Hume Cronyn was born in London, Ontario, Canada on July 18, 1911. He attended Ridley College, McGill University, Montreal for pre-law and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, New York and the Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria for acting. He had simultaneous careers on stage and screen and had a significant Broadway presence, in the form of actor, director, producer and writer since the 1930s. He married actress Jessica Tandy in 1942, and the two went on to perform in numerous plays and movies together.
His first appeared on Broadway in Three Men on a Horse in 1934. His other Broadway credits include Room Service, Boy Meets Girl, The Fourposter, A Delicate Balance, and The Gin Game. He won a Tony Award in 1964 for his performance as Polonius in Hamlet. In 1994, Cronyn and Tandy won the first Tony Award for lifetime theatrical achievement.
His screen debut was in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt in 1943. His other screen credits include Lifeboat, Brute Force, The Green Years, Cocoon, Batteries Not Included, To Dance with the White Dog, and Camilla. He also collaborated on the screenplays for Rope in 1948 and Under Capricorn in 1949. He was awarded the Officer of the Order of Canada for his services to drama in 1988.
He wrote an autobiography in 1991 entitled A Terrible Liar: A Memoir. He died of prostate cancer on June 15, 2003.
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