Clint Kimbrough


Louis Lacy Clinton Kimbrough was an American actor.

Early life

Kimbrough was born in Oklahoma City on March 8, 1933, to parents Fred and Lucinda Kimbrough. After his birth, his family moved to Allen, Oklahoma, where Kimbrough attended Allen High School, graduating in 1951.
Kimbrough demonstrated theatrical ability while still at school. In 1948, as President of Allen's Teen Town, he helped produce the "Gay Nineties Ball". As a junior at AHS, he wrote, produced and directed the 1950 senior play, a full-length production entitled Broadway. After graduating from AHS, Kimbrough enrolled for a year at Oklahoma University.
He then completed two years in the US Signal Corps, stationed in Korea, before he made his professional stage debut in Brandon Thomas's play Charley's Aunt in 1953 aged 20, billed as "Lewis Clinton Kimbrough".

American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Actors Studio

Kimbrough subsequently enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Shortly thereafter, with the help of fellow Oklahoman Lonny Chapman, Kimbrough joined Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio, an incubator for acting talent. Kimbrough gained a reputation for his ability to understand the character he was asked to play. His work with The Actors Studio resulted in his first film role, The Strange One, which used a cast and crew entirely of Actors Studio personnel. An appearance in A Face in the Crowd followed, and Kimbrough established a working relationship with director Elia Kazan that lasted ten years.

Theater

Kimbrough appeared in an 11-month Broadway run of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, directed by José Quintero. During the 1960s, Kimbrough worked in the theater and on Broadway, performing the works of Shakespeare, Arthur Miller, Neil Simon, Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams.

Television

In the late 1950s, Kimbrough appeared on live television on numerous occasions, including weekly shows such as Westinghouse Studio One, G.E. Theater and U.S. Steel Hour. He was in an NBC TV production of Our Town, again directed by José Quintero.

Film

Kimbrough had a feature role in Hal B. Wallis's 1958 Hot Spell. He moved from New York to Hollywood in the late 1960s and developed an association with Roger Corman, known as "King of the B Movies", with roles in several 1970s film productions, such as Von Richthofen and Brown, Bloody Mama, Crazy Mama and the Nurse movies. He directed The Young Nurses.

Personal life and death

Kimbrough was at one time married to Frances Doel, writer of Crazy Mama. He died from pneumonia on April 9, 1996, at the age of 63.

Clint Kimbrough Film Festival

Since 2007, a film festival has taken place in Allen, Oklahoma during the annual Alumni Weekend in June, aiming to acquaint the public with Kimbrough's career and work.

Performance history

  • Broadway –
  • Charley's Aunt – Brassett
  • Picnic - Bomber the paper boy
  • Dulcy – Tom Sterrett
  • Mister Roberts – Payne
  • South Pacific – uncredited sailor
  • The Strange One * Arms and the Man –
  • Studio One: "The Weston Strain" – Paul
  • Studio One: "The Night America Trembled" – Bob
  • Hot Spell – Billy
  • U.S. Steel Hour: "Trap for a Stranger" – Elroy Hubbard
  • Alfred Hitchcock Presents – David 'Davie' Logan
  • Our Town – George Gibbs
  • General Electric Theater: "The Last Dance"
  • R.C.M.P. : "Target for the Law" – Mattice
  • Camino Real – Kilroy
  • Laurette – Jack
  • U.S. Steel Hour: "Summer Rhapsody"
  • Look, We’ve Come Through –
  • Time Remembered – Prince Albert
  • Shot in the Dark – Young magistrate
  • The Zoo Story – Young hoodlum * Come Blow Your Horn – Elder brother
  • But For Whom Charlie – Willard Prosper
  • The Changeling – Pedro
  • Incident at Vichy – Nazi Professor Hoffman
  • Tartuffe – unnamed role
  • Saint Joan – Dunois
  • Diary of a Scoundrel – Gloumov
  • Henry IV, Part 1 – Prince Hal
  • Marat/Sade – Marat
  • Crazy Mama - Daniel the father
  • Bloody Mama – Arthur Barker
  • The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail – Henry David Thoreau
  • Von Richthofen and Brown – German Major Von Hoeppner
  • Magic Carpet – John Doolittle
  • The Crucible – Jon Proctor
  • Night Call Nurses – Dr. Bramlett
  • The Young Nurses –