Michael Higgins (actor)
Encyclopedia
Michael Patrick Higgins was an American
actor who appeared in film and on stage, and was best known for his role in the original Broadway
production of Equus
.
on January 20, 1920, the son of Mary Katherine (née McGowan) and Michael Peter Higgins, a poet and grocer who worked in the insurance business. He made efforts as a teenager to rid himself of his Brooklyn accent, hoping for a future career in theater. His father gave him an early a love of Shakespeare. He served in the United States Army
in Italy during World War II
, where he earned a Bronze Star Medal
and a Purple Heart
.
(1946), starring Katharine Cornell
and Sir Cedric Hardwicke
in a modern-dress adaptation of the Sophocles
play based on Jean Anouilh
's French version. Higgins played the role of the Third Guard.
Higgins appeared in the original Broadway
production of Peter Shaffer
's Equus
in the role of Frank Strang, the father of a youth who blinds horses, alongside Peter Firth
as the youth, Frances Sternhagen
as Alan’s mother and Anthony Hopkins
as his psychiatrist. As part of cast that Clive Barnes
called "exemplary", Walter Kerr
found Higgins "excellent as a father turned ashen when caught out at a skin flick".
Among his Broadway performances are Romeo and Juliet
as Benvolio
with Olivia de Havilland
in 1951, Jean Anouilh's The Lark
in 1955 with Julie Harris
and Christopher Plummer
, Eugene O'Neill
's The Iceman Cometh
with James Earl Jones
at Circle in the Square Theatre
in 1973, and the 1980 production of Mixed Couples, his final Broadway appearance. In 1963, he starred in Antony and Cleopatra
opposite Colleen Dewhurst
, in Joseph Papp
's Shakespeare Festival in Central Park. He won two Obie Award
s for his work Off Broadway; for his 1958 performance as John Proctor in The Crucible
and in 1980 in David Mamet
's play Reunion. He won a Drama Desk Award
in 1978 for his role in Molly, earning honors as Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play.
He appeared in early live television productions including Kraft Television Theatre
, Academy Theatre
and Studio One, as well as on Ben Casey
, Gunsmoke
and The Andy Griffith Show
. From 1949 to 1951, he played the role of Johnny Roberts on the NBC television series One Man's Family
.
Later in his career he worked primarily on screen, appearing in over 50 films. He co-starred in Coppola's The Conversation
, and Barbara Loden
's Wanda
. He appeared in Angel Heart
, The Black Stallion
, The Seduction of Joe Tynan
, The Stepford Wives
, and Mamet's State and Main
, as well as the 2008 release Synecdoche, New York
, among many others.
Higgins died at age 88 on November 5, 2008 at Beth Israel Medical Center
of heart failure.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor who appeared in film and on stage, and was best known for his role in the original Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production of Equus
Equus (play)
Equus is a play by Peter Shaffer written in 1973, telling the story of a psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological religious fascination with horses....
.
Early life
Higgins was born in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
on January 20, 1920, the son of Mary Katherine (née McGowan) and Michael Peter Higgins, a poet and grocer who worked in the insurance business. He made efforts as a teenager to rid himself of his Brooklyn accent, hoping for a future career in theater. His father gave him an early a love of Shakespeare. He served in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
in Italy during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, where he earned a Bronze Star Medal
Bronze Star Medal
The Bronze Star Medal is a United States Armed Forces individual military decoration that may be awarded for bravery, acts of merit, or meritorious service. As a medal it is awarded for merit, and with the "V" for valor device it is awarded for heroism. It is the fourth-highest combat award of the...
and a Purple Heart
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after April 5, 1917 with the U.S. military. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor is located in New Windsor, New York...
.
Career
After returning from military service, Higgins made his Broadway debut on February 18, 1946 in a production of AntigoneAntigone (Anouilh play)
Jean Anouilh's play Antigone is a tragedy inspired by Greek mythology and the play of the same name from the fifth century B.C...
(1946), starring Katharine Cornell
Katharine Cornell
Katharine Cornell was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer. She was born to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York.Cornell is known as the greatest American stage actress of the 20th century...
and Sir Cedric Hardwicke
Cedric Hardwicke
Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke was a noted English stage and film actor whose career spanned nearly fifty years...
in a modern-dress adaptation of the Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
play based on Jean Anouilh
Jean Anouilh
Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1943 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' Classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's...
's French version. Higgins played the role of the Third Guard.
Higgins appeared in the original Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production of Peter Shaffer
Peter Shaffer
Sir Peter Levin Shaffer is an English dramatist and playwright, screenwriter and author of numerous award-winning plays, several of which have been filmed.-Early life:...
's Equus
Equus (play)
Equus is a play by Peter Shaffer written in 1973, telling the story of a psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological religious fascination with horses....
in the role of Frank Strang, the father of a youth who blinds horses, alongside Peter Firth
Peter Firth
Peter Firth is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Sir Harry Pearce in the BBC show Spooks, of which he is the only actor to have starred in every episode of the show's 10 series lifespan...
as the youth, Frances Sternhagen
Frances Sternhagen
Frances Hussey Sternhagen is an American actress. Sternhagen has appeared on and off Broadway, in movies, and on TV since the 1950s.-Personal life:...
as Alan’s mother and Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
as his psychiatrist. As part of cast that Clive Barnes
Clive Barnes (critic)
Clive Alexander Barnes, CBE was a British-born American writer and critic. From 1965 to 1977 he was the dance and theater critic for the New York Times, the most powerful position he had held, since its theater critics' reviews historically have had great influence on the success or failure of...
called "exemplary", Walter Kerr
Walter Kerr
For the RN admiral see Lord Walter KerrWalter Francis Kerr was an American writer and Broadway theater critic. He also was the writer, lyricist, and/or director of several Broadway plays and musicals.-Biography:...
found Higgins "excellent as a father turned ashen when caught out at a skin flick".
Among his Broadway performances are Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
as Benvolio
Benvolio
Benvolio Montague is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's drama Romeo and Juliet.-Sources:In 1554, Matteo Bandello published the second volume of his Novelle which included his version of Giuletta e Romeo. Bandello emphasises Romeo's initial depression and the feud between the families,...
with Olivia de Havilland
Olivia de Havilland
Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...
in 1951, Jean Anouilh's The Lark
L'Alouette (The Lark)
L'Alouette is a 1952 play by Jean Anouilh about Joan of Arc. It was presented on Broadway in English in 1955, starring Julie Harris as Joan and Boris Karloff as Pierre Cauchon. It was produced by Kermit Bloomgarden.The English adaptation was by Lillian Hellman and the incidental music was by...
in 1955 with Julie Harris
Julie Harris
Julia Ann "Julie" Harris is an American stage, screen, and television actress. She has won five Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1994, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame...
and Christopher Plummer
Christopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orne Plummer, CC is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. He made his film debut in 1957's Stage Struck, and notable early film performances include Night of the Generals, The Return of the Pink Panther and The Man Who Would Be King.In a career that spans over five...
, Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
's The Iceman Cometh
The Iceman Cometh
The Iceman Cometh is a play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939. First published in 1940 the play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on 9 October 1946, directed by Eddie Dowling where it ran for 136 performances to close on 15 March 1947.-Characters:* Night Hawk-...
with James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones is an American actor. He is well-known for his distinctive bass voice and for his portrayal of characters of substance, gravitas and leadership...
at Circle in the Square Theatre
Circle in the Square Theatre
The Circle in the Square Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre in midtown Manhattan on 50th Street in the Paramount Plaza building.The original Circle in the Square was founded by Paul Libin, Theodore Mann and Jose Quintero in 1951 and was located at 5 Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village...
in 1973, and the 1980 production of Mixed Couples, his final Broadway appearance. In 1963, he starred in Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony...
opposite Colleen Dewhurst
Colleen Dewhurst
Colleen Rose Dewhurst was a Canadian-American actress known for a while as "the Queen of Off-Broadway." In her autobiography, Dewhurst wrote: "I had moved so quickly from one Off-Broadway production to the next that I was known, at one point, as the 'Queen of Off-Broadway'...
, in Joseph Papp
Joseph Papp
Joseph Papp was an American theatrical producer and director. Papp established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in downtown New York . "The Public," as it is known, has many small theatres within it...
's Shakespeare Festival in Central Park. He won two Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
s for his work Off Broadway; for his 1958 performance as John Proctor in The Crucible
The Crucible
The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists...
and in 1980 in David Mamet
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
's play Reunion. He won a Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
in 1978 for his role in Molly, earning honors as Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play.
He appeared in early live television productions including Kraft Television Theatre
Kraft Television Theatre
Kraft Television Theatre is an American drama/anthology television series that began May 7, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. In January 1948, it moved to 9pm on Wednesdays, continuing in that timeslot until 1958. Initially produced by the J...
, Academy Theatre
Academy Theatre
Academy Theatre is a drama anthology series that aired on NBC in 1949. It ran for eight weeks as the summer replacement for Chevrolet on Broadway.-Format:...
and Studio One, as well as on Ben Casey
Ben Casey
Ben Casey is an American medical drama series which ran on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, *, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member Sam Jaffe intoned, "Man, woman, birth, death, infinity." Neurosurgeon Joseph...
, Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
and The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
. From 1949 to 1951, he played the role of Johnny Roberts on the NBC television series One Man's Family
One Man's Family
One Man's Family, is a long-running American radio soap opera. It was heard for almost three decades, from 1932 to 1959. Created by Carlton E. Morse, it was the longest-running uninterrupted serial in the history of American radio...
.
Later in his career he worked primarily on screen, appearing in over 50 films. He co-starred in Coppola's The Conversation
The Conversation
The Conversation is a 1974 American psychological thriller film written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman...
, and Barbara Loden
Barbara Loden
Barbara Loden was an American film and stage actress and film director....
's Wanda
Wanda (film)
Wanda is an independent 1970 drama film that was written and directed by Barbara Loden, who also stars in the title role. It is set in the anthracite coal region of eastern Pennsylvania.-Plot:...
. He appeared in Angel Heart
Angel Heart
Angel Heart is a 1987 North American/British mystery-thriller film written and directed by Alan Parker, and starring Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, and Lisa Bonet...
, The Black Stallion
The Black Stallion (film)
The Black Stallion is a 1979 American film based on the 1941 classic children's novel The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. It tells the story of Alec Ramsey, who is shipwrecked on a desert island, together with a wild Arabian stallion whom he befriends...
, The Seduction of Joe Tynan
The Seduction of Joe Tynan
The Seduction of Joe Tynan is a 1979 American political film drama directed by Jerry Schatzberg and produced by Martin Bregman. The screenplay was written by Alan Alda, who also played the title role....
, The Stepford Wives
The Stepford Wives (1975 film)
The Stepford Wives is a 1975 science fiction–thriller film based on the 1972 Ira Levin novel of the same name. It was directed by Bryan Forbes with a screenplay by William Goldman, and stars Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson, Nanette Newman and Tina Louise...
, and Mamet's State and Main
State and Main
State and Main is a 2000 comedy film, written and directed by David Mamet and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rebecca Pidgeon, about the on-location production in Waterford, Vermont of a film called The Old Mill...
, as well as the 2008 release Synecdoche, New York
Synecdoche, New York
Synecdoche, New York is a 2008 American drama film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. It was Kaufman's directorial debut.The film premiered in competition at the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2008...
, among many others.
Higgins died at age 88 on November 5, 2008 at Beth Israel Medical Center
Beth Israel Medical Center
Beth Israel Medical Center is a 1,368-bed, full-service tertiary teaching hospital in New York City. Originally dedicated to serving immigrant Jews living in the tenement slums of the Lower East Side, it was founded at the turn of the 20th century. The main hospital location is the Petrie...
of heart failure.