Originally from the South. Came to visit the family in New Haven and ate so many ears of fresh corn at dinner it became embarrasing.116

Appeared in movies and on Broadway, known for Bakery in Brooklyn (2016), Pan Am (2011) and The Man Without a Country (1973).

"I began writing biography after twenty-five years' experience as an actor, and I continue to work as both actor and biographer today. As an actor, I have been fortunate enough to have appeared in some of the finest plays in both the English and the American repertories. I have played over fifty roles in Shakespeare's plays, and I have also performed in the plays of Sheridan, Shaw, and Samuel Becket, as well as those of Thornton Wilder, Arthur Miller, and Edward Albee, among many others. Studying, memorizing, and speaking the lines of these writers has, I believe, taught me something of the power and beauty that language can have, and I try to use this in my work as a biographer.
"Some of the biographers whose work I admire and who have taught me about the craft of biography are Plutarch, Lytton Strachey, Andre Maurois, Catherine Drinker Bowen, and Richard Marius. I strive to compose language that has the vigor, clarity, and brilliance of Edith Hamilton's prose. I do not trust the socalled 'warts-and-all' approach to biography. I believe that it is misleading, that it seeks to diminish the stature of its subject, and that in its zeal for exposing what is eccentric and petty it loses sight of what is extraordinary and important. It is also cynical; it attempts to rob us of our heroes.
"I have chosen to write about American actors because our theatrical history is rich and fascinating, and it is important that we do not lose touch with it. Its lifeblood has been its actors, and we must not forget their stories. We owe them too much.”