Rip Torn and Ann Wedgeworth’s Dallas Wedding — 1955
by Paula Bosse
E. R. “Rip” Torn, the pride of Taylor High School
by Paula Bosse
One of my favorite actors — Rip Torn — has died. My favorite performance of his was as Larry Sanders’ producer, Artie, on The Larry Sanders Show. He was PERFECT in that role. And I loved a little-seen movie he did in the ’70s called Payday in which he played a hard-living country-music singer (watch the trailer here; the full movie is currently on YouTube). But, really, I liked him in everything I saw him in.
A couple of years ago I wrote about Dallas-reared actress Ann Wedgeworth and was surprised to discover that she had been married to fellow Texan Rip Torn (born Elmore Rual Torn) and their wedding had been in Dallas. They had probably met in Austin in 1952 or 1953 when both were members of the University of Texas Curtain Club acting group. They were married in downtown Dallas on Saturday, January 15, 1955 at First Methodist Church on Ross and Harwood, with Rev. Calvin W. Froehner officiating. The 20-year-old bride wore rose-hued lace and satin; the 23-year-old groom probably wore a military uniform as he was then serving in the U.S. Army Military Police.
Austin American, Jan. 25, 1955
Taylor (TX) Daily Press, Jan. 23, 1955
At some point — probably around the time of his marriage — Rip (and possibly Ann) took acting lessons at the Dallas Institute of Performing Arts on Knox Street. D.I.P.A. was run by Baruch Lumet (father of Hollywood director Sidney Lumet).
1958
Rip (who was called “Skip” as a child, which is nowhere near as good as “Rip”) moved to New York later in 1955 when Rip’s army hitch was finished, and both began working in New York theater fairly soon after their arrival. They had a daughter Danae and were married until their divorce in 1961.
Below are a few photos of Rip Torn from high school and college yearbooks. (Most images are larger when clicked.)
1946, Longview (TX) High School, sophomore
1947, Longview High School, junior
1947, Longview High School, Chemistry Club president
1947, Longview High School, sports editor of the school paper
1947, Longview High School, Junior Class treasurer
1948, Taylor (TX) High School, senior
1948, Taylor High School, yearbook staff, business manager
1950, Texas A & M, Sophomore Class parliamentarian
1951, University of Texas, junior, Radio Guild
1952, University of Texas, senior, Sigma Chi fraternity
Hollywood glamour shot
RIP, Rip (1931-2019).
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Sources & Notes
Rip Torn had a famous first-cousin, Sissy Spacek — Rip’s mother and Sissy’s father were brother and sister. I checked the Quitman High School yearbook (Sissy’s alma mater) and found her mod and groovy 1968 senior photos. Here’s one, showing her as a class favorite, voted “Cutest Couple” with Jerry Blalock. (And, yes, that really is her.)
And, since I’m on a roll, here’s a photo of Rip Torn’s mother, Thelma Spacek, when she was a student at Southwestern College (Georgetown, TX) in 1927. Rip had that same profile.
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RIP
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Copyright © 2019 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
You come up with the best stories about Dallas. I don’t know how you do it, but I love it!
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Thank you, Greg!
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He was gorgeous!
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My dad and I really liked Rip when he appeared as “Scully” in the John Candy film of 1985 called “Summer Rental.” For years, whenever we’d go to grocery store, we’d ask the grocery store employees if they had “Aunt Frannie’s” frozen fish sticks which were “Scully’s Catch of the Day” in the movie. We loved messing with them like that.
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[…] I wrote about actor Rip Torn and his Dallas connections when he died in July. One of the photos I included was the one below of his first-cousin, Sissy Spacek, from the 1968 Quitman High School yearbook, showing her looking mod and groovy (and mostly unrecognizable). From the post “Rip Torn and Ann Wedgeworth’s Dallas Wedding — 1955.” […]
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[…] “RIP TORN AND ANN WEDGEWORTH’S DALLAS WEDDING — 1955” […]
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Another piece of info about Rip is that he attended Longview Community College with my earlier husband, Bill Holloway, who attended his wedding in Dallas. It was common to get one’s early courses at a cheap nearby junior college before getting a bachelor’s degree from a university. Excellent coverage of Rip and his life, especially when he attended Baruch Lumet’s acting school where Sidney Lumet got his start.
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Thank you, Diane!
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Another advantage to going to community college is taking those courses you just have to take like in my case science and math is that that although you can get an A or D grade, if you pass the course, they still transfer to your college and you get the credit but they don’t show on your GPA. If only I had known at the time. If it were not for math and science classes I took at UT, my GPA would been much higher than it was.
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So, besides Matthew McConaughey, Marcia Gay Harden, Dabney Coleman, Rip Torn and the icon Eli Wallach, how many famous actors went to the University of Texas at Austin? I was at UT with Marcia, never knew her but she and I are in the same 1980 Cactus yearbook. Really proud to be a Texan.
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[…] The couple was married in Dallas in 1955, at the First Methodist Church (which I wrote about here). They lived in Killeen briefly until Torn’s military stint at Ford Hood was up, then they […]
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Here is wild man Rip and corporate attorney Paula Madder on November 19, 1968, in Manhattan. Rip was a friend of the band Jefferson Airplane, who were playing a rooftop concert on top of the Schuyler Hotel in Manhattan, but only got to play one song before the police moved in to stop them. Rip was arrested for supposedly pushing a policeman, insisting that the band be allowed to play. You can see him and Madder (in the bedsheet) hanging out a window at 1:37 and pre-arrest at 6:56 in the video, which was being filmed by director Jean-Luc Godard and a D.A. – documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, that is, famous for Bob Dylan’s Don’t Look Back and Monterey Pop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAJJE5Wo_OY
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