Charles Durning's legacy: Hollywood heavyweight left 50 years of great performances

Charles Durning's legacy: Hollywood heavyweight left 50 years of great performances

Charles Durning on the soudstage with Al Pacino during filming of 'Dod Day Afternoon.'

Charles Durning, who died Tuesday at 89, used his weighty, no-nonsense presence to create a stable full of furious, funny, even frisky American characters over a 50-year film career.

Just when you had him pegged as a heavy or a cop, he popped up as a philandering politician or a concerned father. As his hard-nosed, blue-collar pugnaciousness earned him recognition, he turned around and delivered twinkling turns in a Muppet movie, a Mel Brooks lark or a Coen Brothers comedy.

RELATED: CHARLES DURNING DEAD AT 89

Here are just five of Durning’s most enduring big-screen performances. (For small-screen gems, check out his work on “Rescue Me,” “Evening Shade” and “Everybody Loves Raymond,” as well as in the 1985 “Death of a Salesman” production of Dustin Hoffman’s Broadway triumph, and his hilarious voice work as Francis Griffin on “Family Guy.”)

1. “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975)

As the cop trying to keep a criminal (Al Pacino), a crowd and an escalating situation under control, Durning was bigger-than-life and down to earth. Sidney Lumet’s New York masterpiece â€" a time-capsule keeper for the edgy cinema of the 1970s â€" is a lived-in, real-life nail-biter, and Durning’s Detective Moretti is a frazzled, unforgettable element of the city onscreen.

2. “Tootsie” (1982)

There are so many sparkling one-man, and one-woman, shows in Sydney Pollack’s comic gem that it’s hard to pinpoint who gives Dustin Hoffman’s Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels the best support. Arguably, it’s Durning, who gives Les â€" father of Julie (Jessica Lange) and would-be paramour of Dorothy â€" an old-world courtliness that runs smack dab into a fantastically comic soap opera.

3. “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” (1982)

The same year as “Tootsie,” Durning gave a singin’-and-dancin’ turn as a look-the-other-way Lone Star State governor that earned him his first Oscar nomination. For a little pick-me-up, watch Durning’s giddy performance of “The Sidestep” as he wriggles his Houston-sized body and duets with a 10-gallon hat the way Astaire twirled Rogers.

4. “Home for the Holidays” (1995)

As a Midwestern dad who oversees a mixed-up family (including Holly Hunter and Robert Downey Jr.) with a mixture of resignation, sweet acceptance and gentle guidance, Durning plays up the soft stuffing in director Jodie Foster’s Thanksgiving dramedy without sacrificing seriousness. His character, a retired airport employee, is used to arrivals and departures, and Durning’s knowing delivery is as welcome as ever.

5. “The Choirboys” (1977)

This randy, rowdy film of a Joseph Wambaugh novel about foul-mouthed and seriously mischievous L.A. cops starred Durning as “Spermwhale” Whalen, who leads his boys into after-hours shenanigans. Whalen is a lifer with a disdain for civilians and a colorful backstory, and Durning taps every trick he’s got to bring Wambaugh’s four-letter words to round-shouldered, fat-fisted and endearing life.