(28 March 1944 - 23 March 2016)
For some forty-five years the actor Ken Howard graced US films and television, usually in affable roles that suited his six-foot-six stature and blond good looks. He was known as the White Shadow in his Manhasset High School basketball team, as he was the only Caucasian player. After Amherst College and Yale his first acting job was in Promises, Promises, the 1968 musical based on Billy Wilder’s film The Apartment. Two years later he won a Tony award for Child’s Play on Broadway. He also played Thomas Jefferson in the stage musical and film of 1776. Howard was in two Otto Preminger films, Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon and Such Good Friends (with Rita Gam, q.v.). Television kept him busy in Adam’s Rib (1973) with his 1776 film co-star Blythe Danner. Then there was The Manhunter series, The White Shadow – sort of playing himself – plus It’s Not Easy, The Thorn Birds, Dynasty, The Colbys, Murder, She Wrote, Melrose Place, Crossing Jordan, Cane and 30 Rock etc. Other films included Oscar with Sylvester Stallone, Clear and Present Danger with Harrison Ford, The Net with Sandra Bullock, Michael Clayton with George Clooney, Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar and The Judge with Robert Downey Jr. His last appearance was in Joy (2015) with Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro. A member of the Screen Actors’ Guild for over forty years, Howard had been its President since 2009. He won two Emmy Awards, for Facts for Boys: The Body Human and for HBO’s Grey Gardens with Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore. He was married three times.
MICHAEL DARVELL
