The Return of the Classic Films Obituary Thread

[CBHagman]

11. Actor Charles Grodin, 86

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/may/19/charles-grodin-obituary

The actor Charles Grodin, who has died aged 86, was never really a star, though he might have been, had he not turned down the lead in The Graduate. He was also too well-defined a presence to slip between roles without bringing his own baggage along. He cultivated a persona through which resentment and superiority were conveyed with calm understatement. Grodin would seem urbane at first, but the joke lay in how quietly rattled and rancorous he would then become. His gaze was flat and pitiless, his mouth a straight horizontal line. When a smile did come, it was impatient or insincere. He never looked impressed.

In his greatest performance, as a man who falls for another woman while on his honeymoon, in The Heartbreak Kid (1972), he was conniving and cruel, turning courtship into a bloodsport. The comic thriller Midnight Run (1988) was a late highlight that came long after Grodin might have been expected to land a leading role. He was 52 at the time and beat Robin Williams to the part of the gentle mafia accountant escorted across the US by a bounty hunter played by Robert De Niro. Their chemistry, and the novelty of seeing Grodin strike tender notes, helped make the film a joy.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was the younger of two sons. His father, Theodore, sold wholesale supplies from his store, which was called the Grodin Company despite having a staff of only two – Grodin’s mother, Lena (nee Singer), also worked there. Grodin studied acting at the University of Miami but left without graduating and won a scholarship at the Pittsburgh Playhouse School. He next moved to New York and enrolled at the Actors Studio while working as a cab driver and security guard. He began to get small parts in theatre and television and became an assistant to the director Gene Saks.

A list of his credits, per IMDB:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001301/