Hal Holbrook, prolific actor who played Twain, dies at 95

NEW YORK — Hal Holbrook, the award-winning character actor who toured the world for more than 50 years as Mark Twain in a one-man show and uttered the immortal advice “Follow the money” in the classic political thriller “All the President’s Men,” has died. His more than two dozen film credits ranged from Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” to Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street.” He was a steady presence on TV as well, having appeared on such shows as “The West Wing,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Bones.” But his most famous movie role was as a key source for Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in the 1976 adaptation of “All the President’s Men,” the bestselling account by Woodward and fellow Post reporter Carl Bernstein about their investigation of Richard Nixon’s administration and the Watergate scandal that led to his resignation. The New Yorker called it a “dazzling display of virtuosity.” Holbrook would tour as Twain — with the writer’s familiar white suit and white hair — whenever he wasn’t busy with other acting jobs. He was Burt Reynolds’ crotchety father-in-law in the 1990s TV series “Evening Shade.” He appeared as Abraham Lincoln in two different miniseries on the 16th president and won one of his Emmys for the title role in the 1970-71 TV series “The Senator.” Other notable stage credits included “After the Fall,” “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” and “I Never Sang for My Father.” In 2008, at age 82, he received his first Oscar nomination for playing a lonely widower who befriends young wanderer Christopher McCandless in director Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild.” In 1980, he met actress Dixie Carter when both starred in the TV movie “The Killing of Randy Webster.” Although attracted to one another, each had suffered two failed marriages and they were wary at first.