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John Cullum

John Cullum (born March 2, 1930) is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in many stage musicals and dramas, including Shenandoah (1975) and On the Twentieth Century (1978), winning the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for each. In 1966 he gained his first Tony nomination as the lead in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, in which he introduced the title song, and more recently received Tony nominations for Urinetown The Musical (2002) (Best Actor in a Musical) and as Best Featured Actor in the revival of 110 in the Shade (2007).

Outside of the theatre world, Cullum is best known for his role as tavern owner Holling Vincoeur in the television drama series Northern Exposure, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama. He was featured in fifteen episodes of the NBC television series ER as Dr. Mark Greene's father. He played farmer Jim Dahlberg in the landmark television drama The Day After. He made multiple guest appearances on Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as attorney/judge Barry Moredock, and appeared as Big Mike in several episodes of The Middle. He appeared as Senator Beau Carpenter on the CBS series Madam Secretary.

Personal life

Cullum was born on March 2, 1930 in Knoxville, Tennessee. He attended Knoxville High School and the University of Tennessee. He played on the university's Southeastern Conference championship tennis team and was a member of Phi Gamma Delta. He starred in "Chucky Jack", an outdoor drama about Tennessee Governor John Sevier, at the old Hunter Hills Theater in Gatlinburg.

Cullum was married to Emily Frankel from 1959 until her death in 2024. They have one son, JD Cullum (John David Cullum), who is also an actor.

Career

He made his Broadway debut as Sir Dinadan in the Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Loewe musical Camelot in 1960. He also understudied Richard Burton (King Arthur) and Roddy McDowall (Arthur's son Mordred), going on four times when Burton became ill and succeeding McDowall. He went on to play Laertes opposite Burton's 1964 Broadway performance as Hamlet (and in the film version of the production) and in Burton's final Broadway appearance in Noël Coward's Private Lives in 1983.

In 1965, he was called in to replace Louis Jourdan during the Boston tryout of the musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. It was his first starring role on Broadway, netting him a Theatre World Award and his first Tony Award nomination. The original cast album received a Grammy Award (presented to lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Burton Lane).

He portrayed Edward Rutledge of South Carolina in the Broadway musical 1776, providing a dramatic highlight with his performance of "Molasses to Rum," a tirade against the hypocrisy of some Northerners over the slave trade ("They don't keep slaves, but they are willing to be considerable carriers of slaves to others. They're willing – for the shilling.") Cullum had been the third Rutledge on Broadway, but played the role the longest and repeated it for the 1972 film.

He is well known for premiering the role of Charlie Anderson in the musical Shenandoah, which began at Goodspeed Opera House, Connecticut in 1974. Cullum won the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards when the show was produced on Broadway in 1975. He also played the role at Wolf Trap, Virginia, in June 1976, opened the national tour for 3 weeks in Fall 1977 in Chicago, and starred in the limited run Broadway revival in 1989.

He followed Shenandoah by playing the maniacal Broadway producer Oscar Jaffee in the 1978 musical On the Twentieth Century, opposite Madeline Kahn and later Judy Kaye, earning his second Tony Award. He received his fourth Tony nomination in 2002 for originating the role of evil moneygrubber corporate president Caldwell B. Cladwell in Urinetown The Musical. He earned his fifth Tony nomination in the 2007 revival of 110 in the Shade, playing H.C. Curry, father to Audra McDonald's Lizzie.

In 2003, Cullum co-starred with Northern Exposure castmate Barry Corbin in Blackwater Elegy, a short film written by Matthew Porter and co-directed by Porter and Joe O'Brien.

Later Broadway appearances include the title role of William Shakespeare's seldom-performed Cymbeline, at Lincoln Center in 2007 and August: Osage County, by Tracy Letts for the week of September 16, 2008, and then since November 11, 2008.

In addition to enjoying a long stage career, he is well known to television audiences for his regular role as Holling Vincoeur on the quirky CBS series Northern Exposure, his extended appearances on the NBC medical drama ER as Mark Greene's father, and on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as constitutional lawyer and later judge, Barry Moredock. Cullum has also appeared as Lucky Strike executive Lee Garner, Sr. on AMC's Mad Men. He appeared as Leap Day William, the embodiment of the fictional Leap Day national holiday, in the "Leap Day" episode of the sixth season of NBC's 30 Rock.

John Cullum appeared on Broadway in The Scottsboro Boys (2010), a musical by Kander and Ebb about a notorious miscarriage of justice in the American South in the 1930s. The Scottsboro Boys was directed by Susan Stroman, with Cullum as the only non-African-American member of the cast.

John Cullum was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2007.

In 2015 Cullum appeared and sang in the satirical B&W period movie-musical footage of Daddy's Boy on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The "forgotten footage" features comically incestuous lyrics set in an innocent context that apes classic 1930's films.

Cullum, then an octogenarian, joined the cast of Waitress as Joe on October 12, 2017, replacing Larry Marshall.

Work

Stage productions

Filmography

Television

Awards and nominations

Awards

1966 Theatre World Award – On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
1975 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actor, Musical – Shenandoah
1975 Outer Critics Circle Award, Best Performances – Shenandoah
1975 Tony Award Best Actor in a Musical – Shenandoah
1978 Tony Award Best Actor in a Musical – On the Twentieth Century
1982 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience for the one-man show Whistler
1998 Founders Day Medal, University of Tennessee
2004 Clarence Brown Theatre Company (University of Tennessee), Lifetime Achievement Award
2007 Inductee American Theatre Hall of Fame

Nominations

1966 Tony Award Best Actor in a Musical – On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
1993 Emmy Award Best Supporting Actor in a Drama – Northern Exposure
2002 Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Actor in a Musical – Urinetown
2002 Tony Award Best Actor in a Musical – Urinetown
2005 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play – Sin (A Cardinal Deposed)
2007 Tony Award Best Featured Actor in a Musical – 110 in the Shade
2008 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play – The Conscientious Objector