Tuesday, June 19, 2007 1:07 AM CDT
Founder of EIU theater arts department remembered for passion, talent
By BILL LAIR, Managing Editor
blair@jg-tc.com
His full name sounded very professorial but to most people E. Glendon Gabbard was just “Gabby.”
Gabbard, 87, of Houston, a longtime theater arts professor at Eastern Illinois University, died Friday in Texas.
Gabbard started the theater arts department at EIU and worked with movie stars John Malkovich and Joan Allen.
After retiring from EIU in 1984, Gabbard and his wife, Lucina, who taught in the English Department at EIU, moved to Chicago and performed in movies, stage productions and commercials.
“He was one of a kind, a force of nature,” said Jeffrey Lynch, associate dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at EIU.
“He was one the largest personalities I’ve ever bumped up against.”
J. Sain, who handles publicity for the theater department, said Gabbard came to EIU in 1947 and helped form the theater department which had been part of speech communications.
“He was quite a character,” Sain said. “He touched a lot of lives. He was like a dad to a lot of us.”
Sain said Gabby wasn’t afraid to take risks.
He directed some “avant-garde” productions and some with political views, such as “Enemy of the People” during the Vietnam War.
In 1982, his production of Sam Shepard’s “Seduced” won a national competition and was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Malkovich was one of the performers in that show.
Gabby also directed the stage version of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in the 1970s with Allen portraying manipulative nurse Mildred Ratched.
“He loved to tilt at windmills,” Lynch said. “His standards were very high, but he didn’t take things too seriously, including himself.”
Sain pointed out Gabbard was one of the founders of the Charleston Community Theatre in the 1960s.
“The theater community owes him a debt of gratitude,” Lynch said.
Both Gabbards were included on the “Centennial 100,” the list of the 100 people who had the greatest influence on EIU in its first 100 years.
Gabby appeared in productions at the Goodman Theatre and many other venues in Chicago. He also appeared in films, including “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “Prelude to a Kiss.” He acted in commercials and appeared in many print ads.
As Lucina Paquet, Mrs. Gabbard appeared in “Groundhog Day,” “Prelude to a Kiss,” “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” “No Mercy,” “Novocaine,” “Children on Their Birthdays,” and several other films. She also played the role of Grandma Joad in the Steppenwolf Theater’s production of “The Grapes of Wrath,” which won a Tony Award while it was playing on Broadway in New York in 1990.
“Gabby and Lucy were an extraordinary couple,” said Dan Hagen, who teaches journalism at EIU. “It’s not many couples, after all, who retire from distinguished academic careers to take up acting on Broadway and in the movies. Even their children were highly accomplished people interested in the arts. Their sons, Krin and Glen, collaborated on a fascinating book that examined psychiatry in the movies.”
Mrs. Gabbard died in May of 2006.
The obituary for Gabbard is on page B5.
Contact Bill Lair at blair@jg-tc.com or 238-6865.
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