This evening we had a memorial dinner for Bronson Dudley, the father of my (step)daughter Jane and the first husband of my wife Liz.Among those present were Jane and her husband Scott , Liz and I, Bronson's widow Caroline, Jane's second cousin Carol, and other friends and neighbors.
Bronson was an actor and playwright (I am reminded that W. S. Gilbert insisted on being called a dramatist rather than a playwright.) None of his plays hit it big, but he had a successful early career as a dancer on the stage and a late career as a character actor in TV and films. His most memorable film role was Bill in Steve Buscemi's 1996 Trees Lounge. The picture at the right is from that film. Bronson was born January 27, 1920 and died Shrove Tuesday, February 20, 2007. At the request of his widow Caroline, the announcement of his death was delayed.
A little Googling found me this item from Time, dated Monday May 11, 1936 (I was 20 days old) about Bronson's older sister Doris:
In the Manhattan apartment of 30-year-old Pulitzer Prize Dramatist (Men in White) Sidney Kingsley, blonde Actress Doris Dudley (End of Summer), 18-year-old daughter of Radio Theatre Critic Bide Dudley, flounced into the bathroom, shot herself in the breast with a .22 rifle. A suicide note was found. Day after the shooting, which caused only a minor wound, the two renewed announcement of their engagement, said the suicide story was bosh, that the shooting was an accident.
You gotta remember, folks, that one of my hats is as a genealogist (aka family historian), and I just report what I find.
More later
8 comments:
I remember Bronson from the West End Bar (Broadway and 112th Street in NYC). He was then a penurious playwright. I saw his "The Lights are Bright," a '50's teleplay about his expeience as a merchant seaman in WWII, and "The Piano Tuner," an absurdist way-off-Broadway production. He once borrowed $10 from me, never repaid. I did attend a wedding of his in Greenwich Village.
Was reading a Noel Coward biography and it made mention of Bronson's "bizarre " dancing in Coward's 1933 review "Words and Music". How strange to to see it was the same man acting in flms 60 years later!
Was reading a Noel Coward biography and it made mention of Bronson's "bizarre " dancing in Coward's 1933 review "Words and Music". How strange to to see it was the same man acting in flms 60 years later!
Dorothy,
Thanks. Do you recall the name or author of the Coward biography.
Bronson was only 13 in 1933 and he did not in fact dance in "Words and Music," but six years later in 1939 he danced in a reworked version of the review called "Set to Music."
Allen
If memory serves, he worked at a hardware store on Columbus Avenue between 68th & 69th when I was growing up there in the 70s.
Mariachi,
I didn't know that, but it seems very likely.
Allen
I'll try my best to be brief: I was an undergrad at Columbia, early 50's, hanging out at the West End, when Bronson drunkenly came into our group's life. A couple of songs he taught us were "Rosie's Sister" and "Paper Moon". When Bronson learned of my heritage, he would always greet me in Greek along with a string of well=pronounced phrases, etc. His Greek was, from the days he'd been a merchant seaman. We enjoyed many occasions together. He was almost always drunk. i visited him at his "penthouse", a kind of 1-room cabin that had been built on the roof of an apartment building. My name is Bill Bouris, and part of our wonderful group of students and locals were Manny Dworman, Donn Mosenfelder, the Dowling Brothers, oh so many more... Anybody remember any of this?
I remember very well Bill Bouris; Bronson was an early mentor; gave me St. John Perse to read, three tomes in all in the Bollingen edition.
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