AncientFaces Your browser does not support JavaScript!
Please enable JavaScript to view the entire contents of this page.

Barnard Hughes 1915 - 2006

Barnard Hughes of Red Bank, Monmouth County, NJ was born on July 16, 1915 in Bedford Hills, Westchester County, New York United States, and died at age 90 years old on July 11, 2006 in New York.

Barnard Hughes

Barnard Aloysius Kiernan Hughes

Red Bank, Monmouth County, NJ 07701

July 16, 1915

Bedford Hills, Westchester County, New York, 10507, United States

July 11, 2006

New York, New York, United States

Male

Looking for another Barnard Hughes?

Barnard Hughes Barnard Hughes (1915 - 2006)

ADVERTISEMENT BY ANCESTRY.COM

This page exists for YOU
and everyone who remembers Barnard.

Share what you know,
even ask what you wish you knew.

Invite others to do the same,
but don't worry if you can't...

Someone, somewhere will find this page,
and we'll notify you when they do.

Barnard Hughes' History: 1915 - 2006

Uncover new discoveries and connections today by sharing about people & moments from yesterday.

- Discover how AncientFaces works.

Introduction

Jeanette Murawski I have a unique story about Mr Hughes. My friend and I went to see him in the Broadway show DA on a particularly hot day. The air conditioning wasn't working and they had to keep the doors closed due to traffic noise. By intermission, there were only a handful of sweltering people left in the audience. Feeling sorry for the actors playing to such an empty house, my friend and I moved up to empty seats in the front row. Big mistake! When the stage lights came back on in act 2, we were hit by them as well. It felt like the inside of a broiler! Then we realized that while we were attired lightly, the poor cast were in coats, hats, and scarves and still gave their all to the performance. At curtain call, we leapt to our feet and gave the dedicated cast a standing ovation. Mr. Hughes spotted us and came forward to the lip of the stage and whispered thanks. He then reached down, lifted our hands in a victory gesture, and had the cast applaud US! It was an incredibly thoughtful and thrilling gesture which I'll never forget.
07/16

1915

Birthday

July 16, 1915

Birthdate

Bedford Hills, Westchester County, New York 10507, United States

Birthplace

ADVERTISEMENT BY
Ethnicity & Family History

Won Broadway's 1978 Tony Award as Best Actor (Play) for Hugh Leonard's "Da," a role he recreated in the film vrsion of the same name, Da (1988). He also received a Tony nomination in 1974 as Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Dramatic) for Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing." He had two children with his wife, Helen: daughter, Laura Hughes, and son, Doug Hughes. His parents were Irish immigrants.
Military Service

Served in the Army during World War II. Went to Manhattan College.
Professional Career

BARNARD HUGHES Biography Born July 16, 1915 in Bedford Hills, New York, USA Died July 11, 2006 in New York City, New York, USA (undisclosed) Birth Name Barnard Aloysius Kiernan Hughes Height 5' 10½" (1.79 m) Mini Bio (1) Emmy and Tony Award-winner Barnard Hughes forged a career as one of American's most successful character actors, equally at home and successful on stage, the silver screen, and television. Most of his success came after middle-age. He made his Broadway debut in 1939 in Mary McCarthy's "Please, Mrs. Garibaldi", a flop that lasted only four performances. He appeared in another 22 Broadway shows, his last being Noël Coward's "Waiting in the Wings, which closed in the year 2000. His Broadway career lasted spanned 61 years and eight decades. Along the way, he won the 1978 Tony Award as best Actor in a play for Da (1988), his most famous role, which also brought him the Drama Desk Award as Outstanding Actor in a Play. (He won a lifetime achievement Drama Desk Award in 2000.) He also was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play in 1973 for Much Ado About Nothing (1973), which was fitting, as it was in Shakespeare repertory that he honed his craft. Hughes was born Bernard Aloysius Kiernan Hughes on July 16, 1915, in Bedford Hills, New York, to Irish immigrants Marcella "Madge" (Kiernan) and Owen Hughes. Bedford Hills is a hamlet lying 41 miles north of the heart of Broadway in Times Square (He changed the spelling of his Christian name on the advice of a numerologist; thespians are very superstitious). After graduating from the La Salle Academy and attending Manhattan College, he joined New York City's Shakespeare Fellowship Repertory Co. He was a member of the company for two years. He did not actually appear on Broadway in Shakespeare until 1964, when he played Marcellus to Richard Burton's Hamlet (1964). Off-Broadway, he played Polonius to Stacy Keach's Obie Award-winning Hamlet in 1972. His only other Shakespearean turn on the boards of the Great White Way was as Dogberry in "Much Ado About Nothing" in the 1972-73 season, which brought him his first Tony nomination. Off-Broadway, he also appeared as the Chorus in "Pericles, Prince of Tyre" and Sir John Falstaff in "The Merry Wives of Windsor". Back on Broadway, his most prominent role other than "Da" (which he also played in the roadshow tour) was as the Old Man opposite Alec Baldwin in Prelude to a Kiss (1992). Hughes had a 54 year-long screen career, equally adept in television as in movies. He was a regular on the soap opera Guiding Light (1952) from 1961-66. Though Hughes was a highly effective dramatic actor, he had a flair for comedy and appeared on such sit-coms as _"The Phil Silvers Show" (TV series) and _"Car 54, Where Are You?" (1962)_ before having recurring roles on "All In the Family" (1971) as a priest and on The Bob Newhart Show (1972) as Bob's father in the 1970s. He eventually headlined his own sit-com in the mid '70s, Doc (1975), which had a successful first season but was canceled early into its second after the network demanded changes to boost ratings. Instead, the ratings sank. His break-through performance in the movies arguably was a the messianic doctor who was a victim of malpractice and turned avenger in Paddy Chayefsky's The Hospital (1971) in 1971. It came two years after a small but memorable part in Best Picture Oscar winner Midnight Cowboy (1969), as he middle-aged gay mamma's boy who picks up self-styled "hustler" Joe Buck with disastrous consequences. Hughes married actress Helen Stenborg in 1950 and they remained married until his death on July 11, 2006, five days before what would have been his 91st birthday. The couple had two children, theatrical director Doug Hughes (who was also a Tony-winner) and a daughter, actress Laura Hughes. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous and Jon C. Hopwood Family (2) Spouse Helen Stenborg (19 April 1950 - 11 July 2006) (his death) (2 children) Children Laura Hughes Doug Hughes Trivia (9) Won Broadway's 1978 Tony Award as Best Actor (Play) for Hugh Leonard's "Da," a role he recreated in the film vrsion of the same name, Da (1988). He also received a Tony nomination in 1974 as Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Dramatic) for Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing." He had two children with his wife, Helen: daughter, Laura Hughes, and son, Doug Hughes. His parents were Irish immigrants. Served in the Army during World War II. Went to Manhattan College. Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Actors Branch) A member of the Tenthouse Theater, a Palm Springs, CA, repertory company which opened in 1950 and played for several years. Died only 5 days prior to his 91st birthday. Upon his death, his remains were interred at the Church of the Transfiguration in New York City. Personal Quotes (2) I like coming out last on the curtain call. I love standing alone and taking a bow. I'm sure there are times when I appear to be enjoying myself inordinately on that stage. If that's so, it's because it IS so." - referring to his starring role in "Da I didn't make a lot of money, but I worked all the time. I worked for writers who didn't make money. I worked for directors who didn't make money. There wasn't a basement in New York I didn't work in. - of his early years in the theater See also
07/11

2006

Death

July 11, 2006

Death date

Unknown
Cause of death

New York, New York United States
Death location

ADVERTISEMENT BY
Obituary

Barnard Hughes, Character Actor, Dies at 90 By Campbell Robertson July 12, 2006 Barnard Hughes, a Tony- and Emmy-award-winning actor who was well-known for playing warm-hearted if not always serious-minded father figures, died yesterday in New York. He was 90. His death was confirmed by his son, the director Doug Hughes. Though Mr. Hughes made his acting debut in 1934 at age 19 and already had a solid career in theater and television work, it was the 1978 Broadway production of Hugh Leonard’s “Da” that gained him his reputation as a skilled character actor, with a particular gift for jolly old Irishmen whose cheerfulness is tinged with melancholy. Mr. Hughes played the title role, that of an exasperatingly affable and unambitious Irish widower who haunts the memories of his emigrant son. Walter Kerr, writing about “Da” in The New York Times, said Mr. Hughes was “masterly in the role of a lifetime, working skillfully as a watchmaker with every jewel in place.” John Simon, in New York magazine, said that Mr. Hughes “gives one of the greatest performances of this or any year.” Mr. Simon continued: “Put this right alongside the achievements of the Gielguds, Oliviers, and Richardsons.” Mr. Hughes beat out Hume Cronyn, Frank Langella, and Jason Robards for the best-actor Tony that year and also won a Drama Desk award. He did a reprise of the role of Da for a 1988 movie version, which also starred Martin Sheen. A frequent presence in soap operas and television series of the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Hughes won an Emmy for his portrayal of a senile judge on an episode of “Lou Grant.” He also starred as an avuncular physician in a short-lived comedy series, “Doc,” and as an Irish patriarch in the sitcom “The Cavanaughs.” He had recurring roles on “The Guiding Light,” “As The World Turns,” “All in the Family,” “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Blossom.” Mr. Hughes also had a long film career, appearing in “Midnight Cowboy,” “The Hospital,” “Where’s Poppa?” “Oh God!” “Tron,” “Doc Hollywood” and numerous television movies. “Da” (1978), for which he won a Tony Award for best actor. He also starred in the film. Barnard Aloysius Kiernan Hughes was born in Bedford Hills, N.Y. on July 16, 1915, to Irish immigrants. Through high school and his first year at Manhattan College, he worked a series of jobs, including as a salesman at Macy’s and a dockworker, before a friend tricked him into auditioning for a repertory company that performed Shakespeare in high schools. He won a tiny role in “The Taming of the Shrew.” Mr. Hughes soon dropped out of Manhattan College and stayed with the company for two years, eventually playing many of the major Shakespeare roles. He then began traveling the country, performing with a repertory company in Chicago and with a comedy troupe that toured the South. After a few years in the army in World War II, he returned to acting. In 1946, while rehearsing for a show called “Laugh That Off” to be performed at military hospitals, he met an actress named Helen Stenborg. They married in 1950 and would act alongside each other throughout their careers, appearing together in Mr. Hughes’s last performance on Broadway, in the 1999 production of Noël Coward’s “Waiting in the Wings.” In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Hughes’s other survivors include a daughter, Laura Hughes of New York; and a grandson, Samuel Hughes Rubin. For the next three decades, Mr. Hughes performed in Broadway productions like “Advise and Consent,” “Nobody Loves an Albatross,” “How Now, Dow Jones,” “Hamlet” with Richard Burton, and the New York Shakespeare Festival’s production of “Much Ado About Nothing,” for which he received a Tony nomination for his portrayal of the dim-witted constable, Dogberry. Speaking of the early years, when he was playing mostly minor parts in film and theater, Mr. Hughes said in a 1978 interview in The New York Times that he could have played the roles “without pants.” “I was always sitting behind something like a desk,” he said. “I was a judge or a businessman or a lawyer or a doctor. Nobody saw my bottom half.” In 1981, Mr. Hughes played the rustic schoolmaster in the American premiere of Brian Friel’s “Translations” at the Manhattan Theater Club. Frank Rich, in The Times, called Mr. Hughes’s performance “especially exciting,” adding that “funny as he is, Mr. Hughes always turns his eyes sadly downward, as if he’s surveying the defeated landscape of his own soul.” In the 1980s and early 1990s, Mr. Hughes alternated his film and television career with his stage career, acting on Broadway in Lanford Wilson’s “Angels Fall” and Craig Lucas’s “Prelude to a Kiss.” He also performed in Dublin, playing the role of Grandpa in “You Can’t Take It With You” at the Abbey Theater in 1989, and playing Da at the Olympia Theater there in 1991. “I’m a feeler,” Mr. Hughes said of his acting approach in the interview with The Times. “As a matter of fact, I think if we had more feelers and fewer thinkers we’d be a hell of a lot better off — not only in the theater, either.”

ADVERTISEMENT BY
Looking for more information?
share

Memories

below