the Stardust Ballroom and The Kennedys of Massachusetts.

Durning received nine Emmy Award nominations, and two Oscar nominations although he never won. In 2008 he received a lifetime achievement honour at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Source: NY Times