Barnard Hughes Memorial Set for December 12 at Walter Kerr

A memorial service for Tony Award-winning actor Barnard Hughes will be held on Tuesday, December 12 at 2pm at the Walter Kerr Theatre (219 West 48th Street). Hughes died at the age of 90 on July 11 at New York Presbyterian Hospital after a brief illness. There will be a limited number of seats made available to the general public for the memorial, and seating will take place on a first-come, first-served basis on the day of the memorial.

Sam Waterston, Brian Dennehy, Jefferson Mays, Elizabeth Wilson, Lauren Bacall, Alec Baldwin, Bernard Gersten, Joe Dowling, Melvin Bernhardt, Lynne Meadow and Hughes’ son, director Doug Hughes, are all expected to speak. Christine Ebersole, James Naughton, and pianist Paul Sullivan will be performing at the memorial.

Hughes’ career began in 1934 with one line in the Shakespeare Fellowship Repertory Company production of The Taming of the Shrew; it would eventually span seven decades and more than 400 roles on Broadway, in television, and in films. He received great praise for his work as a curmudgeonly father haunting the memory of his playwright son in Hugh Leonard’s 1978 Tony Award-winning play Da. He won a Tony and a Drama Desk Award for his performance, and he recreated his role in the 1988 film version. In 1973, he received a Tony nomination for his performance as Dogberry in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Much Ado About Nothing.

Hughes gave his last Broadway performance in 2000 at age 85, appearing with his wife in Noël Coward’s Waiting in the Wings. That year, he and Stenborg received a Drama Desk Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 1995, Hughes was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame at the Gershwin Theatre.

Among his many film credits are Hamlet, Midnight Cowboy, The Hospital, and Cradle Will Rock. He starred in the TV series Doc, Mr. Merlin, and The Cavanaughs (with Ebersole), and he had a recurring role on Blossom. In 1977, he won an Emmy Award for his guest spot on Lou Grant.