Charles Kimbrough: Actor Known for Portraying Uptight Characters

Charles Kimbrough Early Life and Education

Charles Mayberry Kimbrough was born on May 23, 1936, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was the older of two children born to Charles and Emily Kimbrough. The family moved to Highland Park, Illinois when he was a young child, where his father sold commercial heating equipment. Kimbrough had a passion for music, particularly opera, and pursued a degree in music and theater at Indiana University. He later received a master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama.

Career on Stage

Kimbrough received strong reviews for his performance in the 1995 production of A.R. Gurney’s “Sylvia” at the Manhattan Theater Club after decades of stage work in New York, including a Tony Award-nominated performance in the original 1970 Broadway production of the Steven Sondheim musical “Company” at the Broadway Theatre. In the 2012 Broadway revival of “Harvey,” he played the exacting psychiatrist who is obsessed with the image of his institution.

Fame on Murphy Brown

Kimbrough gained mainstream fame as Jim Dial on the popular TV series “Murphy Brown”, where he artfully portrayed a comically rigid news anchor. The show was set in a television newsroom and ran for 10 seasons on CBS starting in 1988. Kimbrough’s rigid, pompous manner made him the ideal straight man for the show’s ever-topical plotlines. He reprised his role for three episodes of the 2018 reboot.

Playing Uptight Characters

Kimbrough specialized in playing uptight characters, notably Candice Bergen’s stuffy straight man on “Murphy Brown”. He also received strong reviews for his performance in “Sylvia”, where he played Greg, a middle-class husband struggling with midlife crisis and a wobbly career. Despite his talent for playing stiff characters, Kimbrough did not always want to be cast in such roles, but his self-consciousness sometimes read as pomposity in auditions.

Personal Life of Charles Kimbrough

Charles Kimbrough died on Jan. 11, 2023, in Culver City, California at the age of 86. His son, John Kimbrough, confirmed the death. Kimbrough was born into a buttoned-up Midwestern family, which may have contributed to his ability to communicate emotionally repressed characters to audiences.

Charles Kimbrough Legacy

Kimbrough’s legacy includes his Tony Award-nomination for “Company” and his role as Jim Dial on “Murphy Brown”. He was known for his patrician looks, stately bearing, and his ability to bring to life emotionally repressed characters. Despite feeling self-conscious as an actor, Kimbrough was able to convey deep feeling to audiences through the stiff, buttoned-up characters he played.