Actor M. Emmet Walsh, a staple of movies and television for about five decades, has passed. He was 88.
How do you sum up the career and impact of someone who has been in more movies than you can count, and was terrific in every single one of them, no matter how large or small the part. No matter if he played a lovable grandpa or a weird neighbor or the guy on the shop floor with a particular tale about working Nine Mile with Bill Parker (not that mother-scratcher Bill Roberts).
I know I recognized Walsh when I saw Blade Runner the first time, but for a guy who had just a few minutes on screen, he made a hell of an impression, and - for a while - he was "the guy who played Bryant" in my book.
But he's been a hundred other things since - I was blown away by his menace in Blood Simple and his comedic timing in his brief scene in Fletch. Of late, he'd been included in The Righteous Gemstones as Eli's elderly father and in Knives Out as the generation who grew up on him wanted to include him in their casts.
His voice was unmistakable, and he never quite had matinee idol good looks, but he was a great presence on screen, and so he worked tirelessly, right into the last year. The man has 233 IMDB acting credits.
I'll miss seeing him pop up in new movies and shows, but with his filmography, it's also very likely I'll see him appear in movies that are new to me for years to come.
Here's to one of the good ones.
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