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Show I It I -Wednesday. May 7, 1986 Hal Hoibrook is an old hand at playing Abraham Lincoln By Lynn Hoogenboom Dozens of actors have turned in effective performances perfor-mances as historical characters, char-acters, but Hal Hoibrook is one of the few actors who actually appears to become the historical characters he plays. Hal Hoibrook "I find it interesting to get past the image that we have of a historical character charac-ter and find out what the real man is like," he says. "That to me is an interesting interest-ing challenge." As Abraham Lincoln in ABC's "North and South, Book II," which concludes Sunday, May 11, he's been giving viewers a glimpse of what he can do, but this is not his first, nor in his judgment his most effective, effec-tive, television portrayal of Lincoln. In fact, Hoibrook won one of his three Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Lincoln in the limited series se-ries "Sandburg's Lincoln," in 1974-75. "That was a much more dimensioned portrait of Lincoln than the one in 'North and South,'" Hoibrook Hoi-brook says. "The 'North and South' script doesn't r explore Lincoln, the character, char-acter, in anywhere near as much depth." Lincoln isn't the easiest person to play. The myths surrounding him have turned him into a folk hero, and many of his utterings contain sentiments that are so noble and so eloquently elo-quently stated that it's often difficult for an actor to get them to ring true, particularly when they are landing on jaded 20th century cen-tury ears. "You have to realize that the time was different," Halbrook says. "They used language then. We don't use language today. We use shorthand. People who could really speak and use the language in a colorful and powerful manner were very effective. effec-tive. In a way, it's a shame that we can't allow that eloquence el-oquence to break loose now." Holbrook's all-time favorite fa-vorite character is Mark Twain, another man with a gift for using language. It was as Mark Twain in the one-man show "Mark Twain Tonight," which Hoibrook himself put together, to-gether, that he first received re-ceived widespread recognition, recog-nition, and he still tours widely with it. "He'd better be my favorite," Hoibrook quips. "It's my 32nd consecutive year doing him now." But Hoibrook reserves his warmest words for his wife, actress Dixie Carter. "She's marvelous, she's wonderful, she's terrific," he rhapsodizes. FAMILY TIES The high school graduation of Mallory (Justine Bateman, I.) is on the line when her history teacher, Mrs. Hillman (Grade Harrison), demands that she buckle down and earn at least a B on the final exam, in the "Paper Chase" episode of NBC's "Family Ties," to air THURSDAY, MAY 8. CHECK LISTINGS FOR ENCORE! "North and South" isn't Hal Holbrook's first time out as Abraham Lincoln. In fact, he's already won an Emmy for playing America's 16th president in the limited series "Sandburg's Lincoln" in the mid-1970s. The finale of "North and South, Book II" airs Sunday, May 11 on ABC. EXACT TIME L FALCON CREST Jeff Wainright (Edward Albert) Al-bert) penetrates the security surrounding Maggie, imprisons impris-ons her in his cabin in the hills, and reads her the grim last chapter of his novel in which she figures, on "Falcon Crest," airing FRIDAY, MAY 9 on CBS. CHECK LISTINGS FOR EXACT TIME |