Donald Symington

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Donald Leith Symington (born August 30, 1925 in Baltimore , Maryland , † July 24, 2013 ) was an American actor who appeared in over 25 film and television roles. He was also a popular theater actor and played numerous roles on Broadway . In the cinema he could be seen in the films Diary of an Adultery , The Straw Man , The City Neurotic , Wolfen and Beloved Aphrodite, among others .

life and career

Symington was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1925. He was the son of John Fife "Jack" Symington Sr., a prominent banker and athlete , and Arabella Hambleton Symington, who was active in the music and art scene. Growing up in Tallwood, the family estate in Green Spring Valley , the mother supported the son's interest in the theater by regularly taking him to New York to Broadway and the opera . As a student at the Gilman School , he made his first appearance on stage in the play "The Tavern". Symington later also became president of the Gilman Drama Association.

After Symington could already look back on a successful career in the theater and on Broadway, he began to work on episodes of well-known television series in the early 1950s. His television engagement lasted into the 2000s. Among them he played in episodes for Armstrong Circle Theater or Fantasy Island . He later worked in television films, including a 1979 engagement in John Llewellyn Moxey's Father Brown does not allow himself to be bluffed .

On the big screen, Symington was first seen in a minor supporting role as a pediatrician in Frank Perry's drama Diary of Adultery in 1970 . In 1972 he starred in the crime film Go to Hell by director Larry Yust. A year later, Fielder Cook engaged him for his family comedy The Mysterious Angel . In 1976 he met the director Woody Allen in Martin Ritt's drama The Straw Man , who immediately cast him in his award-winning film Der Stadtneurotiker and again in Beloved Aphrodite in 1995, where he played the father of Helena Bonham Carter .

In the 1980s Symington was engaged for smaller roles, including in Michael Wadleigh's horror thriller Wolfen , 1982 in Der Geisterflieger by director Sidney Poitier and in 1983 in Sean S. Cunningham's romantic comedy Im Sauseschritt ins Dünenbett .

His last cinema appearance was in Adam Abraham's film Man of the Century in 1999 . His last role on television was in 2005 in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit .

Donald Symington died on July 24, 2013 at the age of 87 in his hometown of Baltimore.

In 1955 he married the stage actress Leslie Paul, the couple had three children and the marriage lasted until their death in 2013. Symington was the brother of J. Fife Symington Jr.

Filmography (selection)

movie theater

  • 1970: Diary of adultery (Diary of a Mad Housewife)
  • 1972: Go To Hell (Trick Baby)
  • 1973: The Mysterious Angel (From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler)
  • 1976: The straw man (The Front)
  • 1977: The Urban Neurotic (Annie Hall)
  • 1979: Bloodline
  • 1981: Wolfen
  • 1982: The Ghost Flyer (Hanky ​​Panky)
  • 1983: Stepping into the dune bed (Spring Break)
  • 1995: Beloved Aphrodite (Mighty Aphrodite)
  • 1999: Man of the Century

watch TV

  • 1952–1953: Robert Montgomery Presents (TV series, two episodes)
  • 1955: The Alcoa Hour (TV series, one episode)
  • 1955: Dream Girl (TV movie)
  • 1957: Look Up and Live (TV series, one episode)
  • 1958: Love of Life (TV series, one episode)
  • 1959: Meet Me in St. Louis (TV movie)
  • 1959, 1961: Armstrong Circle Theater (TV series, two episodes)
  • 1965: The Magnificent Yankee (TV movie)
  • 1969: Gidget Grows Up (TV movie)
  • 1979: Father Brown won't let himself be bluffed ( Sanctuary of Fear , movie made for TV)
  • 1979: Fantasy Island (TV series, one episode)
  • 1982: A Question of Honor (TV movie)
  • 1985: American Playhouse (TV series, one episode)
  • 1992: Swans Crossing (TV series, one episode)
  • 1994: Detective Hanks ( The Cosby Mysteries , TV series, one episode)
  • 2005: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV series, one episode)

Short film

  • 1976: Independence

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Donald Symington in: Theater World , by John A. Willis, Crown Publishers, 1991, p. 64
  2. ^ Obituary for Donald Symington in: The Baltimore Sun
personal data
SURNAME Symington, Donald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Symington, Donald Leith (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH August 30, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Baltimore , Maryland
DATE OF DEATH July 24, 2013
Place of death Baltimore , Maryland