Hume Cronyn

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – His 70-year acting career began with one newspaper praising him as one of Hollywood's "most vivid young character actors" and it concluded with a string of portrayals of irascible old men.

But even in his later years, Hume Cronyn never lost his youthful exuberance for his craft.

"He had the energy and will of a young man," said Glenn Jordan, who directed Cronyn in the 1993 television film "To Dance With the White Dog." "He had so much energy that sometimes you'd forget how old he actually was."

Jordan said Cronyn, who died Sunday of prostate cancer at his Fairfield home, was a "meticulous craftsman" who was underrated for much of his career because he played mainly supporting characters. He was 91.

Cronyn rarely behaved like his signature cantankerous old curmudgeon characters, Jordan said.

"I found him very sweet," he said. "He could be cranky on occasion, but usually it would be for a very good reason."

Throughout his long career, Cronyn was known as a versatile stage and screen actor who often worked with his wife of 52 years, Jessica Tandy. She died in 1994 of ovarian cancer after a long and successful career of her own in the theater and on screen.

Cronyn, known to recent audiences for his roles in the 1980s "Cocoon" movies, made his theater debut in 1931 as a paperboy in "Up Pops the Devil."

He played a variety of characters on stage, including a janitor in "Hippers' Holiday," in his Broadway debut in 1934; the gangster Elkus in "There's Always a Breeze," in 1938; and Andrei Prozoroff, the brother in Chekhov's "Three Sisters," in 1939.

He made his film debut in 1943 as the detective story addict Herbie Hawkins in Alfred Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt."

After Cronyn appeared in Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" in 1944, a critic for the New York World-Telegram wrote: "Hume Cronyn is one of the most vivid young character actors to come along in Hollywood in quite a time."

Cronyn, who often found himself playing grumpy old men, joked about his crusty image in a 1987 interview with the New York Post.

"I don't mind playing absolute bastards – some of the best parts I've had have been heavies. I just don't want to play the grouch," he said.

Cronyn, an amateur boxer who gave up a legal career for acting, played a wide variety of characters in films such as "Phantom of the Opera" (1943); "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946); "People Will Talk" (1951); "Cleopatra" (1963); "There Was a Crooked Man" (1970); and "The World According to Garp" (1982).

He was nominated for an Academy Award as best supporting actor for his performance in "The Seventh Cross" in 1944.

Cronyn frequently worked with his wife – on Broadway in "The Gin Game" (1978); on television, in "Foxfire" (1987); and in movies, as a married couple, in "Cocoon" (1985) and "Cocoon: The Return" (1988).

He and Tandy were Emmy Award nominees in 1994 for their performances in "To Dance With the White Dog." Cronyn won the award for best actor in a miniseries or special for the CBS movie about an elderly man whose dead wife's spirit returns as a dog. He won two other Emmys as well.

He also won a Tony as supporting actor for playing Polonius in "Hamlet," a 1964 production of Shakespeare's play directed by John Gielgud.

Cronyn also tried his hand at writing and directing.

In 1946, he directed a production of Tennessee Williams' "Portrait of a Madonna," starring Tandy, and in 1950, on Broadway, Ludwig Bemelmans' "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep."

He co-wrote the television adaptation of "The Dollmaker," starring Jane Fonda, in 1985.

Cronyn was born in London, Ontario, one of five children of Hume Blake, a prominent Canadian financier and political figure.

He studied law for two years at McGill University in Montreal, but instead chose the theater.

At McGill, Cronyn was an amateur boxer and he was nominated for the Canadian Olympic boxing team in 1932.

Cronyn leaves his wife, children's writer Susan Cooper Cronyn, whom he married in 1996.

She and Cronyn collaborated on scripts over the years, for the play "Foxfire," and the movies "The Dollmaker," "To Dance With the White Dog," and "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant."

He also is survived by a son, two daughters, eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Services will be private, family spokeswoman Karen Connelly said.


Copyright © 2003 The Associated Press