Grumpy Old Men? Well, it turns out… not so much, really

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This article was published 13/10/2011 (5409 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One played Herman Munster, a Klingon ambassador in Star Trek movies and shared his first screen kiss with Elizabeth Taylor. The other had a TV date with Mary Tyler Moore, played the Wizard in the Los Angeles production of Wicked and won a best actor Tony Award for his work in Children of a Lesser God.

Conrad John Schuck and John Rubinstein may be the stars of Grumpy Old Men, The Musical, which has its world premiere tonight at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, but have little to be grouchy about when it comes to their lengthy careers as supporting actors. Both have you-look-mighty-familiar faces and pages and pages of movie, TV and stage credits.

“We’re two solid journeymen character actors who have been around forever and just marched along,” says the Los Angeles-based Rubinstein during a recent pre-rehearsal interview. “We’ve had our moments of being a little bit more noticeable.”

Both could name drop until the cows come home, especially Rubenstein, who is the youngest son of the late, Polish-American pianist Arthur Rubinstein, who is widely considered as one of the greatest piano virtuosos of the 20th century. His family’s living room was a salon for cultural A-listers such as composer Igor Stravinsky, filmmaker Rene Clair, writer Garson Kanin and conductor George Szell.

“I went to a bullfight with Picasso in France,” says Rubenstein, 64. “Daniel Barenboim and Jacqueline du Pré would come and start spontaneously playing for hours. Peter Ustinov would tell these amazing stories. Grace Kelly lived next door.”

The Boston-born Schuck was a newly graduated actor when he was discovered by a fledgling director named Robert Altman and made a brief but memorable big-screen debut in M*A*S*H* as a suicidal dentist. He also appeared in Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller and stood out in the cult favourite Thieves Like Us.

Schuck played a string of “big-mouthed baddies” before a long stint as Sgt. Charles Enright in ’70s crime drama McMillan & Wife opposite Rock Hudson. His appearances as a Klingon in Star Trek IV and VI were followed by Broadway runs in Annie (as Daddy Warbucks) and Annie Get Your Gun.

“I was the kind of person which if something came along, I did it because I like to work but I made some mistakes that way,” says the 71-year-old Nashville resident. “The only one I ever did for money was The Munsters Today which I did not enjoy doing. I will not take a money job again although I did buy a house because of it.

“My career overall has been a lucky one with a great variety of work. I was never interested in fame. I just liked doing the job.”

Rubinstein also went through the ups and downs of early typecasting depending on his age, look and time period. For a while, he was cast as the weird guy or the rat because he was perceived to have an edge about him. He was never the cool guy which he believes cost him the Dustin Hoffman role in The Graduate.

“Then I grew my hair longer that made me the dangerous hippie,” says Rubinstein, who appeared in the title role in Pippin on Broadway. “They cast me very often as the axe murderer, rapist or arsonist because you wouldn’t suspect me. I did a TV movie with Vera Miles and Larry Hagman in which I was a Vietnam vet who plays Bach on the piano all the time but I was murdering all the little girls in town. I went after Barbara Eden with moose antlers.

“When I hit my ’30s it calmed down and I became the husband and sometimes I’d even get the girl.”

Both performers are making their Winnipeg debuts in Grumpy Old Men but both were long aware of the city. Schuck had a relative from here and remembers the delight of saying Aunt Peg from Winnipeg when she came to visit. Rubinstein also noted every night where his father was performing and remembers his Canadian tours always included Winnipeg.

“Everyone knows MTC, too,” says Schuck. “It gets a lot of press and respect. I know Len Cariou pretty well, so coming to Winnipeg is not like going to Bemidji, Minnesota to get stuck in a snowdrift.” A big selling point of the $1.3-million project for the actors was the producers’ intention to end up on the Great White Way.

“Oh sure, there’s nothing like working on Broadway,” Rubenstin says. “It’s good to be a good play anywhere but on Broadway you get paid well and get to live in New York.”

In Grumpy Old Men, Schuck (Max) and Rubinstein (John) portray a pair of ill-tempered widows who have been at odds for years. When a gorgeous new neighbour named Ariel (Susan Anton) moves in next door their feuding reaches new heights. Much of the 1993 movie’s success ($70 million in box-office revenue) was credited to the shtik of Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. The latest grumps don’t want to have anything to do with following in the laughter of those comic legends.

“We’re not walking in their footprints because this is so different,” says Rubenstein. “There are things we can’t do in the theatre that they could do in the movie and vice versa. Things like singing and dancing. I feel it is a completely different animal.”

kevin.prokosh@freepress.mb.ca