Tony and Emmy Winner Hal Holbrook, Creator of Mark Twain Tonight!, Dies at 95

Stage and screen star Hal Holbrook, best known for portraying Mark Twain in his solo show Mark Twain Tonight!, has died at the age of 95. The New York Times reports that he died on January 23 at his home in Beverly Hills, California.

Born on February 17, 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio, Holbrook went on to attend Culver Military Academy and Denison University, where an honors project about Mark Twain led him to develop the solo show that won him a 1966 Tony Award, a 1967 Emmy Award and a National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush in 2003.

In the show that he performed in for almost 60 years, Holbrook inhabited classic American author Twain, giving dramatic recitations of some of his most famous writings, mostly comedic. In addition to performing it around the country since 1954, Holbrook brought Mark Twain Tonight! to Broadway three times—in 1966, 1977 and 2005. "The show is filled with surprising, funny thoughts, but it's also filled with some very sobering and startling thoughts about what is going on in our lives today, now, this morning," he told Broadway.com in 2005.

Holbrook's Broadway credits also included Do You Know the Milky Way?, After The Fall, Marco Millions, Incident at Vichy, Tartuffe, The Glass Menagerie, Man of La Mancha, The Apple Tree, I Never Sang for My Father, Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? and An American Daughter.

The actor won Emmy Awards for his performances on The Bold Ones: The Senator, Pueblo, Sandburg's Lincoln and Portrait of America. He garnered Emmy nominations for performances in The Bold Ones: The Lawyers, The Awakening Land, That Certain Summer and a special TV presentation of Our Town.

Holbrook made his big screen debut in Sidney Lumet's The Group in 1966. He later gained international fame for his performance as Deep Throat in the 1976 film All the President's Men and is also known for his work on Evening Shade and Designing Women. Holbrook received a 2008 Academy Award nomination for his performance in Into the Wild.

The actor was married three times. His wives were Ruby Johnston, Carol Rossen and Dixie Carter. He is survived by his children David, Victoria and Eve, stepdaughters Ginna Carter and Mary Dixie Carter, two grandchildren and two step-grandchildren.