BY GLENN WHIPP > LA.COM

Next to the living-room lamp he turns off every night before heading to bed, Hal Holbrook sees a black-and-white photo of himself as a grinning 10-year-old boy, his hair going this way and that.

It's a photo that sometimes inspires late-night, one-sided conversations.

"Last night, when I turned off the light, I said, `God, Harold, how the hell did you get to the point where you were nominated for an Academy Award?' Holbrook says, laughing at the recent talk he had with his younger self.

"I can't get over it. It's a miracle, this nomination, especially at my time of life after all these years of acting."

Holbrook will celebrate his 83rd birthday on Feb. 17. The spacious, two-story Beverly Hills home he shares with his wife, Dixie Carter, sports innumerable awards accumulated over a lengthy career - Emmys, a Presidential Medal among them - but the supporting actor Oscar nomination for his work in "Into the Wild" clearly has left Holbrook floored.

That feeling, for anyone who has seen "Into the Wild," is mutual.

Holbrook plays Ron Franz, a lonely widower who forms an intense bond with the movie's wandering seeker, Chris McCandless (Emile Hirsch).

Their friendship culminates in a heart-wrenching scene where Franz asks the young man if he can adopt him as a grandson.

"It was the last scene shot in the picture," Holbrook says. "And we did it in one take."

Sitting by the fire, surrounded by trees - pine, liquid ambar, birch, California pepper and many, many more - that he picked out and planted himself, Holbrook reflected on "Into the Wild," the latest success in his illustrious career.

You've said Ron Franz was a different kind of role than anything you've done before …

Much different. It's much closer to who I am. I just played myself.

And how was that?

It was a wonderful experience! When I first started acting, all I wanted to do was disguise myself. I'd do anything to cover up who I was, whether it was a limp or a humpback or a wig or an accent.

Here I'm just me.

Two of your scenes stand out. First, the climb up the rocks in the desert, which you did yourself. Did anyone try to talk you out of it?

They wanted to give me a stand-in. They were afraid I would get worn out because it was pretty exhausting. But I went up three times. To me, it's very important in anything in life to do it yourself.

I bet your wife loves that trait.

Oh, I drive my dear wife crazy sometimes. But it's just my way. And I love to climb anyway. If I see a cliff or a big hill, I always want to climb it. (Laughs) I like to climb on the roof. I like to climb trees. I love pruning trees.

The scene probably would have felt different to you if you hadn't actually climbed that hill.

It would have. You're not going to climb a thing like that and get to the top without having a kind of feeling that you can't reproduce out of thin air.

One of my favorite moments is that scene on top of the cliff. It wasn't planned. It just happened. I slapped Emile's hand away and sat down - I was tired - and sat on a rock that was a little uncomfortable. Then I just said, "I'm going to miss you when you're gone."

The climb set that line up. You go from a big thing to this moment of tremendous intimacy.

Which brings me to the second scene, the one where Franz asks McCandless if he can adopt him as a grandson.

My character knows he's going to get turned down. But he cannot stop himself from asking. It's one of those times in life when your feelings are so vulnerable and strong that you just have to say it. It's a way of saying, "I love you."

It's a powerful scene because, up until this point, so much between them had gone unsaid.

That's Sean Penn. He didn't overwrite our scenes. He kept them simple. There was enough left out for there to be the mystery of unspoken feeling. When you have that, that's where the audience can come forward and fill in the blanks with experiences from their own lives.

It's not Shakespearean. But everyone understands it. It's human.

You know what I mean? There's poetry in that.

Learn more about Hal Holbrook's illustrious career 

Hal Holbrook will perform his long-running one-man-show "Mark Twain Tonight!" on Feb. 16 at Cal State Long Beach's Carpenter Performing Arts Center. Dinner at 6 p.m.; curtain 8 p.m. The event is sold out, but tickets may be available through other sources.