RIP M. Emmet Walsh, aged 88

Ah nuts. One of my favorite blue collar type of character actors. He took on any kind of role. From prestige types like Calvary to goofy stuff like The Jerk. Loved him in Critters and Slap Shot.

RIP Mr. Walsh

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One cool actor on screen, regardless of what he was playing he always managed to give it his all.

Put in one of the greatest performances of the 80s in Blood Simple. I've seen few better than that, ever.

He was in Slap Shot?


I'm guessing he was the television interviewer in the beginning? Because I'm drawing a blank, and Google would be cheating

R.I.P.

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I got to meet him, briefly, at a screening of Blood Simple in Austin, TX in 1998. Always one of my favorite character actors.

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Yeah, he played reporter Dickie Dunn. Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman) uses him to run fake stories about the team being sold off and moved to Florida.

R.I.P.

I first remember seeing him in The Jerk.


And I will always remember his character in Fletch when I get a rectal exam. "You using the whole fist, doc?"

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My ten favorite M. Emmet Walsh performances, in chronological order...

I'm pretty sure a lot of people thought this guy had been gone years before this because he has been in the business for SO long. He hardly ever was the star of the movie, but he never phoned it in either. Loved him in What's Up, Doc?, Slapshot, The Jerk, Ordinary People, Blood Simple, and especially Dustin Hoffman's scummy parole officer in Straight Time. He also had me on the floor with his recurring role as Patricia Richardson's father on Home Improvement. Fantastic actor who always let his presence in a move be known, even if he only had a single scene. RIP.

Loved this guy. I just remembered he was on Frasier as Martin's boss, a security officer whom his sons were angry at for his perceived bullying of their father.

I remember him in lighter fare like playing John Lithgow's father in Harry and the Hendersons (1987), a very small role in Raising Arizona (1987), the swimming coach in Back to School (1986), Dr. "jelly fingers" in Fletch (1985). Then he was the river guide in Missing in Action (1984), and another swim coach in Ordinary People. Notice that I remember him mostly for 80s performances. I think this was his heydey as an actor, of course topped by his towering, evil performance in Blood Simple.

And so many more. He was great in anything I saw him in. There are others I want to mention but I won't. Too many. Godspeed, M. Emmet.

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