# Hume Cronyn RIP
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hume-cronyn-rip/182292
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 16, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hume-cronyn-rip/182292 "2003-06-16T20:48:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hume-cronyn-rip/182292/1 "2003-06-16T20:48:52Z")
[The boit from Salon](http://www.salon.com/ent/wire/2003/06/16/hume_cronyn/index.html)
> [@](#):
>
> Hume Cronyn, a veteran stage and screen actor who charmed audiences with his portrayals of irascible old men and frequently paired up with his wife, Jessica Tandy, has died of cancer. He was 91.
>
> Cronyn died of prostate cancer Sunday at his home in Fairfield, Conn., a family spokeswoman said Monday. He and Tandy were married for nearly 52 years at the time of her death from ovarian cancer in September 1994.
I honestly thought he had died years ago.
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hume-cronyn-rip/182292/2 "2003-06-16T20:50:16Z")
Um…“boit” is “obit.” Sorry Hume, no disrespect intended.
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### Author:  [@Sylkyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylkyn)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2003, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hume-cronyn-rip/182292/3 "2003-06-16T20:56:12Z")
I just now read about this a few minutes ago. We have lost another wonderful talent.
R.I.P. Hume. ☹
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### Author:  [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2003, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hume-cronyn-rip/182292/4 "2003-06-16T21:10:47Z")
What a visionary actor. He starred in the premieres of several of Samuel Beckett’s plays, including _Play_ and _Krapp’s Last Tape_.
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### Author:  [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2003, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hume-cronyn-rip/182292/5 "2003-06-16T21:26:10Z")
I don’t believe in an afterlife, but I’d like to think of Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy being back together someplace where they’re happy.
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2003, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hume-cronyn-rip/182292/6 "2003-06-16T21:29:46Z")
I first saw Hume Cronyn when I was a freshman in high school- he was on Broadway with Jessica, starring in “The Gin Game.” He was, by turns, charming, funny, conniving, pathetic, and (ultimately) scary in the course of that play. And the interplay between Cronyn and Tandy was remarkable. Obviously, they’d been together long enough and knew each other so well, they were very convincing as an old man and an old woman who knew exactly how to push each other’s buttons.
Every mediocre actor has written a forgettable autobiography. Cronyn’s was one of the rare actor’s autobiography’s worth reading. It was called “A Terrible Liar,” and the title reflected what Cronyn felt made him a good actor: he wasn’t a good liar, at all. Whenever he said anything he didn’t really believe, it was obvious to anyone who saw him. He had to make himself believe something thoroughly before he could say it convincingly.
Perhaps that’s what made him so good at inhabiting his characters. He could make himself see the world from his characters’ points of view, which meant he could say even the most loathsome character’s lines as if they made perfect sense.
He’ll definitely be missed.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2003, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hume-cronyn-rip/182292/7 "2003-06-16T21:39:23Z")
Great actor. Even in MARVIN’S ROOM, a completely non-speaking role (his character was a senile invalid non-verbal multiple stroke victim who wasn’t even seen in the play on which the movie was based) he stole his scenes.
Surprisingly, several of the obituaries I’ve read don’t mention that he was married to Susan Cooper for the last six years of his life. I suppose he’s just too intertwined with the Great Jessica (who is still noticably missed) to think of another wife.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2003, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hume-cronyn-rip/182292/8 "2003-06-16T21:40:56Z")
Great actor. Even in MARVIN’S ROOM, a completely non-speaking role (his character was a senile invalid non-verbal multiple stroke victim who wasn’t even seen in the play on which the movie was based) he stole his scenes.
He was responsible for one of my favorite practical jokes. Did anybody else see the 60 MINUTES in which he and Jessica, when asked about the secret of a 50 year marriage, announced they were getting a divorce? He said something to the effect of “Well, I want to play the field one more time before I’m too old, and there’s a guy Jessica’s had an eye on for 20 years, so we figured it was now or never.” The interviewer looked at them with an expression of utter shock, then the two of them broke apart laughing. “We’ve always wanted to do that.”
Surprisingly, several of the obituaries I’ve read don’t mention that he was married to Susan Cooper for the last six years of his life. I suppose he’s just too intertwined with the Great Jessica (who is still noticably missed) to think of another wife.
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### Author:  [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2003, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hume-cronyn-rip/182292/9 "2003-06-16T22:56:24Z")
A great actor, and perhaps one of the last to be better known for his stage work than his movies.
That said, I think I’ll remember him by re-watching his screen debut, Hitchcock’s masterful Shadow of a Doubt.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2003, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hume-cronyn-rip/182292/10 "2003-06-16T23:22:12Z")
Too late . . . Two other threads already going on this in Cafe Society–must have dropped off Page One.