Barnard Hughes was an American actor who had a long but little-noticed career until middle age, when he achieved success on stage. He had recurring roles on several long-running soap operas, including the Guiding Light and As the World Turns, and as he reached old age he became a familiar "Grandpa" on TV and in occasional films through the 1980s and 90s. Hughes was well into his senior citizenship when he starred in the short-lived prime-time sitcom Mr. Merlin, playing a magician who ran an auto repair shop. Ten years later, at the age of 76, he played "Grandpa Buzz" on Blossom.
Hughes appeared in more than 400 plays, won the Tony in 1978 for the title role in Da, and reprised that role in a film version ten years later. His son, Doug Hughes, is a Broadway stage director who won the 2005 Tony for John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning Doubt.
[1] New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Father: Owen Hughes
Mother: Madge Hughes
Wife: Helen Stenborg (stage actress, b. 1925, m. 1950, one son, one daughter)
Son: Doug Hughes (stage director)
Daughter: Laura Hughes (actress)
High School: La Salle Academy (1933)
University: Manhattan College
Tony 1978 Best Actor for Da
Emmy For Lou Grant
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
The Fantasticks (22-Sep-2000)
Cradle Will Rock (18-May-1999)
The Odd Couple II (10-Apr-1998) · Beaumont
Past the Bleachers (22-Jun-1995)
Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (10-Dec-1993) · Fr. Maurice
Doc Hollywood (2-Aug-1991) · Dr. Hogue
The Incident (4-Mar-1990)
Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North (30-Apr-1989)
Day One (5-Mar-1989)
Da (29-Apr-1988)
The Lost Boys (31-Jul-1987) · Grandpa
Where Are the Children? (12-Dec-1986)
Maxie (11-Sep-1985)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1985)
A Caribbean Mystery (22-Oct-1983)
Best Friends (17-Dec-1982)
Little Gloria: Happy at Last (24-Oct-1982)
TRON (9-Jul-1982)
First Monday in October (21-Aug-1981)
Oh, God! (7-Oct-1977)
Kill Me If You Can (25-Sep-1977)
The UFO Incident (20-Oct-1975)
Sisters (27-Mar-1973) · Arthur McLennen
Rage (22-Nov-1972)
Deadhead Miles (1972)
The Hospital (14-Dec-1971) · Drummond
The Pursuit of Happiness (23-Feb-1971)
Cold Turkey (19-Feb-1971) · Dr. Procter
Dr. Cook's Garden (19-Jan-1971)
Where's Poppa? (9-Jul-1970)
Midnight Cowboy (25-May-1969) · Towny
Hamlet (23-Sep-1964)
The Young Doctors (23-Aug-1961) · Dr. Kent O'Donnell
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