RIP Warren Hammack

 

The Keeme Sentinel

April 8, 2023

 

Warren Franklin Hammack, producer, actor, writer and director, died peacefully at home with his family in Northampton, Mass., on Feb. 13, 2023. He was one day shy of his 89th birthday, which was celebrated earlier with neighbors, cake and sweet goodbyes.

Warren, the eighth in a close-knit family of nine children, was born in the western Kentucky town of Sturgis in 1934. Farm tasks bred a lifelong ethic of patience, determination and practicality. His stories of lessons drawn from his work with Jake and Queen, “the smartest mule team in Union County,” evoked the experience and spirit of a bygone era.

Warren’s academic achievements at Sturgis High were complemented by his athleticism. In 1951, the Louisville Courier Journal attributed Warren with “the longest touchdown run in Kentucky this year” with the headline: “Hammack Shows ’Em How.”

Warren enlisted after high school, serving as a U.S. Army motion picture photographer. Kentucky’s Georgetown College, afforded by the G.I. Bill, followed. After graduating magna cum laude with majors in drama and history, Warren was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Subsequent study at the Dallas Theatre Center as a Danforth Fellow and Resident Artist launched his lifetime of professional artistic achievement.

Warren performed in stage productions throughout the U.S and abroad, playing the central role in The Book of Job in close to 500 performances. In Hollywood for 10 years, he freelanced in film and network television, with guest appearances on The Virginian, Gunsmoke, Ironside, My Three Sons and other popular shows. He collaborated with Jon Voight to produce A Streetcar Named Desire, and he later played the role of Polonius to Voight’s Hamlet. One of Warren’s favorite projects was acting in Horton Foote’s adaptation of the William Faulkner story, Old Man. Years later, he reconnected with Foote in New York at the HB Studio where he starred in Valentine’s Day with Hallie Foote (Horton’s daughter) and Matthew Broderick.

In 1975, Warren welcomed an invitation from local visionaries in south central Kentucky to bring professional theatre back home. He created the Horse Cave Theatre, a regional equity theatre in central Kentucky. The year 1977 saw its first season, along with his fortuitous hiring of Pamela White as lead actress. Pamela and Warren married in 1979, remaining artistic and administrative partners at the theatre for 24 successive seasons. During his tenure as artistic and producing director at Horse Cave, the theatre produced more than 130 plays; Warren directed more than 70 of these, with acting roles in many. The theatre received national recognition for its quality productions. In 1997, the New York Times saluted the theatre on its 20th anniversary season with an article, “By an Ancient Cave, the Classics Flourish.”

Under Warren’s artistic leadership, Horse Cave Theatre contributed to the cultural life of the region with such programs as the summer Student Theatre Workshops, a statewide outreach program enabling thousands of Kentucky students to see a Shakespeare play, and the Kentucky Voices program, yielding 17 world premieres — of plays by or about Kentuckians — performed at Horse Cave. An anthology of 14 of these was published in 2009.

Also during that time, Warren was awarded a Theatre Communications Group grant to travel to other theatres, received a MacDowell Colony Fellowship to complete a screenplay about an episode in Kentucky history, and served on several boards and task forces. Warren’s years of commitment to his home state were celebrated in 1995 with the Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts.

Warren and Pamela enjoyed a return to rural life, moving to their home in Nelson in 2002. Opportunities in theatre then brought him to Florida, Arkansas, West Virginia and Tennessee while, closer to home, he worked with the Peterborough Players and the New Hampshire Institute for the Arts. Neighbors in and around Nelson were often treated to readings and short productions offered by Pamela and Warren. Warren’s commitment to Nelson also led to his service on the select board. After 15 years in Nelson, Pamela and Warren moved to the Lathrop Independent Living Community in Northampton, Mass., in 2016.

Warren forged close relationships with surviving relatives. On his side are nephews Scott, Ben and Joe, and nieces Bonnie, Sally, Alice and Sandra, and many great-nieces and nephews. On his wife’s side are her siblings, Debbie, Barrie and Ellen and her husband, Ron; four nephews, Colin, Alex, Ethan and Andrew, and niece, Emily. His greatest love he reserved for his wife, Pamela White, his artistic collaborator, fellow adventurer, sweetheart, best friend and (recently) caregiver.

In lieu of flowers, Warren requested you consider contributing to the ACLU (https://www.aclu.org/donate) or Soldier On Foundation (https://wesoldieron.org/about-the-foundation).

HAMMACK, Warren (Warren Franklin Hammack)

Born: 2/14/1934, Sturgis, Kentucky, U.S.A.

Died: 2/13/2023, Hampton, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

 

Warren Hammack’s westerns – actor:

The Virginian (TV) – 1967, 1968 (Gil Blinns, gunsmith, Joe Willard)

The Wild Wild West (TV) – 1967 (soldier)