Hume Cronyn

Hume Blake Cronyn Jr. was a Canadian-American actor, playwright, and screenwriter born on July 18, 1911, in London, Ontario, Canada, and active on Broadway from 1934 to 1986. One of five children, Cronyn came from a prominent family with deep roots in Canadian public life. His father, Hume Blake Cronyn Sr., served as a Member of Parliament for London, Ontario, and his mother, Frances Amelia, née Labatt, was a daughter of John Labatt and granddaughter of John Kinder Labatt of the Labatt brewing family. His paternal great-grandfather, Right Reverend Benjamin Cronyn, was an Anglican cleric who served as the first bishop of the Anglican diocese of Huron and founded Huron College, from which the University of Western Ontario grew. Cronyn was also a cousin of theater producer Robert Whitehead and a first cousin of Canadian-British artist Hugh Verschoyle Cronyn.

Cronyn received his early education at Elmwood School in Ottawa, where he was the institution's first boarder, attending between 1917 and 1921 when it was still known as Rockliffe Preparatory School. He subsequently attended Ridley College in St. Catharines and McGill University in Montreal, where he was a member of Kappa Alpha Society and switched his studies from pre-law to drama. He continued his training under director Max Reinhardt and at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In his youth, Cronyn was also an amateur featherweight boxer skilled enough to be nominated for Canada's 1932 Olympic Boxing team.

Cronyn made his Broadway debut in 1934, the same year he joined The Lambs, playing a janitor in Hipper's Holiday. His Broadway career spanned more than five decades and included appearances in the comedies Boy Meets Girl and Mr. Big, as well as productions such as Retreat to Pleasure, The Survivor, and Foxfire, for which he also served as book writer. He won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play in 1964 for his portrayal of Polonius opposite Richard Burton's Hamlet. He also received a Drama Desk Special Award in 1986.

Cronyn had a significant association with the Stratford Festival, serving as both a member of the acting company and a member of its board of governors. He played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice there in 1976 and debuted his play Foxfire at the festival in 1980. The production subsequently moved to Broadway and later became a television film in 1987.

His film career began with Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt in 1943, and he went on to appear in Hitchcock's Lifeboat in 1944. He contributed to the screenplays of two additional Hitchcock films, Rope in 1948 and Under Capricorn in 1949. His performance in The Seventh Cross in 1944 earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Later film appearances included Cocoon in 1985, The World According to Garp in 1982, The Pelican Brief in 1993, Marvin's Room in 1996, and Camilla in 1994. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for his role in the television film Age-Old Friends in 1990.

Cronyn's first marriage, to philanthropist Emily Woodruff in late 1934 or early 1935, ended in divorce in 1936. He married actress Jessica Tandy in 1942, and the couple had a daughter, Tandy, and a son, Christopher. The two frequently collaborated on stage, film, and television, appearing together in productions including The Gin Game in 1977, Cocoon, and the television film To Dance with the White Dog in 1993. They were jointly presented the Kennedy Center Honor in 1986 and the National Medal of Arts in 1990. Jessica Tandy died in 1994 from ovarian cancer. Cronyn subsequently married author and playwright Susan Cooper, his co-writer on Foxfire, in July 1996.

Among his many honors, Cronyn was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1979 and appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada on July 11, 1988. He was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1999 and received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Western Ontario in 1974. He published an autobiography, A Terrible Liar, in 1991, covering his life and career through the mid-1960s. Cronyn died on June 15, 2003, from prostate cancer at the age of 91.