Hal England(1932-2003)
- Actor
Leading man of the American stage who played occasional character roles
in film and television. England was a native of King's Mountain, North
Carolina and a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill. He made his Broadway debut in 1958, directed by Alfred Drake in "Love
Me Little." He followed this with a success in "Say, Darling", written
and directed by Abe Burrows, whom England credited as his mentor. He
understudied Robert Morse in the lead of "How to Succeed in
Business...Without Really Trying", playing Jenkins for a year on
Broadway and then taking the lead role of J. Pierpont Finch in the
national touring company. He starred on Broadway in Edna St. Vincent Millay's
"Conversations at Midnight" in 1964 and appeared in three plays in the
inaugural season of the Public Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park in New
York. He moved to California in the early 1960s and guest-starred in
numerous television programs. A longtime member of the Actors Studio,
he also spent years as a member of Theatre West, in Hollywood,
performing in scores of plays there. His life partner for forty years
was producer Fred W. Bennett. England died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank,
of a heart attack at 71.