Charles Nolte
Born 3 November, 1923
Duluth, MN
Chuck Nolte was easily the best-liked professor in the Theatre Department at the University of Minnesota during his many years there from the mid-1960s into the 1990s. Students loved Arthur Ballet's introductory course on theater history, but Nolte was very approachable, warm-hearted, a good listener AND he had succeeded on Broadway. Other professors had only visited Broadway but Chuck Nolte was Billy Budd for one year on the Great White Way which he followed with another long run in The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (1953-55). George Bernard Shaw once said that, "Those who can, do, and those who can't, teach." Charles Nolte could do both and do them well.
The Nolte family lived at 333 West Victoria Street in Duluth during the 1920s. In 1931 Julius and Mildred M. (Miller) Nolte moved with their four children, Jacqueline, Richard, Mildred and Charles, to 331 Kenilworth. In 1934 they moved to Wayzata.
At Wayzata High School Charles was voted the Most Likely to Succeed by his 1941 graduating classmates. He worked on the school yearbook, the school newspaper, and acted in all the school plays. The summer after he graduated Chuck made his debut in professional theater as Tranio in The Taming of the Schrew at the summer stock theater in Excelsior, Minnesota, which later became the Old Log Theater.
Charles spent two years at the University of Minnesota doing lots of dramatics. He won membership to the National Collegiate Players as a freshman. He served in the United States Navy from 1943 to 1945. After the War he resumed his studies at Yale University, the school with the best reputation for dramatic training in the country. At Yale Charles was elected Vice-President of the Yale Dramatic Association. After taking the accelerated program for returning servicemen, Charles graduated in 1946 and decided to stay around New York instead of going home.
Nolte debuted on Broadway in 1947 in Tin Top Valley. Then he was cast in support of Katharine Cornell in the touring company of Antony and Cleopatra (1947). Two years later he received a Theater World Promising Personalities Award for his acting in Design for a Stained Glass Window (1948) with Charlton Heston and Martha Scott. When this short-lived production ended, he joined the cast of Mister Roberts (1949-51) starring Henry Fonda.
Chuck left the "Roberts" cast to play the title role of Billy Budd in 1951. The play was written by University of Minnesota faculty member, Louis O. Coxe, based on the novel by Herman Melville. Nolte's performance was "as honest as the part," said theater critic Brooks Atkinson. Charles had done some weight-lifting so his body fairly rippled when stripped to the waist in this part, and his innocent, roundish face and easy smile radiated youthfulness. Charles won wide acclaim for his performance. Charles and the rest of the cast performed part of the play on the television show Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, January 11, 1952.
Nolte next accompanied Fonda in another navy story, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, which ran for nearly two years (1953-55) starting in Los Angeles before being staged on Broadway. He played Lt. Willie Keith to Henry Fonda's leading role as Lt. Barney Greenwald.
While doing Billy Budd, Nolte had spent some of his free mornings doing TV shows, and he now decided to give movies a try. His debut came in War Paint (1953). The next film was The Steel Cage (1954). This movie was shot during the day while Chuck was still doing "Caine Mutiny" at night. A few years later a big movie came his way-The Vikings (1958) starring Kirk Douglas, Ernest Borgnine, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, and Tony Curtis. Here Charles used his muscles, height, blond hair, and Nordic-blue eyes to great advantage. Then came Ten Seconds to Hell (1959) followed by Under Ten Flags (1960), starring Charles Laughton and Armored Command (1961) starring Howard Keel and the young Burt Reynolds.
After "Caine" closed in 1955 Charles spent much of his time doing theater work in Europe. In Rome he appeared with leading lady Katherine Cornell in Under Ten Flags. In Paris he was in Medea with Judith Anderson, Christopher Plummer and Mildred Natwick. On the London Stage he appeared in The Summer People (1961). The time spent in Europe had changed him, however, and when he returned to the States in 1961 he found the theater scene "hopelessly parochial."
Therefore, Nolte began to write plays, and in 1962 he returned to the University of Minnesota, earning his M.A. in 1963 and his Ph.D. in 1966. At that point the U offered him a sweet contract under which he was required to teach for only six months, leaving the rest of the year free to spend writing, acting and directing.
In 1965 his play, Do Not Pass Go was produced on Broadway and was favorably reviewed in the New York Times. Charles not only wrote but also acted in the two-person play, and with expenses being quite modest, it actually made money.
Over the years Nolte has had a special relationship with the Theatre-in-the-Round Players. He has directed thirteen TRP productions, and they have produced nine of his plays, including Sister Heeno's Warm Elbow (1965), Do Not Pass Go (1966), Alexander's Death (1971), Roads in Germany (1978), The Caine Rehearsals (1980), and A Night at the Black Pig (2002) for TRP's 50th Anniversary Season. His other plays are The Summer People, Sea Change, End of Ramadan, The Boarding House, and A Summer Remembered.
In its early years TRP staged its productions at the YWCA at 12th and Nicollet, and later at a second-storey space at about 13th and Stevens Avenue, near the present Convention Center site on the fringe of downtown Minneapolis. In 1970 or so the company established a permanent home on Seven Corners in an abandoned pizza restaurant at 245 Cedar Avenue.
Charles has also directed several times on the Minnesota Centennial Showboat, bought for the University of Minnesota's Theater Department by the former head of the Department, Doc Whiting, in 1958.
Charles once directed an old chestnut, Charlie's Aunt, which gave his sister an opportunity to host an Opening Night party for the cast and crew. She billed it as "A party for Charlie by Charlie's sister for "Charlie's Aunt."
Among the students who benefited from Nolte's acting and teaching expertise while getting their doctorates at the University are Warren Frost, Peter Michael Goetz, George Muschamp, and Ernie Hudson.
The University of Minnesota honored Charles in 1997 by naming a theater space within the Rarig Center the Charles Nolte Experimental Theatre. Charles taught playwrighting in the Nolte Center, (named after his father, the long-time dean of the Extension Service.) One of his students, Barbara Field, wrote the adaptation of the Christmas Carol which is a perennial holiday favorite at the Guthrie Theater. And over the years he has supported a wide variety of student efforts to produce their work in community theaters, on radio, in hospitals, and at public readings.
"Teaching has been a blessing," Nolte once remarked, "a chance to inspire students with a passion about theater. When you're in theater, you are in everything-art, law, psychology, business, religion, design, pathology, history, etymology. I try to inflame young minds to get excited about experiencing something that is rare."
Nolte had been good friends for many years with playwright Tennessee Williams, one of the masters of American drama., so it was not surprising that Williams flew to Minneapolis to see the opening night production of his play, A Streetcar Named Desire at Scott Hall on the University campus in early 1972, which Charles was directing. Debra Mooney played Blanche DuBois and throughout his visit Williams just raved about her marvelous, sensitive performance, and comparing it favorably to both Jessica Tandy's initial rendering on Broadway and Vivien Leigh's film version.
Charles, still vigorous, fit, ever-charming, and looking always younger than his years, is finally Professor Emeritus (retired) though he continued to teach at the U of M well into his seventies and still directs at TRP or whenever he's asked.
