Hal Holbrook

Born: February 17 1925
Where: Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Best known as an American TV actor, Holbrook also attracted critical acclaim in Sean Penn's drama Into The Wild.

On the small screen, he is best known for his appereances in series such as Abraham Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt Lloyd Bucher in Pueblo.

At the cinema, he has appeared in movies ranging from Magnum Force with Clinto Eastwood to John Carpenter's horror yarn The Fog.

The son of a vaudeville dancer, he graduated from the Culver Academies and Denison University, where a degree project about Mark Twain led him to develop a one-man show.

(Mark Twain Tonight went on to win Holbrook both a Tony and a Drama Desk Award after the show was championed by TV legend Ed Sullivan and even seeen by President Eisenhower).

Holbrook served in the US Army in World War II and was stationed in Newfoundland, where he performed in small theatres, including the play Madam Precious.

The first performance of Twain was made at a college in Pennsylvania and after its success he was sent off to tour it in Europe and even behind the Iron Curtain.

Holbrook made his big screen debut in 1966 in Sidney Lumet's drama The Group and went on to co-star with Martin Sheen in the controversial 1972 TV movie That Certain Summer.

(it was reputed to be the first television movie to portray homosexuality in a sympathetic, non-judgmental light).

The following year he played a policeman in the Clint Eastwood thriller Magnum Force and was famous for his role of the enigmatic "Deep Throat" in the political thriller All The President's Men.

Holbrook also won further acclaim for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in a series of television specials based on Carl Sandburg's acclaimed biography.

Subsequent big screen outings included the conspiracy thriller Capricorn One and the role of the priest in John Carpenter's The Fog.

In 1982, he appeared in the horror compendium Creepshow and also played a judge in the action drama The Star Chamber with Michael Douglas.

He played Lou Mannheim in Oliver Stone's Wall Street and also starred alongside Tom Cruise in the legal thriller The Firm in 1993.

Holbrook largely gave up on Hollywood and restricted himself to TV before appearing in the 2000 thriller Waking The Dead and playing Captain "Mr Pappy" in the drama Men of Honour.

Appearances followed in The West Wing and The Sopranos before he delivered an acclaimed performance as Ron Franz in Into The Wild.