David Huddleston
Birthday:
Birthplace:
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Big-framed character actor (and sometime leading man) David Huddleston worked in virtually every film and television genre there is, from Westerns to crime dramas to science fiction. Born in Vinton, Virginia, he attended the Fork Union Military Academy before entering the United States Air Force, where he received a commission as an officer. After returning to civilian life, Huddleston enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He made his television debut in 1961, at age 31, in an episode of the Western series Shotgun Slade. Two years later, the actor made his first big-screen appearance with a small role in All the Way Home (1963). A year later, he showed up in Black Like Me; and in 1968, Huddleston was back on the big screen in the thriller A Lovely Way to Die. He got considerably busier in the years that followed, mostly on television series such as Adam 12, Then Came Bronson, and Room 222, in roles of ever-increasing size. These were broken up by the occasional film job, of which the most notable at the time was the part of the comically helpful town dentist in Howard Hawks' Western Rio Lobo (1970), which gave Huddleston some extended (and humorous) screen-time alongside John Wayne. At the time, his feature-film work was weighted very heavily toward Westerns, while on television Huddleston played everything from service-station attendants to teachers to devious executives, primarily in crime shows. With his deep voice and prominent screen presence, plus a sense of humor that never seemed too far from his portrayals -- even of villains -- Huddleston was one of the busier character actors of the 1970s. Indeed, 1974 comprised a year of credits that any actor in the business could envy: John Wayne used Huddleston in McQ, one of the aging star's efforts to get away from Westerns, but Huddleston was back doing oaters in Billy Two Hats and aided Mel Brooks in parodying the genre in Blazing Saddles (all 1974). As comical as Huddleston could be, he could play sinister equally well, as he proved in Terence Young's The Klansman (1974) -- and that doesn't even count his television roles. By the end of the 1970s, he had graduated to a starring role in the series Hizzoner (1979), about a small-town mayor; and in the 1980s he had recurring roles in series such as The Wonder Years. Huddleston's big-screen breakthrough came with the title role in Santa Claus: The Movie (1985), and he became a ubiquitous figure on the small screen with a series of orange-juice commercials. His subsequent big-screen appearances included Frantic (1988) and The Big Lebowski (1998), playing the title character, and he continued working into the first decade of the 21st century. In 2004, Huddleston essayed one of the most interesting and challenging roles of his screen career, in the short film Reveille. Working without dialogue alongside James McEachin (with whom he'd previously worked in the series Tenafly), he helped tell the story of a sometimes comical, ultimately bittersweet rivalry between two veterans of different armed services. Huddleston died in 2016, at age 85.
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
13% | Locker 13 |
|
— | 2014 |
70% | Coffin Rock |
|
— | 2009 |
9% | Postal |
|
— | 2007 |
51% | The Producers |
|
$19.2M | 2005 |
No Score Yet | G-Men From Hell |
|
— | 2001 |
83% | The Big Lebowski |
|
— | 1998 |
No Score Yet | Double Date Night: The Big Lebowski |
|
— | 1998 |
19% | Joe's Apartment |
|
— | 1996 |
25% | Life with Mikey |
|
— | 1993 |
No Score Yet | James Cagney: En la Cima del Mundo |
|
— | 1993 |
No Score Yet | Margaret Bourke-White |
|
— | 1989 |
76% | Frantic |
|
— | 1988 |
No Score Yet | Spot Marks the X |
|
— | 1986 |
No Score Yet | When the Bough Breaks |
|
— | 1986 |
20% | Santa Claus: The Movie |
|
— | 1985 |
No Score Yet | On the Run |
|
— | 1985 |
No Score Yet | Finnegan Begin Again |
|
— | 1984 |
No Score Yet | Go For It |
|
— | 1983 |
No Score Yet | M.A.D.D.: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers |
|
— | 1983 |
No Score Yet | Family Reunion |
|
— | 1981 |
No Score Yet | GORP |
|
— | 1980 |
62% | Capricorn One |
|
— | 1978 |
15% | The World's Greatest Lover |
|
— | 1977 |
80% | Smokey and the Bandit |
|
— | 1977 |
No Score Yet | I due superpiedi quasi piatti |
|
— | 1977 |
No Score Yet | The Greatest |
|
— | 1977 |
No Score Yet | Shark Kill |
|
— | 1976 |
No Score Yet | Sherlock Holmes in New York |
|
— | 1976 |
60% | Breakheart Pass |
|
— | 1975 |
No Score Yet | Country Blue |
|
— | 1975 |
No Score Yet | The Gun and the Pulpit |
|
— | 1974 |
No Score Yet | Billy Two Hats (The Lady and the Outlaw) |
|
— | 1974 |
88% | Blazing Saddles |
|
— | 1974 |
44% | McQ |
|
— | 1974 |
22% | The Klansman |
|
— | 1974 |
No Score Yet | Nightmare Honeymoon (Deadly Honeymoon) |
|
— | 1973 |
92% | Bad Company |
|
— | 1972 |
No Score Yet | Fools' Parade |
|
— | 1971 |
68% | Rio Lobo |
|
— | 1971 |
0% | Something Big |
|
— | 1971 |
92% | Brian's Song |
|
— | 1970 |
No Score Yet | WUSA |
|
— | 1970 |
No Score Yet | Slaves |
|
— | 1969 |
No Score Yet | All the Way Home |
|
— | 1963 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
94% |
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
2005-2019
|
|
|
54% |
Jericho
2006-2008
|
|
|
92% |
Andy Barker, P.I.
2007
|
|
|
88% |
The Tick
2001-2002
|
|
|
85% |
Gilmore Girls
2000-2016
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Judging Amy
1999-2005
|
|
|
75% |
The West Wing
1999-2006
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Practice
1997-2004
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Living Single
1993-1998
|
|
|
91% |
Star Trek: The Next Generation
1987-1994
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Wonder Years
1988-1993
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Murder, She Wrote
1984-1996
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Magnum, P.I.
1980-1988
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Waltons
1972-1981
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Charlie's Angels
1976-1981
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Sanford and Son
1972-1977
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Rockford Files
1974-1980
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Kung Fu
1972-1975
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
1970-1977
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Gunsmoke
1955-1975
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Ironside
1967-1975
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Bonanza
1959-1973
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Bewitched
1964-1972
|
|
|
Quotes from David Huddleston's Characters
The Big Lebowski: | What makes a man? Is it doing the right thing? |
The Dude: | Sure, that and a pair of testicles. |
The Dude: | We dropped off the money. |
The Big Lebowski: | *We*!? |
The Dude: | *I*; the royal we. |
The Big Lebowski: | What makes a man, Mr. Lebowski? |
The Dude: | Dude. |
The Big Lebowski: | Huh? |
The Dude: | Uh...I don't know, Sir. |
The Dude: | Uh... I don't know, Sir. |
The Big Lebowski: | Is it being prepared to do the right thing, whatever the cost? Isn't that what makes a man? |
The Dude: | Hmmm... Sure, that and a pair of testicles. |
Howard Johnson: | Think of it men, hoof and mouth disease a thing of the past! |
Olson Johnson: | Never mind that shit, HERE COMES MONGO!!! |
Olson Johnson: | Never mind that shit, here comes Mongo! |
The Big Lebowski: | You see this leg, i got it chopped off by some china men in Vietnam |
The Big Lebowski: | You see this leg, I got it chopped off by some china men in Vietnam |
The Big Lebowski: | I didn't blame anyone for the loss of my legs. Some Chinaman took them from me in Korea. |