[9] While a senior, he played Sebastian in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night,[10] and the Earl of Essex in Elizabeth the Queen with a cast that included classmates Lloyd Bridges and Russell Zink.
[12] After graduating from UCLA, Addy moved to the East Coast at the invitation of a family friend, Phidelah Rice, who owned a theater on Martha's Vineyard.
[16] Directed by John Houseman, the production starred a very young Orson Welles, with Richard Whorf, Paula Trueman, Abner Biberman, and Karl Swenson in supporting roles.
[21] With only two principals and two minor characters in the work, Addy received prominent attention from the critics, particularly since he joined the cast at the last moment, replacing the leading male.
[23] Directed by Houseman, with the internal play staged by Agnes de Mille, Howard's portrayal suffered from comparison with the more traditional version of John Gielgud, then running at the Empire Theatre.
A rumor appeared in newspapers that Evans was not happy with Addy's acclaim,[34] but one critic pointed out that American theatregoers, unfamiliar with English history and the larger Henriad, assumed Hotspur was the hero of the play and reacted negatively to his death.
[14]Back on Broadway for the fall season, he played in Evans and Webster's production of Hamlet from October 1938[37] thru January 1939,[38] at which time they finally decided to mount Henry IV, Part 1.
[39] Summer stock at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey occupied Addy during August and September 1939,[40] however his only known role was in a world premiere of Flight Into China by Pearl S.
[42] Directed by Lee Strasberg with a good cast, the play was critically panned for the writing, which sought to present a Grand Hotel story in the setting of a summer park where a marathon dance is taking place.
[44] Laurence Olivier was producing, directing, and starring in Romeo and Juliet, with Vivien Leigh as his co-star;[fn 2] the opening tryout was at the Geary Theater in San Francisco.
After doing some summer stock in Locust Valley, New York[51] and Stockbridge, Massachusetts,[52] Addy was cast in a Theatre Guild production of Twelfth Night when Robert Speaight was called up for wartime service in the UK.
Already regarded as a difficult script,[fn 3] both the Theatre Guild (specifically Lawrence Langner and Theresa Helburn) and Hopkins settled on Addy "after weeks of desperate searching" and shortly before the scheduled tryout in Boston.
[57] Initial reviews praised the acting of Hopkins and Addy, but said they were unable to overcome severe problems with the writing: "the play gives the audience the sensation of having been dunked in mire".
[57] Boston city officials demanded certain lines be dropped or the play would be closed; Hopkins blasted them for having small minds and praised Williams' writing, but the Theatre Guild decided to shut it down on January 11, 1941.
[61] In a 1939 profile by columnist Robert Francis, Addy revealed that he spent mornings at the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), making recordings of plays for their talking book program.
[73] Cedric Hardwicke played Creon in this adaption by Lewis Galantière of Jean Anouilh's version of the Greek classic, updated with modern slang, tuxedos, cigarettes, and policemen.
Addy next turns up as a replacement for Leo Genn in the original Broadway production of Another Part of the Forest in March 1947, finishing the last 10 weeks of its six-month run.
[89] Addy's role may have been strengthened, for the Boston reviewer praised his performance, even while suggesting the play relied too much on "character vignettes" and theatrical in-jokes, such as John Carradine's portrayal of a theatre critic ala Aleck Woollcott.
[92] He was then to appear in an Equity Library Theatre production of A Highland Fling but left the cast when signed for a part in The Traitor, a new play by Herman Wouk.
[94] Critic John Chapman called it "a bit more than plain melodrama", pointing to the ethical debates between Addy's and Walter Hampden's characters, and pronounced it thoroughly enjoyable.
[96] Addy did a Theatre Guild on the Air radio broadcast during October 1949 of an Arthur Wing Pinero play, The Thunderbolt, which starred Van Heflin and Celeste Holm.
His post-war screen career started with a live broadcast of Twelfth Night, in which he again played Duke Orsino, on The Philco Television Playhouse during February 1949.
[108][109] Columnist Leonard Lyons mentioned that Addy was "taped and bandaged" from the nightly duels he fought in King Lear, his character being the last man standing at play's end.
[117] He also appeared on a CBS television talk show[118] and joined Katherine Cornell in reprising their roles in Candida for a Theatre Guild NBC radio broadcast.
[127][128][129][130][131][132] The month of April was particularly crowded, with an anthology episode[133] and two major Hallmark Hall of Fame dramas: a hourlong film based on The Other Wise Man and broadcast on Easter;[134] and a live two-hour performance of Hamlet.
[135] The latter was staged in a 19th Century setting by Albert McCleery, and starred Maurice Evans, with Sarah Churchill, Barry Jones, Joseph Schildkraut, and Ruth Chatterton.
[135] He also reported some flaws endemic to live television, such as a stagehand following Hamlet into camera view, but thought the overall production was excellent and Addy "highly effective".
[135] Critic Robert Johnson thought Addy and other supporting players "outstanding" while observing the two-hours included both commercials and an intermission, necessitating drastic cuts such as the role of Osric and much of Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern.
[140] Addy then jumped into another major TV drama, a severely condensed version of King Lear starring Orson Welles that was shown live during October 1953.
Robert Aldrich used him as supporting actor in several pictures, such as Kiss Me Deadly (as Mickey Spillane's regular Mike Hammer character Lt. Pat Murphy), The Big Knife (both 1955), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?