Sorrell Booke

American actor (1930–1994)

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Sorrell Booke (January 4, 1930 – February 11, 1994) was an American actor. He appeared in over 130 film, television, and stage productions, and was best known for his role as "Boss" Hogg, the principal antagonist of the television series The Dukes of Hazzard (1979-85).

Early life and education

Booke was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Sol Booke, a Jewish physician. As a child, he entertained patients in his father's waiting room, and began acting on radio at nine. As a young radio actor he was known for his impersonations. He won a radio contest for mimicking the voice of Adolf Hitler, and appeared regularly as an actor on local radio stations WGR and WEBR. He attended Bennett High School and was valedictorian of the Class of 1946.

Booke enrolled in Columbia University at 16, and performed in Shakespearean plays in Columbia's drama club. He graduated from Columbia at 19 in 1949, and received a Master of Fine Arts at the Yale School of Drama. He once starred in a stage production of Beethoven with Paul Newman while at Yale. He served in the United States Army during the Korean War for two years as a counterintelligence officer.

Career

Theatre

After his Army service, Booke appeared off-Broadway in The White Devil and had his first television role in the series Omnibus. His Broadway debut was in 1956, in Michael Redgrave's production of The Sleeping Prince.

One prominent early role was that of Senator Billboard T. Rawkins in the 1960 revival of Finian's Rainbow.

In 1962, he starred in the Broadway musical Fiorello! as the title character.

Film and television

He also appeared in the films Black Like Me, A Fine Madness, What's Up, Doc? and Fail Safe.

Aside from his film roles, he appeared on numerous television shows such as Gunsmoke, Cannon, Ironside, Route 66, Hawaii Five-O, The Rockford Files, Full House, The Guiding Light and 12 O'Clock High.

Booke received an Emmy nomination for his appearance in Dr. Kildare in the episode "What's God to Julius?". He appeared in an episode of Mission: Impossible from the first season in 1966. Booke appeared in two early episodes of M*A*S*H, as General Barker in "Requiem for a Lightweight" and "Chief Surgeon Who?"; the latter marked the debut of the character Corporal Klinger, with whom Booke's character had previously dealt. He also had a recurring role in All in the Family as Mr. Sanders, personnel manager at Archie Bunker's workplace, Prendergast Tool and Die Company. (He had previously appeared on All in the Family as Lyle Bennett, the manager of a local television station.) Booke was featured on an episode of Good Times, and had a recurring role as the Jewish mob boss "Lefkowitz" on Soap. He also appeared in two episodes of Columbo, "Swan Song" in Season 3 (featuring Johnny Cash) and "The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case" in Season 6. In 1976 he played a record producer in Rich Man, Poor Man Book II.

The Dukes of Hazzard

Booke's most notable role was in The Dukes of Hazzard as Boss Hogg, the humorously wicked antagonist to Bo and Luke Duke. The series ran on CBS for seven seasons, from 1979 to 1985. It spawned an animated series, The Dukes (1983), two reunion TV specials (by which time Booke had died, and the character of Boss Hogg was also said to be deceased), a feature film (2005) and The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (a 2007 TV movie).

Regarding his performance, Booke was 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) tall, weighed 185 pounds (84 kg) at the time of his Boss Hogg role, and wore padding to seem fatter. He copied the Hogg character's American South drawl from U.S. senators Sam Ervin and Strom Thurmond. He called his Boss Hogg character "despicable", but enjoyed meeting fans of the show.

Voice acting

By the late 1980s, Booke had stopped appearing physically in acting roles, but he continued to perform voice work on several television shows and movies, occasionally as narrator, and sometimes as a cartoon character's voice, in such movies as Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers (1987 television movie), Gravedale High (1990 television series), and Rock-a-Doodle (1991).

Other work

Booke also was a guest conductor at the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Personal life

Booke was a polyglot, fluent in English, French, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, and Italian. He said that he also “fussed" with a half-dozen other languages such as Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Dutch, Persian, Polish, and Swedish.

One of his hobbies was moving into and restoring rundown houses. In 1981, he lived in a "modest home on a modest street in Los Angeles", where he did his own gardening and carpentry.

Booke married Miranda Knickerbocker, then a senior at Barnard College, in 1958. She was the daughter of journalist Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker. They had two children before divorcing in 1973.

Death

On February 11, 1994, Sorrell Booke died of colorectal cancer in Sherman Oaks, California. He is interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.