Ramblin Rhodes: Film stars cut their acting teeth in Augusta plays

Two of my favorite Oscar-winning actors, Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek, were to be in Crawfordville, Ga., today filming the movie Get Low .

Chances are, they don't know of their personal connection through The Augusta Players.

Mr. Duvall was stationed at the then-Camp Gordon when he acted with the Players in the early 1950s, when the Players also featured another Camp Gordon soldier, Rip Torn, then known as Elmore Torn. It was Mr. Torn who steered his cousin Ms. Spacek into the profession.

Mr. Torn was in a Players production in December 1953 of The Hasty Heart, which was staged in the Garden Center (the old MCG building) at Sixth and Telfair streets.

Ester Young reviewed the show for The Augusta Chronicle and said of Mr. Torn's starring role, "Elmore Torn as 'Lachie' was the best thing in the show."

The following May, 2nd Lt. Torn received "first honorable mention," losing out for best leading role to John Anderson.

Apparently that didn't deter Mr. Torn from the acting bug. He went on to win six Emmy Award nominations for portraying a TV show producer on The Larry Sanders Show and an Emmy in 1996 for a guest role on the TV series Chicago Hope .

He also has been in films including The Beastmaster, RoboCop3, Men in Black, Men in Black II, The Bee Movie (voice) and Airplane II, The Sequel .

Mr. Duvall followed Mr. Torn onstage, appearing in a February 1954 Players production of Room Service , also staged in the Garden Center. He was in a December production of Time of the Cuckoo .

At that time, future rock and country singer Brenda Lee lived in Augusta, singing in Bell Auditorium and on television station WRDW.

Wouldn't you have loved to have seen those shows?

Don Rhodes has written about country music for 38 years. He can be reached at (706) 823-3214 or at don.rhodes@morris.com