# John Cullum

John Cullum (born March 2, 1930) is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in many stage musicals and dramas, including Shenandoah (1975) and On the Twentieth Century (1978), winning the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for each. In 1966 he gained his first Tony nomination as the lead in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, in which he introduced the title song, and more recently received Tony nominations for Urinetown The Musical (2002) (Best Actor in a Musical) and as Best Featured Actor in the revival of 110 in the Shade (2007).
Outside the theatre world, Cullum is best known for his role as tavern owner Holling Vincoeur in the television drama series Northern Exposure, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama. He was featured in fifteen episodes of the NBC television series ER as Dr. Mark Greene's father. He played farmer Jim Dahlberg in the landmark television drama The Day After. He made multiple guest appearances on Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as attorney/judge Barry Moredock, and appeared as Big Mike in several episodes of The Middle. He appeared as Senator Beau Carpenter on the CBS series Madam Secretary.

## Personal life

Cullum was born on March 2, 1930, in Knoxville, Tennessee. He attended Knoxville High School and the University of Tennessee. He played on the university's Southeastern Conference championship tennis team and was a member of Phi Gamma Delta. He starred in "Chucky Jack", an outdoor drama about Tennessee Governor John Sevier, at the old Hunter Hills Theater in Gatlinburg.
Cullum was married to Emily Frankel from 1959 until her death in 2024. They have one son, JD Cullum (John David Cullum), who is also an actor.

## Career

He made his Broadway debut as Sir Dinadan in the Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Loewe musical Camelot in 1960. He also understudied Richard Burton (King Arthur) and Roddy McDowall (Arthur's son Mordred), going on four times when Burton became ill and succeeding McDowall. He went on to play Laertes opposite Burton's 1964 Broadway performance as Hamlet (and in the film version of the production) and in Burton's final Broadway appearance in Noël Coward's Private Lives in 1983.
In 1965, he was called in to replace Louis Jourdan during the Boston tryout of the musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. It was his first starring role on Broadway, netting him a Theatre World Award and his first Tony Award nomination. The original cast album received a Grammy Award (presented to lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Burton Lane).
He portrayed Edward Rutledge of South Carolina in the Broadway musical 1776, providing a dramatic highlight with his performance of "Molasses to Rum," a tirade against the hypocrisy of some Northerners over the slave trade ("They don't keep slaves, but they are willing to be considerable carriers of slaves to others. They're willing – for the shilling.") Cullum had been the third Rutledge on Broadway, but played the role the longest and repeated it for the 1972 film.
He is well known for premiering the role of Charlie Anderson in the musical Shenandoah, which began at Goodspeed Opera House, Connecticut in 1974. Cullum won the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards when the show was produced on Broadway in 1975. He also played the role at Wolf Trap, Virginia, in June 1976, opened the national tour for 3 weeks in Fall 1977 in Chicago, and starred in the limited run Broadway revival in 1989.
He followed Shenandoah by playing the maniacal Broadway producer Oscar Jaffee in the 1978 musical On the Twentieth Century, opposite Madeline Kahn and later Judy Kaye, earning his second Tony Award. He received his fourth Tony nomination in 2002 for originating the role of evil moneygrubber corporate president Caldwell B. Cladwell in Urinetown The Musical. He earned his fifth Tony nomination in the 2007 revival of 110 in the Shade, playing H.C. Curry, father to Audra McDonald's Lizzie.
In 2003, Cullum co-starred with Northern Exposure castmate Barry Corbin in Blackwater Elegy, a short film written by Matthew Porter and co-directed by Porter and Joe O'Brien.
Later Broadway appearances include the title role of William Shakespeare's seldom-performed Cymbeline, at Lincoln Center in 2007 and August: Osage County, by Tracy Letts for the week of September 16, 2008, and then since November 11, 2008.
In addition to enjoying a long stage career, he is well known to television audiences for his regular role as Holling Vincoeur on the quirky CBS series Northern Exposure, his extended appearances on the NBC medical drama ER as Mark Greene's father, and on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as constitutional lawyer and later judge, Barry Moredock. Cullum has also appeared as Lucky Strike executive Lee Garner, Sr. on AMC's Mad Men. He appeared as Leap Day William, the embodiment of the fictional Leap Day national holiday, in the "Leap Day" episode of the sixth season of NBC's 30 Rock.
John Cullum appeared on Broadway in The Scottsboro Boys (2010), a musical by Kander and Ebb about a notorious miscarriage of justice in the American South in the 1930s. The Scottsboro Boys was directed by Susan Stroman, with Cullum as the only non-African-American member of the cast.
John Cullum was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2007.
In 2015 Cullum appeared and sang in the satirical B&W period movie-musical footage of Daddy's Boy on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The "forgotten footage" features comically incestuous lyrics set in an innocent context that apes classic 1930's films.
Cullum, then an octogenarian, joined the cast of Waitress as Joe on October 12, 2017, replacing Larry Marshall.

## Work
### Stage productions

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1956-1957 | Saint Joan | Ensemble | Broadway |
| 1960-1962 | Camelot | Sir Dinadan u/s King Arthur | Broadway |
| 1960-1962 | Camelot | Mordred u/s King Arthur | Broadway |
| 1962 | Infidel Caesar | Cassios | Broadway |
| 1963 | The Rehearsal | u/s for The Count, Hero | Broadway |
| 1964 | Hamlet | Laertes | Broadway |
| 1965-1966 | On a Clear Day You Can See Forever | Dr. Mark Bruckner | Broadway |
| 1967 | Man of La Mancha | Miguel Cervantes/Don Quixote | Broadway Replacement |
| 1970-1972 | 1776 | Edward Rutledge | Broadway Replacement |
| 1972 | Vivat! Vivat Regina! | Lord Bothwell | Broadway Replacement |
| 1973 | Carousel | Billy Bigelow | |
| 1974-1977 | Shenandoah | Charlie Anderson | Broadway |
| 1977 | The Trip Back Down | Bobby Horvath | Broadway |
| 1978-1979 | On the Twentieth Century | Oscar Jaffee | Broadway |
| 1979-1982 | Deathtrap | Sidney Bruhl | Broadway Replacement |
| 1982 | Whistler | James McNeill Whistler | One-man show at Provincetown Playhouse |
| 1983 | Private Lives | Victor Prynne s/b Elyot Chase | Broadway |
| 1985-1986 | Doubles | Guy | Broadway |
| 1986 | The Boys in Autumn | Huck | Broadway |
| 1986-1987 | You Never Can Tell | Waiter | Broadway Replacement |
| 1989 | Shenandoah | Charlie Anderson | Broadway Revival |
| 1990-1991 | Aspects of Love | George Dillingham | Broadway Replacement |
| 1993 | Camelot | King Arthur | |
| 1995 | Man of La Mancha | Miguel Cervantes/Don Quixote | US Tour |
| 1995 | All My Sons | Joe Keller | Off-Broadway |
| 1996 | Show Boat | Cap'n Andy Hawkes | Broadway Replacement |
| 1999 | South Pacific | Emile de Becque | |
| 2001-2003 | Urinetown | Caldwell B. Cladwell | Broadway |
| 2004 | Sin: a Cardinal Deposed | Cardinal Law | |
| 2005 | Purlie | Ol' Cap'n Cotchipee | Off-Broadway |
| 2006-2007 | Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! | Old Max | Broadway |
| 2007 | 110 in the Shade | H.C. Curry | Broadway |
| 2007-2008 | Cymbeline | King Cymbeline | Broadway |
| 2008-2009 | August: Osage County | Beverly Weston | Broadway Replacement |
| 2010 | The Scottsboro Boys | The Interlocutor / Judge / Governor of Alabama | Broadway |
| 2011 | Measure for Measure | Vincentio | Shakespeare in the Park |
| 2011 | All's Well That Ends Well | The Duke | Shakespeare in the Park |
| 2013 | Carousel | Starkeeper / Dr. Seldon | Concert |
| 2013 | She Loves Me | Mr. Maraczek | Concert |
| 2014 | Casa Valentina | Terry | Broadway |
| 2017-2018 | Waitress | Old Joe | Broadway Replacement |
| 2019 | Into the Wild | Performer | Playwrights Horizons |

### Filmography

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1963 | All the Way Home | Andrew | |
| 1964 | Richard Burton's Hamlet | Laertes | |
| 1966 | Hawaii | Rev. Immanuel Quigley | |
| 1972 | 1776 | Edward Rutledge | |
| 1983 | The Act | The President | |
| 1983 | The Prodigal | Elton Stuart | |
| 1983 | Marie | Deputy Attorney General | |
| 1987 | Sweet Country | Ben | |
| 1998 | The Secret Life of Algernon | Algernon Pendleton | |
| 1998 | Ricochet River | Link Curren | |
| 1999 | Held Up | Jack | |
| 1999 | Inherit the Wind | Judge Merle Coffey | |
| 2003 | Blackwater Elegy | J.T. | |
| 2006 | The Notorious Bettie Page | Preacher in Nashville | |
| 2006 | The Night Listener | Pap Noone | |
| 2010 | All Good Things | Richard Panatierre | |
| 2011 | The Conspirator | Justice Wylie | |
| 2013 | Kill Your Darlings | Professor Steeves | |
| 2013 | Kilimanjaro | Milton Sr | |
| 2013 | Adult World | Stan | |
| 2014 | Before We Go | Harry | |
| 2014 | Love Is Strange | Father Raymond | |
| 2014 | The Historian | Brigston Hadley | |
| 2016 | Christine | Bob Anderson | |
| 2019 | Jungleland | Yates | |
| 2021 | The Acolyte | Arch Pontifex | Short film |
| 2022 | Simchas and Sorrows | Nate | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1963–65 | The Defenders | Jeremiah/Michael Yager/Angel Mauru | 3 episodes |
| 1964 | The Doctors | Pa Thatcher | 5 episodes |
| 1964 | The DuPont Show of the Week | Hugh | Episode: "The Gambling Heart" |
| 1966–67 | The Edge of Night | David "Giddy" Gideon | Recurring |
| 1967 | Androcles and the Lion | The Captain | TV movie |
| 1969 | One Life to Live | Artie Duncan | Recurring |
| 1969 | The Outcasts | Pale Hands Montaine | Episode: "And Then There Was One" |
| 1971 | You Are There | William Clark | Episode: "Lewis and Clark Expedition" |
| 1973 | The Man Without a Country | Aaron Burr | TV movie |
| 1978 | Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry | Mr. Jamison | TV movie |
| 1981 | Great Performances | Walter/Lawyer Royall | 2 episodes: "Edith Wharton: Looking Back" & "Summer" |
| 1981 | American Playhouse | Himself/Carl Sandburg | Episode: "Carl Sandburg: Echoes and Silences |
| 1983 | The Day After | Jim Dahlberg | TV movie |
| 1986–87 | The Equalizer | Stuart Cane/Judge Howard Tainey | 2 episodes: "Unpunished Crimes" & "Carnal Persuasion" |
| 1986 | Spenser: For Hire | Anthony Bennett | Episode: "Rockabye Baby" |
| 1987–88 | Buck James | Henry Carliner | Main role |
| 1988 | Shootdown | Robert Allardyce | TV movie |
| 1989 | Quantum Leap | John O'Malley | Episode: "To Catch A Falling Star" |
| 1989 | Money, Power, Murder. | Rev. Endicott | TV movie |
| 1990–95 | Northern Exposure | Holling Vincoeur | Main role, 110 episodes |
| 1992 | With a Vengeance | Fred Mitchell | TV movie |
| 1992 | Mattie's Waltz | Clyde | TV movie |
| 1996 | Aaahh!!! Real Monsters | Millard (voice) | 2 episodes |
| 1997 | All My Children | Judge Carl Breen | 1 episode |
| 1997 | Nothing Sacred | Joe Keneally | Episode: "Mixed Blessings" |
| 1997 | Touched by an Angel | Mark Twain | Episode: "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" |
| 1997, 2001 | Law & Order | Harold Dorning/Bernard Powell, Sr. | 2 episodes: "Menace" and "Soldier of Fortune" |
| 1997–2000 | ER | David Greene | 15 episodes |
| 1998 | The Magnificent Seven | Reverend Owen Mosley | Episode: "Manhunt" |
| 1998 | To Have and To Hold | Robert McGrail | Main role, 8 episodes |
| 2000 | Roswell | James Valenti, Sr. | 2 episodes: "Into The Woods" and "The Convention" |
| 2003–11 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Barry Moredock | 11 episodes |
| 2007 | Mad Men | Lee Garner, Sr. | 2 episodes: "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" & "Indian Summer" |
| 2009–18 | The Middle | Big Mike | 9 episodes |
| 2011 | Damages | Ed O'Malley | Episode: "Add That Litle Hopper to Your Stew" |
| 2012 | 30 Rock | Leap Day William | Episode: "Leap Day" |
| 2012 | Royal Pains | Andres Bochinski | Episode: "Dawn of the Med" |
| 2013 | The Good Wife | Cardinal James | Episode: "Death of a Client" |
| 2013 | Live from Lincoln Center | Starkeeper/Dr. Seldon | Episode: "The New York Philharmonic's Performance of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel" |
| 2013 | Nurse Jackie | Wally | Episode: "Soul" |
| 2015 | Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt | Daddy's Daddy | Episode: "Kimmy's in a Love Triangle!" |
| 2016 | Thanksgiving | Walter Morgan | Main role; 6 episodes |
| 2017 | Madam Secretary | Senator Beau Carpenter | 4 episodes |
| 2019 | The Blacklist | Ted King | Episode: "The Third Estate (No. 136)" |
| 2021 | Prodigal Son | Logan Zeiger | Episode: "Sun and Fun" |

## Awards and nominations
### Awards

* 1966 Theatre World Award – On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
* 1975 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actor, Musical – Shenandoah
* 1975 Outer Critics Circle Award, Best Performances – Shenandoah
* 1975 Tony Award Best Actor in a Musical – Shenandoah
* 1978 Tony Award Best Actor in a Musical – On the Twentieth Century
* 1982 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience for the one-man show Whistler
* 1998 Founders Day Medal, University of Tennessee
* 2004 Clarence Brown Theatre Company (University of Tennessee), Lifetime Achievement Award
* 2007 Inductee American Theatre Hall of Fame

### Nominations

* 1966 Tony Award Best Actor in a Musical – On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
* 1993 Emmy Award Best Supporting Actor in a Drama – Northern Exposure
* 2002 Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Actor in a Musical – Urinetown
* 2002 Tony Award Best Actor in a Musical – Urinetown
* 2005 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play – Sin (A Cardinal Deposed)
* 2007 Tony Award Best Featured Actor in a Musical – 110 in the Shade
* 2008 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play – The Conscientious Objector