Drummond Erskine

James Drummond Erskine III was born on April 7, 1919, in Manhattan and attended private schools before enrolling at the University of Virginia. When World War II began, he left college to enlist in the United States Army, volunteering in 1942 for the Army's first airborne unit. He trained in parachute jumping and glider operation at Fort Benning, Georgia, and went on to serve as a trainer with the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, based at Currahee Mountain, Georgia — the same regiment later documented in the History Channel production Band of Brothers. During a maneuver jump in Tennessee, Erskine suffered a broken hip and was told he would not jump again, but he recovered and rejoined his regiment in the European theater, participating in major engagements including the Battle of the Bulge. He left the Army at the war's end holding the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Following his discharge, Erskine took a position with the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, working for the firm in both the United States and Liberia while simultaneously pursuing an acting career. He also worked at Guidepost magazine, an interfaith publication founded by Norman Vincent Peale. Over a career spanning more than fifty years, Erskine appeared in more than seventy-five films, in addition to numerous television and stage productions. His physical appearance led to repeated casting as Abraham Lincoln, including an appearance on the Alcoa Show during the 1950s. He also came close to securing a stage role that ultimately went to Charlton Heston, reportedly because Heston's dramatic descent of a staircase during casting proved decisive. Erskine later described the moment to Newsday, noting that Heston would leap rather than simply walk down the stairs.

On Broadway, Erskine performed between 1947 and 1959, with credits that included Jolly's Progress, Antony and Cleopatra, and Inherit the Wind. In 2008, he gained renewed visibility among television audiences through cameo appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman, in which he parodied an aging Regis Philbin.

Erskine died on March 21, 2009, at the age of eighty-nine. He was living in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, at the time of his death and was survived by his sister, Alison Farrar of Lyme, New Hampshire, along with three generations of nieces and nephews. A memorial service was held at St. John's Episcopal Church in Cold Spring Harbor.