Lonny Chapman(1920-2007)
- Actor
Utilitarian actor Lonny Chapman remains one of those highly familiar
character faces to which you can't quite place the name. While he
appeared in over 30 films and well over 300 TV programs over a
five-decade career, the theater remained his first and foremost passion
and for which he is best remembered. From 1973 until his death 34 years
later, he was artistic director of the Group Repertory Theatre (GRT), a
North Hollywood non-profit acting organization for which he also served
as producer, writer, director and actor. It was a place to which scores
and scores of L.A.-based actors would, and did, call "home". The
facility, which is still running today, was renamed the Lonny Chapman
Group Repertory Theatre (LCGRT) in 1999 in loving tribute.
He was born Lon Leonard Chapman on October 1, 1920, in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
but grew up in the city of Joplin, Missouri. His interest in acting
started while fairly young. Following his graduations from Joplin High
School (1938) and Joplin Junior College (1940), the
athletically-inclined Lonny attended the University of Oklahoma on a
track scholarship. The bombing of Pearl Harbor, however, interrupted
his college studies, joining the Marines the very next day. He saw
major action in the South Pacific, including Guadalcanal. During his
5-year tour of duty, he contracted malaria; frequent recurrences would
plague him the rest of his life. The track star returned to his
Oklahoma college following war duty and graduated with a BFA in Drama
in 1947.
While at college Lonny became best friends with actor
Dennis Weaver, who was also a
talented track-and-field athlete and fellow drama student. The two
young hopefuls hitchhiked together to New York City where they began
their respective careers. Within a year (1948) Lonny was appearing as
"Wiley" in the Chicago company of "Mister Roberts", directed by
Joshua Logan. The year after that,
he made his Broadway debut in "The Closing Door", directed by
Lee Strasberg. During this time, he also
established strong ties with the prestigious Group Theatre and Actors
Studio. It was at the Actors Studio that he forged lifelong friendships
with director Mark Rydell, and character
actors Martin Landau,
R.G. Armstrong,
Pat Hingle and
Logan Ramsey, among others.
Arguably, the peak of Lonny's early stage career occurred in 1950, when
he co-starred in the award-winning drama "Come Back, Little Sheba",
William Inge's first play to be produced on
Broadway. Art imitated life in this case as Lonny portrayed the second
lead role of "Turk", a college student and star athlete.
Coincidentally, friend
Dennis Weaver became his
understudy and eventually took over the role. Starring Tony winners
Shirley Booth and
Sidney Blackmer, only Ms. Booth
went on to recreate her role in the film version for which she won the
Oscar. Lonny, who had yet to make a movie, was replaced by the
already-established Richard Jaeckel as
"Turk" in the film version.
Lonny continued to solidify his reputation on Broadway with "The Chase"
(1952), produced and directed by
José Ferrer and starring Actors
Studio exponents Kim Stanley and
Kim Hunter; "Whistler's Grandmother"
(1952), co-starring Josephine Hull; "The
Ladies of the Corridor" (1953), directed by renowned "Group Theatre"
member Harold Clurman; and the
Horton Foote-penned "The Traveling Lady"
(1954), again starring Ms. Stanley. Elsewhere, he earned excellent
notices as "Tom" opposite
Franchot Tone's "Joe" in a revival
of William Saroyan's "The Time of Your
Life" and as the "Gentleman Caller" in the first national tour of "The
Glass Menagerie" starring
Helen Hayes. By this time, Lonny had
begun appearing on early TV, making his debut in an episode of
Captain Video and His Cartoon Rangers (1956).
His first film was a featured role in the tuneful
Doris Day/Frank Sinatra
drama Young at Heart (1954) in
which he shared secondary scenes with
Elisabeth Fraser. Actor Studio
preeminent Elia Kazan took a strong liking to
Lonny as an actor and looked for no one else to play the role of "Roy",
the auto mechanic, in the classic
John Steinbeck film
East of Eden (1955), which
catapulted James Dean to cult status.
Kazan then gave Lonny a plum role in his film
Baby Doll (1956).
In the late 1950s, Chapman began to show promise as a mover and shaker
in the theater. In 1959, and for eight seasons following, he and
co-founder Curt Conway devoted their summer
seasons to the Cecilwood Theatre in Fishkill, New York, where he
directed over 80 productions and performed in nearly thirty. Those
up-and-comers who received their Equity union card under his guidance
included Barbra Streisand,
Dustin Hoffman and
Robert Duvall. As a playwright, Lonny saw
two of his own works produced off-Broadway -- "The Buffalo Skinner" and
"Cry of the Raindrop".
Lonny migrated to Los Angeles in the 1960s in order to pursue film and
TV roles and, along with Martin Landau,
helped form the West branch of the Actors Studio out there. His gritty
look, trademark dusky voice, earnest demeanor and solid Midwest
upbringing was his meal ticket for getting Hollywood work. Tailor-made
for earthy, blue-collar roles, he was most at home playing
unpretentious folk. One would be hard-pressed to see him donning tie
and tails in highly elegant settings when he obviously appeared more at
home in a plaid shirt with rolled up sleeves or, at the most, a tweed
sport coat with loose tie. He provided stark authenticity to a number
of westerns, crimers and small-town dramas. In
Alfred Hitchcock's
The Birds (1963), he portrayed the
concerned diner operator who tends to
Tippi Hedren's head wound after her first
gull attack. He subsequently played a secondary but pivotal role in
director/friend Mark Rydell's picture
The Reivers (1969) set in Mississippi
with Steve McQueen, and also one
of Sally Field's chauvinistic bosses in the
down-home drama Norma Rae (1979). He
showed remarkable versatility with a top, change-of-pace supporting
part in the early Woody Allen comedy classic
Take the Money and Run (1969).
In 1973, he formed the Group Repertory Theatre and served as its first
and only artistic director (until his death). Under his strong
leadership, the non-profit organization staged over 350 productions, 45
of which were world premieres of original works.
Sean Penn and
Jennifer Tilly are former members of the
company.
Quite visible on TV, he appeared to good advantage in prime-time
programming. Headlining one TV series that never got firmly off the
ground,
The Investigator (1958), in
which he played a private detective, he also co-starred with
William Shatner and
Jessica Walter in the "Law and
Order" precursor
For the People (1965). During
the 60s, 70s and 80s, the gruff, bushy-browed actor could always be
spotted somewhere on a topnotch crime show
(Perry Mason (1957),
The Defenders (1961) (recurring
role),
Judd for the Defense (1967),
Mission: Impossible (1966),
Mannix (1967),
Ironside (1967),
Quincy M.E. (1976),
Matlock (1986)). He was given just as
much footage sitting tall in the saddle in various western series
(Laredo (1965),
The Rifleman (1958),
The Virginian (1962),
Bonanza (1959)). He also appeared
more than a few times on
Gunsmoke (1955) and
McCloud (1970), which starred his
good friend Dennis Weaver. One
particular highlight was his patriarchal role in an above-par TV-movie
adaptation of
The Rainmaker (1982)
co-starring Tommy Lee Jones and
Tuesday Weld.
A modest, down-to-earth kind of guy with a generous heart and spirit
who preferred not to call attention to himself, Chapman was a sturdy
film and TV presence over the years playing a hefty number of heroes,
villains, boss types and confidantes. Although he worked consistently
throughout the years, he never found the one role that might have moved
him up the pecking order and propel him to the very top of the
character echelon. In the twilight of his film career, he showed eerie
countenance in his elderly watchman role in
Nightwatch (1997), and last graced the
screen as an octogenarian in
Reindeer Games (2000), directed by
John Frankenheimer and
The Hunted (2003), directed by
William Friedkin.
The last few years of his life were marred by failing health and the
increasingly frail actor had to eventually be placed in a Sherman Oaks
(California) care facility. He died there of complications from
pneumonia and heart disease a little more than a week after his 87th
birthday, on October 12, 2007. He was survived by his steadfast wife
(of nearly 65 years), the former Erma Dean Gibbons, and their son Wyley
Dean.
character faces to which you can't quite place the name. While he
appeared in over 30 films and well over 300 TV programs over a
five-decade career, the theater remained his first and foremost passion
and for which he is best remembered. From 1973 until his death 34 years
later, he was artistic director of the Group Repertory Theatre (GRT), a
North Hollywood non-profit acting organization for which he also served
as producer, writer, director and actor. It was a place to which scores
and scores of L.A.-based actors would, and did, call "home". The
facility, which is still running today, was renamed the Lonny Chapman
Group Repertory Theatre (LCGRT) in 1999 in loving tribute.
He was born Lon Leonard Chapman on October 1, 1920, in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
but grew up in the city of Joplin, Missouri. His interest in acting
started while fairly young. Following his graduations from Joplin High
School (1938) and Joplin Junior College (1940), the
athletically-inclined Lonny attended the University of Oklahoma on a
track scholarship. The bombing of Pearl Harbor, however, interrupted
his college studies, joining the Marines the very next day. He saw
major action in the South Pacific, including Guadalcanal. During his
5-year tour of duty, he contracted malaria; frequent recurrences would
plague him the rest of his life. The track star returned to his
Oklahoma college following war duty and graduated with a BFA in Drama
in 1947.
While at college Lonny became best friends with actor
Dennis Weaver, who was also a
talented track-and-field athlete and fellow drama student. The two
young hopefuls hitchhiked together to New York City where they began
their respective careers. Within a year (1948) Lonny was appearing as
"Wiley" in the Chicago company of "Mister Roberts", directed by
Joshua Logan. The year after that,
he made his Broadway debut in "The Closing Door", directed by
Lee Strasberg. During this time, he also
established strong ties with the prestigious Group Theatre and Actors
Studio. It was at the Actors Studio that he forged lifelong friendships
with director Mark Rydell, and character
actors Martin Landau,
R.G. Armstrong,
Pat Hingle and
Logan Ramsey, among others.
Arguably, the peak of Lonny's early stage career occurred in 1950, when
he co-starred in the award-winning drama "Come Back, Little Sheba",
William Inge's first play to be produced on
Broadway. Art imitated life in this case as Lonny portrayed the second
lead role of "Turk", a college student and star athlete.
Coincidentally, friend
Dennis Weaver became his
understudy and eventually took over the role. Starring Tony winners
Shirley Booth and
Sidney Blackmer, only Ms. Booth
went on to recreate her role in the film version for which she won the
Oscar. Lonny, who had yet to make a movie, was replaced by the
already-established Richard Jaeckel as
"Turk" in the film version.
Lonny continued to solidify his reputation on Broadway with "The Chase"
(1952), produced and directed by
José Ferrer and starring Actors
Studio exponents Kim Stanley and
Kim Hunter; "Whistler's Grandmother"
(1952), co-starring Josephine Hull; "The
Ladies of the Corridor" (1953), directed by renowned "Group Theatre"
member Harold Clurman; and the
Horton Foote-penned "The Traveling Lady"
(1954), again starring Ms. Stanley. Elsewhere, he earned excellent
notices as "Tom" opposite
Franchot Tone's "Joe" in a revival
of William Saroyan's "The Time of Your
Life" and as the "Gentleman Caller" in the first national tour of "The
Glass Menagerie" starring
Helen Hayes. By this time, Lonny had
begun appearing on early TV, making his debut in an episode of
Captain Video and His Cartoon Rangers (1956).
His first film was a featured role in the tuneful
Doris Day/Frank Sinatra
drama Young at Heart (1954) in
which he shared secondary scenes with
Elisabeth Fraser. Actor Studio
preeminent Elia Kazan took a strong liking to
Lonny as an actor and looked for no one else to play the role of "Roy",
the auto mechanic, in the classic
John Steinbeck film
East of Eden (1955), which
catapulted James Dean to cult status.
Kazan then gave Lonny a plum role in his film
Baby Doll (1956).
In the late 1950s, Chapman began to show promise as a mover and shaker
in the theater. In 1959, and for eight seasons following, he and
co-founder Curt Conway devoted their summer
seasons to the Cecilwood Theatre in Fishkill, New York, where he
directed over 80 productions and performed in nearly thirty. Those
up-and-comers who received their Equity union card under his guidance
included Barbra Streisand,
Dustin Hoffman and
Robert Duvall. As a playwright, Lonny saw
two of his own works produced off-Broadway -- "The Buffalo Skinner" and
"Cry of the Raindrop".
Lonny migrated to Los Angeles in the 1960s in order to pursue film and
TV roles and, along with Martin Landau,
helped form the West branch of the Actors Studio out there. His gritty
look, trademark dusky voice, earnest demeanor and solid Midwest
upbringing was his meal ticket for getting Hollywood work. Tailor-made
for earthy, blue-collar roles, he was most at home playing
unpretentious folk. One would be hard-pressed to see him donning tie
and tails in highly elegant settings when he obviously appeared more at
home in a plaid shirt with rolled up sleeves or, at the most, a tweed
sport coat with loose tie. He provided stark authenticity to a number
of westerns, crimers and small-town dramas. In
Alfred Hitchcock's
The Birds (1963), he portrayed the
concerned diner operator who tends to
Tippi Hedren's head wound after her first
gull attack. He subsequently played a secondary but pivotal role in
director/friend Mark Rydell's picture
The Reivers (1969) set in Mississippi
with Steve McQueen, and also one
of Sally Field's chauvinistic bosses in the
down-home drama Norma Rae (1979). He
showed remarkable versatility with a top, change-of-pace supporting
part in the early Woody Allen comedy classic
Take the Money and Run (1969).
In 1973, he formed the Group Repertory Theatre and served as its first
and only artistic director (until his death). Under his strong
leadership, the non-profit organization staged over 350 productions, 45
of which were world premieres of original works.
Sean Penn and
Jennifer Tilly are former members of the
company.
Quite visible on TV, he appeared to good advantage in prime-time
programming. Headlining one TV series that never got firmly off the
ground,
The Investigator (1958), in
which he played a private detective, he also co-starred with
William Shatner and
Jessica Walter in the "Law and
Order" precursor
For the People (1965). During
the 60s, 70s and 80s, the gruff, bushy-browed actor could always be
spotted somewhere on a topnotch crime show
(Perry Mason (1957),
The Defenders (1961) (recurring
role),
Judd for the Defense (1967),
Mission: Impossible (1966),
Mannix (1967),
Ironside (1967),
Quincy M.E. (1976),
Matlock (1986)). He was given just as
much footage sitting tall in the saddle in various western series
(Laredo (1965),
The Rifleman (1958),
The Virginian (1962),
Bonanza (1959)). He also appeared
more than a few times on
Gunsmoke (1955) and
McCloud (1970), which starred his
good friend Dennis Weaver. One
particular highlight was his patriarchal role in an above-par TV-movie
adaptation of
The Rainmaker (1982)
co-starring Tommy Lee Jones and
Tuesday Weld.
A modest, down-to-earth kind of guy with a generous heart and spirit
who preferred not to call attention to himself, Chapman was a sturdy
film and TV presence over the years playing a hefty number of heroes,
villains, boss types and confidantes. Although he worked consistently
throughout the years, he never found the one role that might have moved
him up the pecking order and propel him to the very top of the
character echelon. In the twilight of his film career, he showed eerie
countenance in his elderly watchman role in
Nightwatch (1997), and last graced the
screen as an octogenarian in
Reindeer Games (2000), directed by
John Frankenheimer and
The Hunted (2003), directed by
William Friedkin.
The last few years of his life were marred by failing health and the
increasingly frail actor had to eventually be placed in a Sherman Oaks
(California) care facility. He died there of complications from
pneumonia and heart disease a little more than a week after his 87th
birthday, on October 12, 2007. He was survived by his steadfast wife
(of nearly 65 years), the former Erma Dean Gibbons, and their son Wyley
Dean.