The New York Times - USA (2020-06-29)

THE NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARIESMONDAY, JUNE 29, 2020 N B11

Charles Webb, who wrote the
1963 novel “The Graduate,” the
basis for the hit 1967 film, and then
spent decades running from its
success, died on June 16 in East
Sussex, England. He was 81.
A spokesman for his son John
confirmed the death, in a hospital,
but did not specify the cause.
Mr. Webb’s novel, written
shortly after college and based
largely on his relationship with his
wife, Eve Rudd, was made into an
era-defining film, directed by
Mike Nichols and starring Dustin
Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, that
gave voice to a generation’s youth-
ful rejection of materialism. Mr.
Webb and his wife, both born into
privilege, carried that rejection
well beyond youth, choosing to
live in poverty and giving away
whatever money came their way,
even as the movie’s acclaim con-
tinued to follow them.
“My whole life has been meas-
ured by it,” he told the British
newspaper The Telegraph in 2007,
when the couple were living in a
drab hotel room paid for by British
social services.
Mr. Webb published eight
books, including a sequel to “The
Graduate,” “Home School” (2007),
in which the main characters,
Benjamin and Elaine, are grown
up and teaching their children
themselves. He agreed to publish
it only to pay off a 30,000-pound
debt, said Jack Malvern, a Times
of London reporter who was
friendly with Mr. Webb and helped
with that deal.
“He had a very odd relationship
with money,” said Caroline Daw-
nay, who was briefly Mr. Webb’s
agent in the early 2000s when his
novel “New Cardiff” was made
into the 2003 movie “Hope
Springs,” starring Colin Firth. “He
never wanted any. He had an an-
archist view of the relationship be-
tween humanity and money.”
He gave away homes, paint-
ings, his inheritance, even his roy-
alties from “The Graduate,” which
became a million-seller after the
movie’s success, to the benefit of
the Anti-Defamation League. He
awarded his 10,000-pound payout
from “Hope Springs” as a prize to
a performance artist named Dan
Shelton, who had mailed himself
to the Tate Modern in a cardboard
box.
At his second wedding to Ms.
Rudd — they married in 1962, then

divorced in 1981 to protest the in- stitution of marriage, then remar- ried around 2001 for immigration purposes — he did not give his bride a ring, because he disap- proved of jewelry. Ms. Dawnay, the only witness save two strang- ers pulled in off the street, recalled that the couple walked nine miles to the registry office for the cere- mony, wearing the only clothes they owned. Lots of people momentarily em- brace the idea of leaving the rat race, like the characters in “The Graduate.” Mr. Webb and Ms. Rudd did it, with all the conse- quences it entailed. If they regret- ted the choice, they did not say so. “When you run out of money it’s a purifying experience,” Mr. Webb told The Times of London after the couple moved to England. “It fo- cuses the mind like nothing else.” Charles Richard Webb was born on June 9, 1939, in San Fran- cisco, and grew up in Pasadena, Calif. His father, Dr. Richard Webb, was a heart specialist, part of a wealthy social circle like the one Charles would skewer in “The Graduate.” (Charles described his relationship with his father as

“reasonably bad.”) His mother, Janet Farrington Webb, was, he said, a socialite and an avid reader from whom he “was always looking for crumbs of approval.” He said “The Graduate” was an at- tempt to win her favor; it went de- cidedly wrong. A younger brother, Sidney Far- rington Webb, became a doctor in Las Cruces, N.M. Charles went to boarding school and then to Williams College in Massachusetts, where he earned a degree in American history and literature in 1961. He said his schools had been “chosen” for him “on the basis of how it looked.” A mediocre student, he nonetheless managed to win a two-year writing fellowship, which he used to write “The Graduate.” While at Williams, he met Ms. Rudd, a Bennington College student. She was a former debutante from a family of teachers with a bohemian streak — her brother was the avant-garde jazz trom- bonist Roswell Rudd — and they both rejected the bourgeois worlds of their families. Their first date, they told interviewers, was in a cemetery. Their romance, and her mother’s disapproval of him, became the basis for “The Graduate.” The inspiration for the character Mrs. Robinson, who seduces young Benjamin, may have come from one of his parents’ friends, whom he accidentally saw naked. Reviewing the book in The Times, Orville Prescott called it a “fictional failure” but favorably compared its protagonist to Hold- en Caulfield of “The Catcher in the Rye.” With its mumbling ennui and conversations that do not connect, the novel captured the moment just before the repressed Eisen- hower era blossomed into the Technicolor 1960s. The characters are not idealistic; they’re groping for ideals, their flight from their parents’ values and lifestyles more solitary than collective. In the last pages, Benjamin and Elaine are alone on a bus, shaken, heading into a future that is opaque to them. Hello darkness, my old friend. So began the iconoclastic jour- ney of Charles and Eve, who later adopted the single name Fred, in solidarity with a self-help group for men with low self-esteem. De- spite her parents’ intervention the couple married, then later sold

their wedding gifts back to the guests and donated the money to charity. “Their wedding was a total con- tradiction to the way they ended up living,” Priscilla Rudd Wolf, Eve’s sister, said in an email. “It was a big wedding; my sister wore a white bridal gown; I was maid of honor. It was in the Salis- bury School Chapel, where my parents taught, and the whole town was there.” She added: “They seemed like a typical all- American couple off to a typical all-American life. But that wasn’t to be.” Shedding their possessions became a full-time mission. They gave away a California bungalow, the first of three houses they would jettison, saying that owning things oppressed them. Mr. Webb declined his inheritance from his father’s family but was unable to decline the money from his mother’s; so they gave that away, along with artwork by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg. As the 1960s bloomed, the couple underwent gestalt therapy. Fred, a painter, hosted a one-wom- an show in the nude as a feminist statement. She shaved her head — in order, she said, to shed the oppressive demands of feminine adornment. They moved to California and then back east to a dilapidated house in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., in Westchester County, and had two sons, John and David.

Mr. Webb followed “The Gradu- ate” with “Love, Roger” (1969) and “The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker” (1970), which Lawrence Turman, who produced “The Graduate,” turned into a movie starring Richard Benjamin. It fizzled. Critics compared his later books unfavorably with his de- but. He refused to do book signings, Ms. Dawnay said, viewing them as “a sin against decency.” In the late 1970s the couple moved back to the West Coast and took their sons out of school, choosing to home-school them, which was not sanctioned at the time. So the family moved around, at one point living in a Volks- wagen bus, driving from one campground to another. In a 1992 interview with The Washington Post, John Webb called that part of his education “unschooling.” Charles Webb worked menial jobs: clerk at a Kmart, itinerant farmworker, house cleaner. The couple were caretakers at a nudist colony in New Jersey, earning $198 a week. Mr. Webb complained about being tied to “The Graduate,” but in the early 1990s he wrote a sequel, “Gwen,” narrated by Benjamin and Elaine’s daughter. Benjamin works at a Kmart and as a janitor at his old school, finding liberation in giving up his material trappings to serve others. “Gwen” was never published; Mr. Webb went nearly 25 years between books before “New Cardiff,”

in 2001. By then the couple were living in England — they had moved there, he said, so he could try writing an English character — and their sons were grown. Ms. Dawnay, who visited the couple in Brighton, said they lived with almost no furniture and only one change of clothes. Though “New Cardiff” was warmly received, it did not revive Mr. Webb’s career, nor did the “Gradu- ate” sequel he finally did publish, “Home School.” Fred, Mr. Webb’s wife, died in 2019, Mr. Malvern said, leaving him quite alone, although he is survived by his sons — David, a performance artist who once cooked a copy of “The Graduate” and ate it with cranberry sauce, and John, a director at the consult- ing and research firm IHS Markit — and his brother. Mr. Malvern said he did not know whether Mr. Webb had still been writing. Mr. Webb’s death brings to a close a decades-long experiment that was less a retreat than an at- tempt to change the terms of en- gagement between artists and the world. As he once told The Boston Globe, “The public’s praise of creative people is a mask — a mask for jealousy or hatred.” By the couple’s various renunciations, he said, “We hope to make the point that the creative process is really a defense mechanism on the part of artists — that creativity is not a romantic notion.”

Charles Webb, Mrs. Robinson Creator

Turned Off by Success, Is Dead at 81

Mr. Webb in the 1990s with his wife, Ms. Rudd, who adopted the name Fred. Mr. Webb complained about being tied to “The Graduate,” but in the early 1990s he wrote a sequel, “Gwen.”

Charles Webb’s romance with ANDREW HASSON/ALAMY Eve Rudd, and her mother’s disapproval of him, became the basis for “The Graduate.”

By JOHN LELAND

Born into privilege,

rejecting materialism

and living in poverty.

Linda Cristal, an Argentine-
born actress who played Victoria,
the regal, fiery wife of the rancher
Big John Cannon on the 1960s
television series “The High Chap-
arral,” died on Saturday at her
home in Beverly Hills, Calif. She
was 89.
Her death was confirmed by
her son Jordan Wexler, who said
she died in her sleep.
Ms. Cristal had made nearly a
dozen films in Mexico before ar-
riving in Hollywood to take her
first English-speaking role, in the
Dana Andrews film “Comanche”
(1956), playing the kidnapped
daughter of a Spanish aristocrat
in Mexico. She went on to make
several westerns before appear-
ing in Blake Edwards’s knock-
about comedy “The Perfect Fur-
lough” (1958).
For her performance in that
movie as Sandra Roca, “the Ar-
gentine Bombshell ” — the dream
date chosen by the serviceman
Tony Curtis in an Army publicity
stunt — Ms. Cristal won the “New
Star of the Year” award at the
Golden Globes, an honor she
shared with Tina Louise and Su-
san Kohner.
After a modest film career, fol-
lowed by guest roles on television,
Ms. Cristal auditioned for “The
High Chaparral,” a western devel-
oped by David Dortort, the cre-
ator and producer of “Bonanza.”
In her telling, it was a memorable
occasion.

“The scene they handed me to read was all tenderness and sweetness, and I knew they were looking for a heroine with fire and spunk,” Ms. Cristal told The Bos- ton Globe in 1968. “So I asked them if I could throw away the script and just improvise.” She went full-throttle. “I made up stories showing love, hate, passion, envy, jealousy, etc.,” she said. “I tried a scene as a street walker. I was a mother who had lost a son in the war. Before I was through, I had taken off my hat, my shoes and even my jacket. In my intensi- ty I was all over these people, roughing them up. But I walked out with the contract.” The series ran from 1967 to 1971, with Ms. Cristal playing the daughter of Don Sebastián Mon- toya, a powerful rancher on the Mexican side of the Arizona bor- der. In a fusion of dynasties, she marries Big John Cannon, played by Leif Erickson, whose wife was killed by an Apache arrow in the show’s first episode. With Big John’s son and brother, the couple turn the High Chaparral ranch into the headquarters of a cattle empire, surviving conflicts with Apaches, rustlers and Mexicans. Ms. Cristal won a Golden Globe in 1970 as best actress in a drama series for her work on the show. She was born Marta Victoria Moya on Feb. 23, 1931, in Buenos Aires. Her father, Antonio Moya Bourges, was a French immigrant

who published magazines. Her mother, the former Rosario Pego, was Italian. In several interviews, Ms. Cristal said that her father came into conflict with a criminal gang and fled with his family to Montevideo, Uruguay. When she was 13, both of her parents died of carbon monoxide poisoning while in their car. Victoria studied voice and piano at the conservatory and at 16 married the Argentine actor Tito Gómez. The marriage was an- nulled after only a few weeks. She thought of following the example

of her five aunts and entering a convent, but fate intervened. During a trip to Mexico with her older brother, she was spotted by the producer Miguelito Alemán, son of Miguel Alemán, Mexico’s president, who gave her a small role in one of his films. She later made eight films with the actor and producer Raúl de Anda, using the name Linda Cristal. “I never became a big star, but then I wouldn’t have been a big nun either,” she told Look maga- zine in 1960. Her American film career never

gained traction. After appearing in “The Last of the Fast Guns” (1958), “The Fiend Who Walked the West” (1958) and “Cry Tough” (1959), a drama about Puerto Ri- cans in New York, Ms. Cristal tried to break out of Latina parts by taking the title role in “Cleo- patra’s Legions.” “I was sure that picture would do it for me,” she told Parade mag- azine in 1960. “We shot it in Spain and Italy. It took three months of hard work, and it made absolutely no sense — I mean the script — but the picture is full of spectacu-

lar scenes with a lot of emphasis on Cleopatra’s love life.” She added, “I figured the picture, awful as it is, would do very well in Amer- ica.” Unfortunately, just as the film was ready for release, 20th-Cen- tury Fox announced that it had signed Elizabeth Taylor to film “Cleopatra.” The studio bought Ms. Cristal’s film, renamed it “Le- gions of the Nile” and gave it a very limited release in late 1960. It sank without a trace. Ms. Cristal returned to Holly- wood and appeared in the John Wayne film “The Alamo,” playing the Mexican beauty Flaca, and in John Ford’s “Two Rode Together” (1961),” as a kidnapped Mexican noblewoman, with James Stew- art. On television she appeared on “Rawhide,” “The Tab Hunter Show” (as a matador), “Barnaby Jones” and “The Love Boat.” In her final film, she played Charles Bronson’s love interest in “Mr. Majestyk” (1974), based on the El- more Leonard novel of the same name about an embattled melon farmer in California. In 1988 she came out of retire- ment to join the cast of “General Hospital,” playing Dimitra, the mistress of the crime boss Victor Jerome (Jack Axelrod). Her two marriages in the United States ended in divorce. Besides her son Jordan, she is survived by another son, Gregory Wexler, and two grandchildren.

Linda Cristal, 89, TV Star

Of ‘High Chaparral’ in ’60s

Linda Cristal as Victoria Montoya Cannon in “The High Chaparral.” She won a Golden Globe in 1970 as best actress in a drama series for her work on the show. Earlier, she made films in Mexico.

BCU PHOTO BANK/NBCUNIVERSAL, VIA GETTY IMAGES

Considering entering

a convent when fate

intervened.

By WILLIAM GRIMES

Boosin, Kathryn Gibson, June Glaser, Milton

Greiter, Charles Kahn, Phyllis Lamour, Henry Schluger, Charlotte

BOOSIN—Kathryn W. Lifetime friend and devoted wife of Kenny. The loving mother to Karyn Boosin Leit and David Leit, Greg Boosin and Dara Webster. Adored Grammy to Benjamin and MargeryLeit,Maizyand Tess Boosin. Cherished sister to Connie and Don Stapleton, Jody and Livi Wiener. If you wish to honor Kathy's memory with a donation: michaeljfox.org.

GIBSON—June Noble Larkin. The Wildlife Conservation So- ciety mourns the death of June Noble Larkin Gibson. She will always be remembered as a dedicated cham- pion of conservation, education and the arts. June and her husband, Frank Yoakum Larkin, a former WCS Trus- tee, backed wildlife conservation efforts through their sup- port of our mission at WCS, including St. Catherines Island Wildlife Survival Center off the coast of Georgia. We ex- tend condolences to her three surviving sons: Noble Smith, DavidSmithandJeremy Smith, and to their families.

GLASER—Milton. The Cooper Union mourns the passing of Milton Glaser, Trustee Emeritus, former faculty member, and a 1951 graduate of Cooper's School of Art. Mr. Glaser, with several of his Cooper classmates, co-founded Pushpin Studios, a graphic design studio that helpeddefinethemodern era, before setting out on his own. Aprolific designer, known for his iconic “I [Heart] NY” logo, he in- fluenced and educated gener- ationsof designers in the practiceofgraphicdesign and its ability to effect posi- tive social change. A gene- rous donor and recipient of the President's Citation, we are grateful to Mr. Glaser for his commitment to education and his countless campaigns to raise awareness for huma- nitarian issues. Our condolences go to his wife, Shirley Glaser, a 1956 alumna of Cooper's School of Art. The schoolwillholdavirtual event to honor his life later this summer. Rachel L. Warren, Board Chair and Laura Sparks, President

GREITER—Charles Louis,

of Briarcliff Manor, NY, passed from this life on June 9, 2020 in Marlborough, MA from COVID pneumonia. Born in the Bronx on Novem- ber6, 1929 toLouisand Florence (Letty) Greiter, Charlie graduated from Man- hattan College. After serving as an Army Central Intel- ligence Agent, he received a JD from Fordham University and LLM from New York University. He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother, Donald, and his be- loved wife of 53 years, Mary Jeanne (nee Bantle) Greiter. In addition to a career as Se- nior Trademark Counsel at

the RCA Corporation, he was a member of the St. There- sa's Parish Council and Fi- nanceCommittee,chaired the Town of Ossining Zoning- Board of Appeals, and trav- eled the world with his wife. Charlielived in Briarcliff Manor for fifty years before movingto Massachusetts. Charles is survived by five children: William of Verona, WI; Jeanne Fine of Holiday, FL; Peggy Neill of Carrollton, TX; Charles “Chip” (and Sue) of Celebration, FL; and Mary Beth Miotto (and Peter) of Northborough,MA,twelve grandchildren and six great- grandchildren. AMassof

Christian Burial was held at the Parish of St. Theresa in Briarcliff on June 15th and he was laid to rest at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Haw- thorne. Remembrances may be made to the Alzheimer's Association.

KAHN—Phyllis R. (Smith). Died peacefully in her sleep on June 28, 2020. Phyllis was a longtime resident of Harri- son, New York; St. Thomas, V.I.; and Rye, New York. She was born on July 7, 1925, the daughter of the late Joseph andEttaSmith. Wifeof Wilfred R. Kahn and partner of William Mills. Mother of Pam Bernstein Friedman

(George Friedman) and Jo- nathanKahn (KayHuff). Grandmother of Andrew (Whitney Frick) and Joshua Bernstein, and step - grandmother of Eric Fried- man. Great-grandmother of Ellie and Gray Bernstein. Her passion for food took her to teaching gourmet cooking in the Adult Education Program in White Plains High School and starting a private cooking school in her home in Har- rison, New York. She spent her life traveling the world and was happiest living on a sailboatintheCaribbean. Due to COVID-19, there will be no funeral. Condolences may be sent to [email protected]. Shiva via Zoom - details by e-mail.Thefamilythanks River Walk and the Hebrew Home in Riverdale for their excellent care. LAMOUR—Henry Michael, Born May 12, 1934 in Manhat- tantoHenryandLillian passed away on June 23, 2020 peacefully at home in his be- loved New York at the age of

He is now at peace with
his cherished wife of 55 years,
Grace who preceded him in
death in 2012 and his dear
brother Roger who passed in

He is survived by his

loving children, daughter Dr. Jacqueline Lamour, son Hen- ry F. and his wife Joanne La- mour, daughter Tiffany and her husband Edgar Nouss, dearest grandchildrenAn- drew, Victoria, Henry, Heath- er, Te'a, and Tyler and be- loved nieces, nephews, family and friends. Henry will be fondly remembered as a loving husband, father, grand- father, uncle, brother-in-law and friend. Graduate of St. Lawrence University in New York and Juris Doctor degree recipient from Fordham Uni- versity in Manhattan, Henry will be remembered as a dis- tinguishedtriallawyerfor Con Edison for over two decades, a US Army Colonel and Airborne Ranger, Army fixed wing and rotary wing gunship aviator, Korean War veteran, New York City Po- lice Officer, collegiate athlete and life teacher. We are so blessed that you touched our lives in all the beautiful ways you did. The world is a better place because of you. Our loss is immeasurable. A visi- tation will be held at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home, 1076 Madison Avenue, New York, NY on Monday, June 29th from 4-6pm. Funeral services will be held Tuesday, June 30th at 10am at The

Church of St. Monica at 413 East 79th Street with inter- ment to follow at Mount St. Mary'sCemetery,Queens, New York. SCHLUGER—Charlotte. She died peacefully at home on Friday, June 26, 2020 at the age of 89. She was the loving wife of Joseph, mother of Neil, Olga and James, mother-in-law of Leona, Phil and Rosemary, and grandmother of Aaron, Ben, Julia, Joey, Jenny, Martha, Adam, Han- nah, Jack, and Daniel. She was born in the Bronx and graduated from City College of New York. Early in her life she worked as a teacher and for many years was the Di- rector of Education at the In- ternational Council of Shop- ping Centers. She loved literature and the arts. Her life was marked by kindness towards everyone she knew, and deep and unconditional love for her entire family. We are grateful for the long life that she lived and for the warmth and comfort she gave us always. A private funeral will be held June 28 in Alford, Massachusetts. Donations in her memory may be made to the Central Park Conservan- cy or the Berkshires Natural Resources Council.

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The New York Times - USA (2020-06-29)

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