In Memoriam: Al Hirschfeld

How wonderful it is to be able to remember such a consummate artist as this by watching him work...

Al Hirschfeld died at the age of 99, having completed many thousands of drawings, which in and of themselves comprise an unprecedented visual history of the Broadway theatre in the latter two-thirds of the 20th century; so vaunted was his contribution to the Great White Way that on what would have been his 100th birthday - on this day in 2003 - the Martin Beck Theatre was renamed the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in his honour*. The man himself never lived to see it though, having died only the previous January.

In this scene from the documentary made of his life by Susan Warms Dryfoos entitled The Line King, he completes another of his elegant drawings, of Paul Newman in a revival of Our Town.

*Take that, Martin Beck!
*