Word: cronyn
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...married within the profession -- he met his first wife in acting school -- but by 1940 he was divorced and free to court Tandy, which he did with his customary persistence and energy. After Tandy's divorce from Hawkins in 1942, she and Cronyn were married in California, and it was there that they had two children. Christopher, 46, is a movie production manager. Tandy, 44, who was given her mother's last name as her first name, went into the family business: she is an actress, and a good one. Through some miracle of casting she was even given...
...small, wiry man with wispy hair, a fringe of white beard and seemingly inexhaustible energy, Cronyn is the organizer and designated worrier in the family, the one who moves them from place to place. "When we like to be rude, we call Hume 'the Cruise Director,' " says Cooper. "Because if you're not careful, he will plan your whole day for you. He sometimes frets a bit too much, but Jessica is used to it, and I think she enjoys it. He's the one who has always made things work in their lives...
While both Cronyns have enjoyed success in the movies and television -- they even had their own TV series, The Marriage, in the '50s -- the theater is their first and last love. "The theater is Mother!" says Cronyn. "Thank God!" But Mother has changed since they were young, and they are not altogether pleased with how she looks today. "Very often people are not used to going to the theater," says Tandy, "and they don't understand that it's not the same as watching television shows. Much more concentration is required of them. You can't just turn and tell...
...theater apes film and television," adds Cronyn. "You'll see it in scripts. Audiences now have far less tolerance for long passages of dialogue than they used to. And you can't talk to me or to anybody my age in which you don't hear a sort of old fart's moan about the fact that it's much more difficult now for kids to learn the craft of acting. They don't have the opportunity. They don't get it in TV or films. I think it's important that actors do films, but I think they...
Aside from unemployment, the actor's worst enemy is typecasting. The Cronyns have resisted it throughout their careers, but now, in their advancing years, they are unhappily discovering that even they are not immune. These days most of the plays they are offered are set in nursing homes, dramas so depressing they are instantly filed in the wastebasket. Nursing homes? For these two dynamos? They have done enough of those parts and are not eager for more. Tandy longs for a role in just about anything by Athol Fugard, and Cronyn would like to play Willy Loman in Arthur Miller...