Barnard Hughes

Barnard Hughes
Birth Date	July 16, 1915(1915-07-16)
Birth Place	Bedford Hills, New York, U.S.
Death Date	July 11, 2006(2006-07-11) (aged 90)
Death Place	New York City New York, U.S.
Appearances	The Lost Boys
Character	Grandpa Emerson

Bernard Aloysius Kiernan Hughes (July 16, 1915 – July 11, 2006), known professionally as Barnard Hughes, was an American actor of television, theater and film. Hughes became famous for a variety of roles; his most notable roles came after middle age, and he was often cast as a dithering authority figure or grandfatherly elder.

Biography

Hughes was born in Bedford Hills, New York, the son of Irish immigrants Marcella "Madge" (née Kiernan) and Owen Hughes. He attended La Salle Academy and Manhattan College in New York City. Hughes served in the United States Army during World War II. He married actress Helen Stenborg on April 19, 1950, and remained married until his death. They had two children, the theatre director Doug Hughes, and a daughter, Laura. Hughes and his wife are interred at Church of the Transfiguration, Episcopal (Manhattan) in New York City.

Hughes spoke to Dick Cavett on his show, revealing that he was inspired by seeing actor Dennis King on Broadway as Richard II in the play Richard of Bordeaux by Gordon Daviot (Elizabeth Mackintosh). Hughes changed the "e" in his first name to an "a" to help his acting career on the advice of a numerologist. Through high school and college, Hughes worked a series of odd jobs, including a stint as a dockworker and as a salesman at Macy's. He auditioned for the Shakespeare Fellowship Repertory company in New York City on the advice of a friend, and ended up joining the company for two years.

Hughes played more than 400 theatre roles, including the one for which he was perhaps most famous, in Hugh Leonard's Da. He won Broadway's 1978 Tony Award as Best Actor for his portrayal of the title role; in 1988, he recreated the role for the film Da.

On screen, he appeared in the film transcription of Hamlet (1964), and also appeared in such films as Midnight Cowboy (1969), Where's Poppa? (1970), Cold Turkey (1971) The Hospital (1971), Tron (1982), Maxie (1985), The Lost Boys (1987), Da (1988) - the screen reprise of his most successful stage-role, Doc Hollywood (1991) and the big success Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993). He also played the old man who gave a ride to Felix and Oscar in The Odd Couple II (1998) and was featured in The Fantasticks (1995).

Hughes appeared on TV in such series as Naked City, The Secret Storm, Dark Shadows, Love Story, Blossom, and Homicide: Life on the Street. In 1973, he had a notable recurring role on All in the Family as a Roman Catholic priest, Father John Majeski, doing battle with Archie Bunker, and won an Emmy for his portrayal of a senile judge on Lou Grant. Hughes made three appearances in The Bob Newhart Show as the father of Dr. Robert Hartley. He was the central character in three sitcoms: Doc, in which he played a physician; Mr. Merlin, in which he played Merlin, a magician mentoring a 20th-century teenager; and The Cavanaughs, co-starring Christine Ebersole, in which he played the family patriarch (Art Carney played his brother, and Glynis Johns made guest appearances). Hughes sang "Danny Boy" in one episode of the latter series. He also made a memorable appearance as the King (with Jim Dale as the Duke) in the PBS miniseries The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Hughes also made recurring appearances on daytime dramas including Guiding Light, The Secret Storm and As the World Turns as well as a brief appearance as a private investigator in an early episode of Dark Shadows. He also did many voice-overs for various television commercials, including Kix cereal.

Death

Hughes died of natural causes on July 11, 2006, at age 90.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1954	Playgirl	Durkin	Uncredited
1961	The Young Doctors	Dr. Kent O'Donnell
1964	Hamlet	Marcellus / Priest
1967	The Borgia Stick	Doctor Helm	Television film
1969	Midnight Cowboy	Towny
1970	Where's Poppa?	Colonel Warren J. Hendricks
1971	Dr. Cook's Garden	Elias Hart	Television film
	Cold Turkey	Dr. Proctor
	The Pursuit of Happiness	Judge Vogel
	The Hospital	Edmund Drummond	Also made an uncredited appearance as Dr. Mallory
1972	Sisters	Arthur McLennen
	Deadhead Miles	Old Man	Uncredited
	Rage	Dr. Spencer
1975	The UFO Incident	Dr. Benjamin Simon	Television film
1977	Oh, God!	Judge Baker
1979	Sanctuary of Fear	Father Brown	Television film; pilot for unmade series with Kay Lenz
1981	First Monday in October	Chief Justice James Jefferson Crawford
1982	Tron	Dr. Walter Gibbs
	Best Friends	Tim McCullen
1985	Maxie	Bishop Campbell
1986	Where Are the Children?	Jonathan Knowles
1987	The Lost Boys	Grandpa Emerson
	A Hobo's Christmas	Chance Grover
1988	Da	Nick Tynan
1989	Day One	Secretary of War Henry Stimson
1991	Doc Hollywood	Dr. Aurelius Hogue
1993	Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit	Father Maurice
1994	Trick of the Eye	Harry Pitt	Television film
1995	The Fantasticks	Henry Albertson
1998	The Odd Couple II	Beaumont
1999	Cradle Will Rock	Frank Marvel

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1975	Doc	Dr. Joe "Doc" Bogert	Main role
1981	Mr. Merlin	Merlin
1986-1989	The Cavanaughs	Francis "Pop" Cavanaugh	Main role
1988	The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd	Shimkin	Episode: "Here's Who Ordered the Pizza"
1991-1994	Blossom	Buzz Richman	52 episodes
1995	The Marshal	Judge Tuttman	Episode: "Twoslip"
	Homicide: Life on the Street	Sam O'Donnell	Episode: "In Search of Crimes Past"
2000	Deadline	Judge Panicio	Episode: "Daniel in the Lion's Den"

Stage productions

• "Osgood Meeker" in the Broadway production of Noël Coward's little-known play Waiting in the Wings, directed by Michael Langham (This was Barnard Hughes's last stage role)
• "Old Man" in the Broadway production of Prelude to a Kiss, directed by Norman René
• Polonius to Stacy Keach's Hamlet
• Marcellus in Richard Burton's 1964 Hamlet
• Dogberry in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Much Ado About Nothing
• Harry Hope in the 1985 Broadway revival of The Iceman Cometh directed by José Quintero
• Uncle Vanya (directed by Mike Nichols)
• A Doll's House
• Hogan's Goat (Off-Broadway)
• Three Sisters
• The Devil's Disciple
• Translations
• "Lynn Belvedere" in the Tenthouse Theatre in the Round production of Gwen Davenport's "Belvedere" August 9–14, 1948.

External links

• Barnard Hughes at Wikipedia
• Barnard Hughes at the Internet Movie Database
• Barnard Hughes at the Internet Broadway Database
• Barnard Hughes at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Barnard Hughes at AllMovie
• Barnard Hughes and Helen Stenborg papers, 1880s-2011, held by Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.