But Del was always willing to take smaller parts. The skull was presented to the theater July 1, preserved in a clear plastic box and resting on velvet. Halpern admits the preparation of the skull was a complicated process, but she refuses to discuss the details. But if Close was looking to make a bold and irreverent statement, he failed. In the pre-fiberglass era, many actors donated their bones to theater companies.
Actors simply live and die their parts.
Born the son of a jeweler in Manhattan, Kan., Close was a second cousin of President Dwight Eisenhower. Needless to say, the two walked different paths. Close left college to join a traveling carnival as a fire-eater. Elaine May. By the early 1960s, the Compass had become Second City, the launching pad for a who's who among comedy performers. Close never attained stardom.